Ma Stump Puller

Kido spends his time pre-match lifting heavy ass weight, Fujiwara spends it trying to break the hand of I think was a very young Tatsuo Nakano (?) though I could be easily wrong given his face was obscured: perfect (if purely accidental) distinction between two made right there between the physically refined professional in Osamu Kido and the torturous demon in Yoshiaki Fujiwara. This is definitely one of those matchups that people are going to be hit or miss on because it's mostly two middle aged uncles rolling around for pretty much the entire match. Sure, it's two of arguably the most refined and knowledgeable mat-workers in living history, sure Fujiwara is one of the greatest wrestlers ever, but again, it's a lot of rolling about for a good while. If you're a grappling nerd like me then this is going to be good, for anyone else possibly interested in something aside that it's not going to really pander to you much. I guess they were kinda conscious of that given Fujiwara does add in some explosive spots to mix things up (alongside a lot of his signature tricks that keen eyes will particularly notice, like him rubbing his elbow into Kido's back to expose his head for a facelock) and to make this a bit more fresh. It was also cool to see a rather early prototype Sugar Foot attempted by Fuji despite it being unsuccessful as he tries to bait Kido into trying to take his leg in the same manner as such. We get a solid Achilles Tendon exchange as the two try to outmanoeuvre each other on leverage, ultimately having to get back up to their feet after hitting a brick wall in terms of either man getting a lead. Kido follows up with a particularly slick Sakuraba-style double wrist lock off Fujiwara taking his back, getting a loud yell from the guy in response to really establish how dangerously close he is to losing this whole thing. Good scuffle with Fuji trying to get past Kido's seemingly unbreakable submission (and with a heated crowd following along nicely) but only ends up stuck in side mount, really getting the crowd amped up for the potential of a Fujiwara loss. Builds well to Kido trying for the classic Robertson headscissors when Fuji tries to escape, only for him to go up and over for a Achilles Tendon. The two finally try for strikes, Kido landing a low kick and Fuji trying for some jabs before relenting for more mat stuff. The finish was simple but effective, running around Fuji feigning effort for a double wrist to bait Kido away from defending against his actual play: a cross armbreaker, which forces the submission victory when the deception is revealed. As I said, if you love this stuff it'll be pretty good all things considered; these two put on a fairly low-impact mat clinic focused around a limited yet surprisingly compelling range of submissions and suplexes. It's definitely a match that plays into the the philosophy regarding the debate of "the struggle of the move being applied" being superior to "the struggle within the move applied" stance because this was mostly just the two jousting for said moves and submissions rather than sitting in them and working from that base. I'm not going to go into that in detail here but needless to say I was way more interested in this than typically these sort of matches tend to turn out. Is it as good as their late 1985 match? I'd say no, but that's hardly a bad thing given these two have plenty of great work regardless: including this match, of course.

Very sad to hear: guy was a phenomenal Gotch-trainee and probably one of the closest resembling his intended style of wrestling, always was a treat to watch one of his matches wherever he was. RIP.

Was randomly going through Youtube and I curiously found this lad here with a alternative camcorder rip of the Misawa/Tiger Mask match that shows slightly more of it and perhaps more..... I went to his site and while I thought it was dodgy, he claims to have footage of a lot of First Tiger Mask matches; many I've seen and documented, some I've never even heard of before. Could be a good lead for this kind of stuff ngl

I do wish I could put him on a top 100 if only for the sheer scale of longevity he has at this point; guy has been through it all and he still keeps trucking. I think the issue is that Tanaka's really been someone who was exposed a long time ago for having really bit for bit formulas for his matches. As Jetlag said he's had essentially the same two/three matches (hardcore mess/super stiff/combination of both) for a good majority of his career. Not to say he's not had REALLY good matches with that in mind, far from it, it's just that it gets pretty old pretty fast when you're going through them all at once. He's one of those guys that wows you if you see a watch now and then but just doesn't hold up once you're having to measure up his matches next to each other. Not a lot to really spread them apart outside of who he's wrestling and that in turn kinda shows a lack of agency (or creativity, really) to change things up much

KENTA is in his rebellious teen phase and I guess Ogawa is next on his big list of established guys he wants to put on notice. He blasts him mid-entrance with the usual stiff kicks and from there the match pretty much goes how you'd expect: KENTA is by far the superior striker alongside clearly has the advantage of youth on his side with his speed and agility but Ogawa's been the punching bag way too many times to get tripped up by this point. His experience directs him to trying to work on KENTA's legs to try to slow him down and get the match under control. The match itself in terms of macro elements is unspectacular but I feel like the little things this provides are where it gets really great. There's a solidified feeling of malice around this match: KENTA wants to prove in his heavyweight Trial Series (of which this is apart of) that he can belong with the big dogs of the company, that he can not only challenge them in terms of hierarchy (despite his relative size difference) but actually win matches to boot: his attitude shows that he's inching to be respected as someone on their level. Ogawa clearly would know what that's like, given he spent years and years jobbing it up in AJPW as the pin-eater for numerous different factions. Ogawa had to go the LONG way to even get a inch of the kind of thing his opponent wants right now. Even then in NOAH he's been one of those guys who has really respected the old Kings Road hierarchy, having to steal most of his victories against the likes of Taue or Akiyama with dirty tricks and roll-ups, never feeling like a equal to them in terms of stature. Despite being a heavyweight, Ogawa in almost all of his big matches never actually feels like one. Then KENTA shows up and does the same thing without needing to cheat his ass off? You really get the feeling here that Ogawa just wants to squash the dreams of this little shit trying to jump the queue so he can sleep better at night knowing there isn't a easier way of doing what he did. Now despite the epic premise or the potential of these two to have a properly great heated outing with each other, this sadly never truly meets that dream all things considered. KENTA is still a bit shaky here and there and hasn't quite ironed out that killer persona that we'll see in later years. He's a bit unfounded, with him doing moves that, at times, felt rather by the numbers, more-so when he's trying to add in some obligatory Jr heavyweight spots of the time. I mean they aren't bad or anything; just not suited for what this started off as more of a heated brawl than a conventional Jr vs heavyweight back and forth. Regardless of the above there was still a lot of natural heat that stemmed from this, helped by KENTA pulling from the opponent's playbook of rollups at points: this further playing into him surpassing the guy who was formally known as the undersized giant-slayer, something that would ring true later on. Ogawa in turn really helped get this over as well as he really threw in some spiteful stuff to try to squeeze out as much as possible from this small encounter. Despite some incredibly stiff strikes and near falls, eventually the inevitable comes as Ogawa gives his opponent a truly nasty counter-powerbomb off a top rope Frankensteiner attempt and completely stomped on his dreams of heavyweight glory with a sequence of big backdrops (including a rather elaborate one off the second rope) for the pin, despite some last-second counters and attempts by KENTA to stay in the fight. This was solid for sure but it just felt like it was missing something truly special to it. KENTA surely hits hard and has some already amazing offence. He also hasn't quite paced out his M.O. yet, so feels a bit green still despite all of his early success. As mentioned above, he didn't feel ironed out as much as he'd get even by the next year in terms of feeling like a tangible big deal, so a lot of his work seems a bit lackluster compared to then. Ogawa was, however, considerably great and really got a lot out of this despite the lack of big spots for most of the duration: a tough task when Jr-era KENTA essentially made his early career out of having bonkers spot sequences and GIF-heavy moments that were instantly copied across the world. instead his aim was focusing on easy and malleable mat-work and counters to ground this down and give a relatively different angle of his opponent than what we'd usually see while also making sure he looks pretty great with some big sells here and there. Is there better matchups between the two? Absolutely, this is still pretty solid tho

This was solid as anything. Misawa coming out with sunglasses on like some struggling uncle battling through a midlife crisis, Ikeda being the usual goofy killer that he is, Ogawa running a trial by fire to keep the titles retained, just so much great moments to watch. The start was the typical Ogawa/Misawa dynamics, Ogawa has to be bailed out a good few times by his typically far more impressive counterpart in Misawa, some double teaming, etc. Yone comes in and starts throwing forearms, and any casual viewer of Misawa matches (even someone who's just watched a couple bits of his best work) will tell you that this is the moment when Yone should get wrecked for even trying to outscrap Misawa, especially with elbows; it's just a universal truth at this point that no one has sharper elbows than Misawa, even with a pad on. Yet....that's not the case. Yone knocks Misawa hard to the outside with a rather stiff forearm shot, and while Misawa gets his shots in later on, this is definitely here to showcase that he's not going to be able to carry this solely by himself. this is further showcased by Misawa being beat up by the two shooty lads for a good while with a pretty confident control segment. Even when Ogawa gets in and tries for his signature scrappy Japanese Memphis punches he's flattened by Ikeda and nullified as well. It's really great how Ogawa sells basic stuff in the context of the match at hand, like how he clings onto the ropes for dear life when Yone tries for a backdrop or a tight headlock: he's terrified of these two because they completely outgun him. He knows IMMEDIATELY that simple fact just by how he's seen his mentor take some beatings. Ogawa is, try as he might, not a man with much to give in this matchup: strong strikers simply run over him, so Bati-Bati guys are, essentially, his Kryptonite. That's shown excellently by Misawa needing to get involved to stop the control segment by beating up Ikeda on the outside and abusing double team moves to get the advantage alongside a face crank, pulling out all of the stops just to balance this out. Despite this and a dirty punch to the back of the head by Ogawa afterwards Ikeda still has his number and so he quickly tags out again, completely defeated. The Misawa/Yone interactions are probably some of the best of Yone I've ever seen barring probably his Battlarts stint, even if it's mostly him trying to beat Misawa's ass and getting elbowed to death and back for his antics. He has so much fire that you'd almost be fooled into thinking he doesn't turn out to be a massive disappointment so it pairs well with Misawa really pushing him here on a big stage with his domineering bombs setting the pace well. Ogawa gets back in and Yone seems toast after a backdrop, but then Ogawa takes a stiff kick to the head and again has to tag out quick to Misawa: he's still the weak link here, not pulling his weight. Misawa takes a rough backdrop on the ramp, a Axe Bomber, and a whole assortment of good double team stuff from Ikeda and co as he just gets chopped down. This leaves him out of most of the third half in terms of substantial plays, forcing his partner to finally somehow conquer the two by himself. The last 10 minutes in particular were just a lot of smart work, Ogawa in particular with a ton of nifty little moments where he's trying to push though these two with everything, eye pokes, fun ref involvement spots, you name it. Even Yone looks like a big threat here with Ogawa hurling himself around here. Stuff like the top rope double Kinniku Buster or the top rope Flowsion were bonkers spots to see in action. A bit too long? Sure, definitely; this was nearly 30 minutes long, just way too much for something like this. The crowd still loved it though, especially the desperation near the end as Ogawa struggles to survive against the bombs/strikes but eventually wins the match out of a wacky Small Package, just barely pushing through the finish line for the duo. Cut five minutes off this and it could've been great: the four had a pretty solid grove on what they wanted the match to be outside of huge spots. It was designed to be this big showing of Ikeda/Yone as a threatening duo and in that aspect it conclusively works to show that in action. You can tell also that this was a match paced around Ogawa basically proving himself as a valuable act all of his own, starting from being knocked around the place and basically having to crawl and sneak every big advantage back with all of the dirty tricks he knows so far. It's a good look at how his role in the team isn't just the guy who gets knocked around for the big comeback, he's a tangible threat that every now and often reminds you why he has that reputation in the first place. Too long, sure. It makes the point well enough to make up for that.

Suzuki is still a up and coming "star" for the promotion; despite the fact he's only been wrestling for two years he already is the prime Young Lion as per management, having beaten Tanahashi and consistently having a slot in the G1 since debuting; rather unheard of these days. He's got everything they'd really want; he's tall, has a good look and a sports background, crowds seem to take to him well for the level of experience he has. He's not much in the actual wrestling department, but that can change, right? The promotion certainly had big plans for him, of course we know how that ends. Nishimura is of course having to hold his hand here and carry: a relatively easy task given how good the guy was around this time. As expected we go though typical Nishimura starting routines (I did like him stopping Suzuki from trying his fancy handstand when given the chance as a cheeky little spot) but it's mostly pretty dry. Suzuki has some nice tricks on the mat but he's pretty lacking in the actual details so we get a lot of basic wrestling out of him without much real purpose behind it. He's always been one of those guys who never was able to put the pieces fully together and seeing him just really fumble around the ring really hammers that in. Nishimura lands in some intelligent counters alongside solid holds: at one point he goes into a Muta Lock and then into a Bulldog choke in the same position for more leverage in a surprisingly convincing bit. He also goes for his "knee drop on a outside table" spot that he loved doing around the time which has Suzuki take a tumble. Suzuki also takes a more nasty bump off the railing after a apron dropkick comes his way. Nishimura was such a prick during this specific sequence lol. He'd get the audience to clap for his opponent to get back in the ring and get them all rallied up before landing a dropkick and sending the poor guy flying again when he actually had a chance of getting back in. Just dickish stuff that doesn't bend the rules or anything, it's just a bit mean. Eventually he just loses patience with all of this and lands a apron knee drop to a big round of applause. I did like how Nishimura mixed up the leg work this time, going for more unconventional holds than the usual Figure Four/Spinning Toe Hold shit, so you had him stretching and pulling at the leg alongside occasionally elbow smashing when the chance came up to do so. Suzuki manages to survive for a bit despite some sturdy work but eventually we get the finish: which has Nishimura apply the Spinning Toe Hold only for Suzuki to slap on a small package and steal the win out of essentially nothing but a couple of moves. Suzuki isn't very good here but Nishimura dominating allows the crowd to mostly ignore that in favour of Nishimura's stuff instead, which is obviously far better and can carry the two to something more interesting than just a movez fest. This is also paced well; not too long but also just enough to get over how deep in the hole Suzuki is here as soon as Nishimura starts getting momentum and doing his thing. I did really like how this played on the typical "vet vs rookie" formula with how Nishimura torments Suzuki, but never goes overtly heel with what he does. He skirts the line here and there yet it still feels more like a cold mentor putting the rookie through some hurtful lessons than him being an actual heel. It got the crowd into the match, so I can't complain too much. It's a Bret/Magee situation again, only Kenzo will eventually evolve into a weird attraction wrestler who slaps the shit out of people as opposed to.....well being this badly green forever, so that's a positive.

What do you get when you pair up two super technically talented wrestlers stuck with a unique stipulation on a random house show? Really great work, that's what. Basically the match functions on the simple rule that the match ends on a 2-count rather than the typical 3 required. This brings in itself elevated sense of tension from the usual holds and submissions because any of them, realistically, could get a quick pinfall: that aforementioned tension is cheap and easy here given this simple stip makes the match super unpredictable: something these two can very easily work with as a base. Bolshoi walks into this with some sensationally awesome Rey-style innovative roll-ups alongside nifty lucha transitions while occasionally getting to show off her mat-work when it comes down to it. Amano plays more of the fumbling shooter here as she's consistently trying to get in submissions and/or openings for them but either keeps forgetting the rules or they get exploited in turn to try for more cheap flash pins. There's some brilliant comedy around Amano struggling to escape holds without sticking her shoulders down and the struggle that in turn causes between the two when they're throwing themselves all over the place. Typically this more technically inclined comedy doesn't always click: didn't think that was the case here. The two really explored the concept beyond just barfing up spots and sequences endlessly without much care. They could have done that given this had no stakes towards anything in particular and the match would probably also been quite good, yet they didn't, and I'm so much more happy because of that. Despite the potential for this to be a really nothing match with a couple of interesting moments (which this did threaten at points with some of the stalling going on here and there) it turned out to be WAY better than expected; for a 10 minute sprint this is borderline revolutionary, being this high-speed/grappling showcase with a lot of different influences from lucha, catch, shoot-style, etc, just a super fun blend of styles going on here. This finishes up with some hard-hitting shots and bombs between the two (which is funny if only due to it meaning they have to keep kicking out from big suplexes at 1, lol) before Bolshoi goes over with a top rope Uranage for a relatively simple ending. Not their best outing by a long shot but absolutely worth the watch; it's a great use of 10 minutes all things considered.

The culmination of Amano's rookie struggles against Bolshoi and her first major win is.....well it's clipped for one, so we only get about 8 minutes out of this. I imagine the length was close to the first two matches they had together (so the 10/15 mark) but who knows. The match is also kinda iffy. Bolshoi just spams 5 Uranage throws in the first showcased minute + a top rope dropkick, and Amano no sells to go into terrible forearms and a weird botched sequence that Bolshoi just flat-out refuses to try again so she does yet another Uranage for a near fall. The above pretty much spells out the sheer roughness of the match. It's not pretty at a lot of points. Even when stuff comes out good (like Amano builds on the O'Connor Roll shtick from before with a cool middle rope version of the move to catch Bolshoi out after the two throw some stiff slaps to each other) it feels very herky-jerky and not at all smooth. This honestly makes the match better as a whole, especially given Amano's tourney has had her get wrecked two times over now by Bolshoi; she feels more desperate to finish things off as opposed to the first match where she was simply in the position of the rookie squashed without much thought put into it. Now that she knows Bolshoi can be taken to the brink, there's more of a confidence behind her big pushes and kickouts. Bolshoi is equally as eager to get this over and done with, mind you. After a few minutes she's immediately into big moonsaults and top rope Uranage slams, extremely confident that she has her opponent completely scouted. She taunts both her and Ozaki at ringside, does multiple Jericho-style cocky pins, etc etc. She just doesn't really give a damn about potentially losing this, perfectly illustrated by throwing four big powerbombs in a row on Amano, getting a near fall with each, then letting go at the fourth one before she could've maybe finished this whole thing. At this point it's more of a lesson being taught than a match wrestled. She doesn't want to just win, she wants to win without any doubt. I guess you could put this up to the second pairing wherein Bolshoi basically won off a fluke submission counter.....knowing better that probably wasn't intended, yet it's still a great story beat to add in. Finish is super simple and plays off the second match again by having Amano counter a top rope Uranage with a Fujiwara armbar like before and Bolshoi similarly countering it with ease, only to get firmly trapped in a flash cross armbreaker out of nowhere. Bolshoi has zero warning of this happening and as such she has to abruptly tap-out much to her annoyance. There's some goofy ahh melodrama at Ozaki showing up and giving Amano a big hug that's a bit sappy however it's a nice bit to finish off Amano's struggles as a random rookie alongside this match. I'd probably say the second one is better purely off it having more footage and a more substantial formula (this sorta cuts to the chase, though that's by design). This has more action in turn while the second outing had that pretty bloody solid blade-job and a far more conditioned audience to really dig their nails into it. Is this still quite good? Definitely so, just not as much as I think it could've been.

This was a long watch (nearly 30 minutes!) but a very solid match so it evens out. The first half felt very similar to a Mutoha grappling showcase: no strikes, lots of minimalistic wrestling and a slow pace. It still had incredible attention to detail (Keita trying for a Sugar Foot mid-transition was pretty epic) and the two focused on respective limbs to try to feel around for a weakness of some sort. Kengo throws the first strikes when he's able to snap on a kneeling shoulder crank with some actually good elbows to the head. This sets Keita off and he immediately follows up with some awesome lucha stretching alongside similarly heelish antics like stomping on Kengo's hand and doing weird unconventional stuff to try to hurt his neck (at one point he goes for I think is a 80's Andre spot for no real reason? I love it) and keep him on the floor. Was also great to see that their potentially groan-worthy generic strike exchange amounted to Kengo doing two chops and Keita immediately shutting it down by driving his head to the floor with a neat Cravat takedown; they do a second one later on that also just amounts to Keita again eating a stiff elbow shot to then go off the ropes for a middle rope lariat, further highlighting his strategy to keep this on the floor as much as humanly possible even if it means taking a shot or two to do so. Middle half is a bit more by the numbers barring Kengo being batshit crazy and throwing himself on the middle of the apron during a backdrop to start off. Most of it was his opponent being a goofy troll/doing good work on Kengo's taped shoulder. He does get in some nice offence and generally carries himself well on the bottom as he has to use more speed to try to catch Keita out, leading to some enjoyable back and forth bits between the two. It was good to see that this was mostly unsuccessful though because he definitely felt like the weaker act here compared to Keita's maestro hold-work, so he gets to work in the background while Keita does cool stuff and drags the match forward bit by bit. There's a great bit here where Kengo has enough of his dirty antics while in a surfboard chickenwing and ends up biting him lol. Things slow down again to illustrate Kengo's mounting struggle to escape from the mountain of holds he's stuck under, building to a really solid spin on a signature Riki Choshu spot as Keita slaps on the aforementioned headlock and Kengo slowly drags himself up into countering with this spectacular delayed backdrop: the amount of articulation they got out of this in terms of showcasing the steps involved and how they communicate Keita stubbornly keeping it applied even mid-move was phenomenal (to the point where you think he might just be able to pull it off...) helped by the backdrop itself looking super smooth right afterwards. Kengo hits a equally nasty one right after and throws himself on for multiple near fall pins which leads to probably one of the more showy sequences of the match as Keita keeps trying to arch out of the pins with fancy bridges a-la Kendo Kashin style but keeps getting smashed back down for his troubles. Eventually this leads into a particularly Robertson-lite moment as Keita snaps on a Cravat to trap the shoulders and slowly goes into a really tricked out pinning position with the hold still applied. The last few minutes are simple: yet incredibly solid, focusing on the simple concept of Kengo trying to bomb Keita to death with elbows and backdrops while mostly battling his own fatigue in the process. It still throws in some spots to pop the crowd but they aren't exhaustive and actually have some impact to them especially when the entire match has been as grounded as this has been so you don't suffer from the usual NJPW-isms of a 15 minute overkill finishing stretch. The actual finish being Kengo hammering sharp elbows to Keita's face in pure frustration when he kicks out of the brainbuster until he simply stays down for a frog splash is simple yet effective to get over the two and bookends the match itself rather nicely. Is it slow in places? Sure. Is it low on big fancy move sequences? Yeah. It's still absolutely a great match by itself though. Super grounded and incredibly well-paced with loads of attention to detail thrown in to boot, absolutely worth checking out if you're remotely a fan of particularly sizable chunks of mat-wrestling in general. It cooks good

part 5 =========== Gran Naniwa v Ryuji Hijikata (09.12.2000) This is a perfectly fine opener that was hampered by Hijikata's apparent shoulder injury; he had it extensively bandaged up and didn't use the affected arm much. He can still kick hard but Naniwa is no-selling like he's the big final boss or something for some bizarre reason. I liked the stiff exchanges here with some violent slaps and kicks however they didn't really go anywhere, they just stopped doing them to then go into spamming regular moves without much of a logical progression behind them. Naniwa's selling sucks as he just takes lots of kicks over and over to then win off a Falcon Arrow and Michinoku Driver for the snappy three count without much of a struggle being shown out of him. Nothing really that interesting here, there's hints of this being properly great but with Naniwa's weird no-selling and general lack of energy this never reached anything worth talking about for me. RANK: Forgettable Masahito Kakihara v Danny Kroffat (same day) Revenge!!! Kroffat wasn't happy about Kakihara going over him and Fuji during the Tag League so he's getting the rematch here tonight in what is essentially a weird UWF throwback. Now this isn't completely out of the blue for Dan Kroffat; he has a extensive background in kickboxing, trained in the Hart Dungeon and some of his earliest televised performances were legitimately him working matches in UWF Original so there's at least something here. That something wasn't really much though. Dude comes out with baggy pants and bandaged hands like he's a bootleg Tommy Dreamer. It gets worse as Kroffat starts pulling from the Kendo Kashin book of heel stalling as he offers a handshake before attacking his opponent with clubs to the back and really weird, floaty suplexes where Kakihara is doing nearly all of the motion. We get some Yasuda-style pummelling as Kroff tries to trap Kakihara's arm so he can throw punches to the gut freely, but then ends up getting countered when he pushes for a throw and Kaki ends up catching his leg for a nifty kneebar takedown. Kroffat runs to the outside in a funny bit before Kakihara is a nice lad and lets him back in....only to get ambushed again! Shocker. He is shaken with light knees to the body and a terrible punch to the head before Kroffat tries for a Irish Whip, but of course Kakihara being a UWF guy means he's immune to those, so he just blasts him with admittedly good strikes before snapping on a inverted kneebar for the quick win. ....so yeah, this was a lot of nothing. I guess it's cool to see Kakihara in his element (even if shoot-matches by this point were more or less just nostalgia bait at best) but as a match it doesn't really serve any purpose. Kroffat just isn't good at all and he certainly wasn't going to be any better doing stuff like this. RANK: Forgettable Johnny Smith & Taiyo Kea v Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams II (same day) This was fine enough as a progression from the first match together. Varsity Club don't want the AJPW loyalists to take the win again, so they change tact and go for a pre-match brawl to try to finish this quick. This had some sloppy moments including a badly botched Frankensteiner bump by Williams early on and general moments that reminded you that these two were getting on by this point with a fair bit of fumbling, so this didn't really have that energy that you would typically expect from a Dr Death match from the last decade or so. Kea looked great out here especially given Smith was out of this for a good portion after the outside brawling, so he had to really pick up the slack with big bumps alongside some fairly flush strikes; as a match it felt more of a vehicle to get him over more than anything. It all seems hopeless as Kea goes down for an assisted Doctor Bomb, but then Smith shows up for the big pop and comeback bit. He runs though his usual spots as per standard to a relatively good reaction (which was impressive given this match wasn't exactly the hottest going in) also selling his bad back/mid-section. This turns out to be his undoing as his consistent delays to tend to them allow the Varsity Club lads to take back control with a Williams spinebuster/Rotundo Samoan Drop and they snap up the upset after Smith goes down for a decent Dangerous Backdrop. I didn't feel this was that interesting as a match, but as a showcase for Kea's competence, he's really stepped up since his 90's stuff because I'd never imagine him doing anything close to this from my prior viewing of him in action. He looked flush, motivated, and bumped well for the two bigger heavyweights while not completely losing face. Varsity Club is always going to be a limited act (especially Rotunda, who is kinda the pits by this point) but they do their roles fine as a formidable powerhouse duo so I can't REALLY complain a whole lot about them, they're doing about as well as they realistically can for what this was. All in all entertaining sure, there's just not much stock to be put here given how short this was alongside the lack of depth. Then again given Varsity would be working again on the same event....maybe that's for the best. RANK: Decent Jim Steele & Mike Barton v Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) This was cut by about 3/4 minutes, nothing noticeable though. I think the main issue is that Barton/Steele are the most vanilla dudes ever and them being paired with each other doesn't change that fact; they just aren't that compelling. It's like if both guys were competing to be the Jannetty of the two, just stinks of that kind of dynamic where neither guy really wants to do much to rock the boat and just coast with the same routines they're used to doing. The Kawada/Fuchi duo are solid, but I can't also deny that they've really only had one formula since the beginning of my Deep Diving; Kawada and Fuchi start off on a tear, Fuchi gets worked over for the middle portions, Kawada gets in for the hot tags and shine, etc etc. It's two typically very sturdy tag workers being essentially trapped into having the same match over and over. I don't really blame them for this because the roster is just so depleted that it's hard to really see any other way of them being presented without it seeming jarring, like are you really gonna convince people that Giant Kimala or Danny Kroffat are threats? Of course not, so why bother? I will say that Fuchi's sympathetic selling at least helped to get this over to the crowd, though that isn't hard given him and K were the last big Baba-era guys left. This match mostly shows a lot of Barton/Steele in control, so lots of slams and throws. Nothing amazing (bar the relatively cool splash/elbow combo by the two late into proceedings) though there is some good interaction around Kawada getting progressively closer and closer to getting into play despite being cut-off numerous times; first he's knocked off the apron, then he's showing up in the ring and thrown out, etc etc. Fuchi's dramatic hot tag with Funk-lite stumbling and him hurling his body forward just enough to tag in was a nice touch, and Kawada's big push was done about as competently as you'd imagine. The crowd almost believes that the pair could lose as K is dragged down and almost loses to a Turbo Drop before Fuchi fumbles back in for his old tricks. He gets the tights for the roll-up, he hustles for the facelock over and over with a couple of breakups, finally tapping out Steele after Kawada shoos Barton away for a unexpected finish. I am glad we didn't see the whole thing (this went 21 minutes, tad too long for a match like this in my mind) and the finish could've been cut a bit as it was dragging with the consistent wangling for holds. Bar that, this was competently done, just never really got much interesting. There's no real big interactions, just a standard formula with Steele/Barton not really doing a whole lot to stand out bar their usual spots. If you didn't know this was the semi-finals of a big tournament you'd probably think this was a standard main event match for a house show card.....it probably was in the mid-90's, here it's presented as a lot more than that and this absolutely didn't deserve that mantle. RANK: Decent Genichiro Tenryu & Mitsuya Nagai v Mohammed Yone & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (same day) Shown in full. Now THIS is something I can at least get behind. They build off the last match Nagai and Fujiwara had together by having him do the same shoot into Sugar Foot counter real early on but in classic Kings Road style Nagai is able to hold out and reach the ropes. Yone works some decent Bati-ish work with Nagai as they exchange strikes and submissions, with Tenryu he's getting his ass kicked with stiff shots as per standard. Both dynamics are solid and it's impressive to see him actually do work as opposed to showing up as a lumpy useless big dude later in his career. Fujiwara rules obviously, dude just comes out swinging with punches and doing old man shtick, cheating his ass off, very super grumpy. Him and Tenryu have some solid interactions that get you itching for more, but for what we get? Pretty well-organised. The two know how to bounce off each other tremendously easily, so it's mostly a grumpy uncle fest of angry facials and the two laying it in. Nagai stuff is more or less generic shoot-ish offence and not that exciting bar when he's working with Tenryu who gets some actual emotion out of the guy. Last few minutes were alright, though Yone still feels particularly unseasoned compared to everyone else here. Fujiwara tries his luck and Tenryu slaps the piss out of him, however headbutts save the day for Yone this time. He also does Tsuruta-tributes until Nagai roundhouse kicks his lariat mid-swing (great timing on it as well! ) and hits him with a German that Yone overextends for and almost brains himself on the mat. Tenryu tags in and quickly brushes off the guy by landing all of his signature offence, dodging a spinning kick and landing two stiff lariats to finish things up. This was really weird PWFG/Bati/WAR hybrid mixing here as we had some Fuji-style nonsense, some stiff strikes and shoot-style, as well as lots of interpersonal drama between the four men that at times devolved into tons of awesome strikes thrown. One wonders what AJPW would've became had Tenryu gotten the chairman role instead of Muto. If it was matches like these every show? I'd be way happier. Anyway it's Fujiwara/Tenryu, can't go wrong, great watch, easy stuff. It's about as conclusive to a match between the two as you can get barring their WAR encounter. RANK: Good Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams This was...alright, I guess. I'm not a fan of Varsity Club's 2000 run in general and despite Fuchi and Kawada kicking it as much as possible for two guys who have already worked a 20+ minute match in the same event, we don't really get any big moments until the end. A lot of the first half is slow unimpactful work, not helped by the washed Williams and co who do struggle to keep pace in places. If you want that amazing IRS/Kawada exchange that's always been on the back of your mind within your darkest thoughts then I GUESS this is worth something. Kawada likes working these pseudo-shoot style sequences but he really lacks any agency to his hold-wangling; it never feels like he's actually trying to finish with every submission/transition he's applying here, it just feels ho-hum, match filler. It's like Muto just doing amateur wrestling for most of his matches for a bit before devolving into his usual shtick, it doesn't have any real sting to it to make you care. Things get a bit better with some outside brawling and some 80's style cheesy heel antics as Rotundo uses Williams as leverage on the apron to get extra pain on the abdominal stretch! Another issue however is that this is mainly focused around a Fuchi hot tag as Kawada works the middle mostly. While the crowd DO get some chants for the guy, his actual hot tag pretty much dies after about 30 seconds, namely because as much as Fuchi is a cool dude, he's, you know, Fuchi. This isn't really his avenue + they did burn out that angle the last match on this event. Long facelock spot has Fuchi communicate a lot of intensity, but the crowd don't really follow and aren't convinced despite the Steele tap-out. Double submission gets a decent reaction but Varsity are able to survive and take back control. Fuchi trying to survive with Nishimura-style roll-ups and counters ruled for the road for the finish as Kawada ran in for the big save, ended up getting punched out by Williams and finished with a Dangerous Backdrop/cutter combo. All hope seems lost as Kawada is out and Fuchi eats a second-rope Stampede, Kawada manages to run interference to delay the pinfall before paying the price with a piledriver on the outside. Crowd finally seems properly heated as Fuchi refuses to give up with near fall after near fall despite the seemingly impossible conditions. Fuchi eventually falls to a Dangerous backdrop as Kawada gets Samoan dropped for the millionth time. Varsity Club win the RWTL to get them over as the big threats for the new AJPW. This will....mostly be the case in the future, albeit Muto coming in meant they never quite hit these highs again in subsequent years and will inevitably be swallowed up by the better foreign talent coming in when the company starts getting money flowing in. They'll be around occasionally for future matches, but their time as a tag team on this level is conclusively over. This match HAS something good going for it with the natural drama between the natives and co to battle for the soul of the RWTL, but at the same time it's dragged down by a glacial pace and a lot of just downright bad filler. Fuchi is a trooper and Kawada is still great, Varsity just aren't on that level anymore to deliver Williams is not the main event threat he was in the 90s, no longer the guy you could stick with whoever you wanted in a tag team and get great results. That's not his fault. Rotunda just drags him down enough to where you really can't get into his performances, and that's a real shame because Dr Death would still have awesome matches...albeit they'd be singles matches, I can't judge tho. RANK: Decent And with that, we're done! That was the last show of 2000 and as such, this Deep Dive is finally concluded. I'd like to say thanks to anyone reading this far down, much appreciated. Do we have a answer for the question posed at the very beginning of this thread? Well I'd say so. 2000's AJPW is a mess. It's a compete cluster of freelancers and bottom of the barrel signings showing up randomly and the company's direction can best be described as "all over the place" at this point. Even with Tenryu and his WAR squad settling things a bit, the cards are still pretty much chaotic for the most part. With that said.....it's still very much a enjoyable watch. When I watched 90's All Japan I was definitely super into their product, but there was a feeling close to the end of the 90's and into 2000 that the product was becoming a bit stale and dragging its feet in terms of trying to catch up with the more modern products around the same time. It felt very much like stagnation, not helped by the same rotation of the Four Pillars still on top. NOAH existing and the drama around it essentially forced that change all at once. Of course it was messy, yet one that's surprisingly endearing to go through given it feels like those who stayed wanted to prove a point; that point being that the company wasn't dead and they were still relevant enough to keep the boat afloat. Those two things are debatable, but it still resulted in some solid programming in the meantime. I'd seriously give some thought into also checking out this era of the company because while it does have their shaky moments, it's also massively entertaining to the point where I'm debating making similar Projects into the years after in the future. All in all, I'd say while it's not a pleasant watch at points it's not the lowest point for the company as a whole. It helped kickstart it to go along with the times and would, eventually, result in a uniquely entertaining approach that endured all of the noughties and then some. In that way, I suppose, this existing as it is can't really be seen as a bad thing.

Really fun feature bout between all of the great old-school grapplers....and a bored Suzuki, I guess. Fujiwara/Nishimura is a dream match that would've probably been one of my personal GOAT-tier pairings had they ever faced off, this is unfortunately as close as we get to that happening and it's hardly much to really appreciate given the undercard state this is plopped in. Their stuff is, however, still pretty sturdy. Fuji at his age isn't much of a workrate guy but he's a master of the small things; him getting flustered after being caught out by a sneaky Nishimura elbow smash going along with his usual fancy knuckle-lock/handstand spot just to get his arm exposed for a sneaky armbar; just great little moments to really get over his experience and craftiness over the younger talent, really felt like I was watching UWF Fuji for a moment at points. Suzuki put on a pretty average performance and Fuchi is mostly here just to get beat up by the other two and/or do comedy, he's fine doing that so I won't judge the guy. Match mostly goes as per expected, Nishimura/Fuji easily have the most intense showings with stiff shots exchanged and actual heat felt with the two with every little bit between them mounting to a explosive finish. Everything else was just Fuchi being goofy or Suzuki working the very minimum. Him and Nishimura have a fun stiff striking battle near the end that's decent (a lot better than Suzuki's shitty touring extravaganza version we suffer through these days) but everything else was bleh and not a touch on their prior NJPW encounters. Finish has some move-stealing from both duos as Fujiwara and Suzuki do mirror spots, Fuchi tries for some Nishimura-style roll-ups but gets wrecked after a failed fighting spirit bit right into a Gotch Piledriver for the quick and easy win. All in all a pretty average affair that only gets truly great when Nishimura is allowed to cook with Fuji, it's basically just a extended tease for a matchup that never happens....pretty sad thinking about that still. Fuchi's usual goofy uncle comedy is fine as it always is but I do wish he was given a moment to at least try to look competent here. Suzuki does basically the average late 2000's and beyond lazy performance bar some moments when he cares a tad more than usual.

Definitely agree that her peak was late 90's to the beginning of the rebranding of ARSION to AtoZ (though it's astounding that was even the case afterwards given Rossy's erm, questionable booking of the company + shitty 90's clipping) but I feel like she has a pretty solid case as a longevity candidate as well. She transitions nicely from her peak as rugged ace to reliable freelancer and basically has the same level of quality (especially when pushed) all the way to the end of her career and her consistency during those 10/15 years is next to none on her part. It's a good bow on top to go with everything else, especially given there are many peak-based selections here that take a massive dive in quality right after (would give examples but there's a few too many to just throw out here lol)

This repeats some of the bits from their first match together but also recontextualizes them in cool ways, like Amano's hit and run antics from the last match getting swiftly shut down quickly while Bolshoi changes focus from the arm to instead the head for this outing, going for really mean-looking sleeper holds while wangling on the mat. Watching the first match to this, you can really see the tangible improvments from the two in terms of how they're stringing things together, even if there's still occasional sloppiness. Amano in turn decides "hey that's pretty cool" and decides to also spam them out herself via using Bolshoi's mask for leverage. They go from that to Bolshoi trying for her fancy springboard spots like crossbodies and whatnot; those are fairly solid even if Amano can't really match that with her own significantly limited offence. It's nice that they do build off the last match more by having Bolshoi try to catch Amano out with her Tiger Feint spot (which worked perfectly the first time) only for Amano to just run in mid-bit to shove her to the outside lol. I also loved how this went from generic rear-naked chokes/spots for the first few minutes before turning into Bolshoi pulling out a pipe and just swinging on Amano's head a bunch, which for obvious reasons was quite awesome. Bolshoi's uncharacteristically hardcore antics are all to rattle both her opponent and Ozaki in the audience, culminating in Amano getting slammed into a table multiple times right in front of her. The bladejob right after is surprisingly effective, as is Bolshoi mixing in the occasional working of the colour alongside stiff dropkicks to the face. There is, admittedly, some jank in places. One instance that comes to mind has Amano going way over when catching Bolshoi off a crossbody to the point of almost DDT'ing herself on the canvas as a result due to the overextension. Thankfully this mostly comes through via small bits and pieces rather than potentially super dangerous bits like that. Amano does do a pretty sweet O'Connor Roll into a armbreaker that legitimately got me hype but of course the trappings of this being a established act/rookie match means she has to go back to random top rope stuff, shame. The last couple of minutes are probably the best work out of the two yet as they focus more on the drama of mat-work as the rookie Amano manages to get a couple of flash submissions, including one off a top rope Uranage that was especially nifty. This translates well into the finish as we get some solid bombs leading up to Amano's goofy fighting spirit letting her shake off every one of them for submissions, forcing Bolshoi to go for a particularly impressive headscissors using the arm as a lever for more leverage, allowing for the submission victory. Better than the first match by a good mile and the two seemed to have a better idea of what they wanted to do. The no-selling is pretty bad in places (Like any spots off the top-rope that are shrugged off just never sits well with me given it kinda trivialises the risk/reward of typically going up there) but it makes sense for the drama of Amano trying to push through enough to finally get a proper win to show she's not a lightweight. It's also fun seeing Bolshoi go for more of a rudo-brawler style, with her doing a good job at conducting the match with plenty of control spots while gracefully letting Amano throw her around when required. You'd never think someone as relatively small as her would tangibly work as a bully, yet she rolls with it with relative ease.

Hotta match is a good example of Yoshida laying it in good. As fantastic as she was as a grappler she was undersold when it came to doing more scrappy Bati-Bati lite matches, because she was VERY good at doing that kind of stuff when needed and had someone willing to go to those same levels (I.E. Kimura) Makes me even more sad we don't have the Toba/Yoshida tag match documented ngl

Yeah this was a entertaining goofy match that had probably some of the most random pairings in AJPW history lol. Want to see De-Von Dudley grapple with Muto on the mat? Want to see a green Akebono be big and do big-man stuff? This is absolutely the peak for those lads who just love weird freakshow matches. Team 3-D definitely aren't workrate darlings by ANY extent of the imagination but they know how to put a match together and drag things out with fun character work and interactions, even if it definitely does feel like them padding for time at times because they don't have a whole lot in their tank that isn't brawling/hardcore spots. Was surprised that Ake was the one who had to sell and bump for the two given how naturally jarring a 6'8 giant bumping for two guys far smaller always looks; then again he barely bumped for them in the first place lol. Most of it happened while Ake leaned on the ropes or laying on the floor. It was cool seeing Bubba just shout things, be they random shit, taunting, or outright calling the match, like telling De-Von to work on a specific leg or reminding people to sell the leg afterwards: this was the case for both him and D-Von, I guess they're just used to wrestling in acoustically loud crowds like ECW/WWE where that can be masked a lot easier. Otherwise the match isn't that great; Muto and Ake trading sleepers wasn't the most compelling shit in the world and it was quite obvious that the 3-D guys were gassing out by the halfway mark so we got a lot more sitting in holds rather than interesting/goofy antics, which is unfortunate. Muto does most of the selling in the second half and bar his usual roll into dropkick sthick, he's shockingly doing very little here in terms of action. At least the finishing stretch with Ake's hot tag and 3-D bumping like troopers for the guy was fun. Despite a figure-four/splash combo by the two, eventually the 3-D lads are able to double team on both to get the win with their usual big moments, getting a surprising win to finish up the Tag League. The illusion of the sheer bizarreness of what this was only lasts for so long until you're just staring at a big green sumo guy and a coasting Muto vs two guys who had already been well past their best days.

The first and least interesting of the Amano/Bolshoi matches....probably due to the fact that Amano is insanely green here, like we're talking sub-10 actual matches here overall. Bolshoi isn't exactly Terry Funk by comparison, but she's obviously very competent and does a good job working mostly from top with some typical bully antics to get this a bit more interest than it would otherwise despite the size difference, working the arm and grinding the match down into lots of holds. This is a pretty much a bog-standard rookie match yet it does stand as a testament of how Carlos Amano would get as solid as she did; she was already sorta good in the first place? Like she's still pretty iffy on the execution of certain moves and generally has a issue of looking awkward when moving around, don't get me wrong she's just as wonky as a typical rookie of the time is, she by this point had already a solid grounding on intensity and knowing how to drag certain moves out for the max amount of effect despite the limitations in actually doing them. Her selling is pretty sturdy and she helps get over Bolshoi's nasty lucha-lite stretching and general lack of care, throwing out lots of tricky arm work alongside just booting Amano in the face at points lol. She does do a pretty fancy rope work arm drag though and does throw in a couple of neat bits to remind you that she's still good at doing those. It's not exactly very complex for a formula but regardless does show the two starting to get a chemistry that will get better and better through the years from here. You kinda see that from the last third where they have more even back and forth exchanges; the Achilles Tendon bit where Amano first tries to escape with raw technique before having to relent to stomps and even going for Bolshoi's goofy clown nose on her mask for leverage. Even all of that rule bending barely inconveniences Bolshoi and just causes her to crank in the hold more, forcing Amano to barely get to the ropes. Really well paced and was rather logical for a hierarchy-based match like this. Amano tries to spam out moves to keep momentum with running back elbows and clotheslines over and over, however the high pace can only carry her so far as Bolshoi is just way too slippery and lands some significantly beefy bombs to finish up, ending with a arching German suplex. So yeah this is more or less a generic joshi puroresu rookie squash of the time, but it's still pretty enjoyable despite the roughness given how creative these two were even at this point. Bolshoi's hybrid shoot/lucha style still remains to this day as one of the coolest examples of that in practise, rather crazy that she was already this well-rounded from such a young age.

My answer to this is a resounding "maybe". There's a lot less comprehensive footage for 2001 than there is in 2000 last I checked, so I'm not sure if that would be worthwhile.

Idk, I do like his better (read: shorter) material but top 100? I don't even think he's ever been the best wrestler in any one company. A lot of his matches blend together because he's just not that varied of a performer to be going 30/40+ minutes with "big epic" timewasting pacing and typically turns to him repeating himself way too often in order to justify the at times ridiculous length. He just does not have the goods at present to be touching anything close to that list and "accidently KO'ing people occasionally" probably won't fix that all things considered unless his AJPW stint changes things up.

partie 4 We are now right in the midst of the Real World Tag League, meaning lots of matches that will be even MORE clipped with some remarkably left intact enough to actually review. Some have little enough that it wouldn't be worth me even giving them the time of day. =========== Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya vs. Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams (20.11.2000) WAR-style match cut down to a couple of minutes. This was mostly to continue getting over the new-era Varsity Club as a dominant force after they beat Fujiwara and co in less than 2 minutes. Tenryu and Williams have some super sloppy exchanges as they stumble over each other, Araya lands a big moonsault as per standard but gets interrupted by Williams and co getting in the way so he can't get any conclusive finish. Araya then eats a Doctor Bomb but Tenryu runs in for a sliding clothesline, but can't stop a impending Dangerous Backdrop which ultimately puts down Araya for the count. Nothing really stood out with what was left on the table, and the two teams mostly seemingly played it safe. Williams felt a bit more wonky here than usual, but it wasn't anything significant to the point of impacting the quality of the match, which was very bleh. RANK: Decent Barry Windham & Kendall Windham v Danny Kroffat & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (same day) We get this massively cut to about a few minutes. The Kroffat/Fujiwara team is one of those "what were they thinking? " goofy moments when it comes to phoned-in RWTL duos, because while Fujiwara could still work fairly well despite his age, Kroffat by this point was beyond washed and just couldn't really do a whole lot anymore by this stage of his career, generally blinding you with his bright red long pants in a attempt to distract you from his wrestling. He stumbles around trying to do a weird leg-trip thing while Fuji just pushes through and it takes him forever to get to the top rope and then stay there after Kendall groins him on the post for Barry to sneak in for a impressive superplex; which is the big finish for the match, believe it or not. There's obviously not enough to rank this on and frankly what they did have going looked really low-quality, so I'm kinda thankful I didn't have to see Kroffat struggle to finish a match. RANK: ??? Danny Kroffat & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya (21.11.2000) I'm gutted that the actual footage of Tenryu and Fujiwara having another scrap bar their one and only encounter in WAR is a clipped up RWTL highlight tape. They looked real good as well as the two exchanged intense blows with Tenryu going for his powerful chops and Fuji defaulting to his nasty headbutts. Fuji seemed to spend a good bit of this in control as he freely tries to snap Araya's arm with a namesake armbar, but he is just able to crawl to the ropes to escape. Kroffat of course took another job as Araya finished him off with a superplex and moonsault....why does Kroffat suck so much against superplexes? Rough stuff for him. Another no-showing from a RWTL house show, so no real way to rate this. RANK: ??? Barry Windham & Kendall Windham v Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) This was another partly filmed RWTL house show match, so not a ton was shown. The Windham brothers were hanging around beating up Fuchi for much of what was shown and basically bully the poor uncle with general old heel antics until Kawada runs them off with kicks and the usual spots. We get a good look at the finish which has Fuchi finally snap a win with a tricky backslide on Kendall when he tries to push for a win. RANK: ??? Barry Windham & Kendall Windham v Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams (22.11.2000) Also partly filmed for the RWTL, and from what is shown this looked pretty sloppy. They try for a big fancy tower of doom spot where everyone goes up for a superplex bit, but they kinda fumble and instead we just get a second rope back suplex from Rotundo. Windham and Rotundo do some very slow wrestling until Rotundo gets caught with a sneaky small package when attempting a suplex, thus giving the Windham brothers the upset win and robbing Varsity Club winning streak. Everyone does some half-hearted brawling post-match and...yeah that's it, basically. Enjoyable if you wanna see vets just struggle around for a bit to pace out a match. It's real funny that they give the rub not to any of the native dudes but will happily provide the no-name Windham with a win over IRS lol. RANK: Decent Jim Steele & Mike Barton v Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Good lord they LOVED to give Barton and Steele draws in this RWTL lol, first with the Kea/Smith guys and now here. This was another cutty house-show outing as we had Fuchi in danger from the two generic babyfaces teaming on him, but Fuchi got in a few rollups to try to end things near the end. Barton seemingly has him down and out after a gut punch, but the bell rings and Barton looks shocked like he was totally going to go over with that even though he's so far pinned virtually no one with that same move. Amazing psychology there. RANK: ??? Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai v Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada (25.11.2000) They show a bit more than the usual highlight reel for house-shows, namely about a few minutes worth of footage; I'm happy about that because this was a fairly good matchup between the shoot-style lads against the strongest duo in this workrate wise. Nagai is on the backend as Kawada beats him down with chops and even tries some brief flirtations with UWF-lite stuff as he uses the bait of a double wrist lock attempt to get Nagai's arms in a position where he can snap on a armbar instead. Kawada continuing his attempt to play by their rulebook has a kick exchange with Kakihara that he then loses, allowing Kakihara to throw knees in the clinch and throw into a sweet STO/cross armbreaker combo. Fuchi interrupts before then getting sent flying out of the ring from a Nagai kick, which was funny as anything. The two shoot-style lads get a double cross armbreaker before Fuchi runs in again to do Kawada's cool knee drop spot to Nagai's head. They then cut to the finish, which has Dangerous K actually tapping out Kakihara with the Stretch Plum in shocking fashion. Looked enjoyable for what it was: even though Kawada isn't a very good shooter he's at least competent enough to carry this along with more experienced guys. Fuchi continues to be a entertaining second to everything going on, definitely some of his better work this year. RANK: Decent Danny Kroffat & Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Johnny Smith & Taiyo Kea (same day) The only thing really worth mentioning here was the really quite solid Smith/Fujiwara technical sequence, predictively. Fuji's little touches to escape Smith's stuff are fantastic as well and really worth watching slowly to see every bit of detail he puts into making his stuff look as good as it does as Smith desperately tries to hook Fujiwara's arm for dear life until he is forced to relent after his advantages are peeled away and Fuji snaps on a armbar out of the position. Once again, it's a huge shame we don't get to see more of these two in action with each other, especially for Smith given he normally never gets to really flex his mat-wrestling unless it's here or working with fellow GOAT's like Yoshinari Ogawa. Kea has to face the immensely crappy and washed-up Kroffat (though he does throw in a half-decent Tiger Driver, mind you) but Kea easily takes over the match and the finish comes in the form of a weird backdrop/second rope dropkick combo by the pair for the finish. Apart from that, nothing worth mentioning here, it's another house-show formatted showing from what I seen of this VHS edition. RANK: ??? Johnny Smith & Taiyo Kea v Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai (27.11.2000) Another RWTL house-show so this was merely a highlights package. Smith works on the arm against Nagai with some cool arm cranks and armbars, Kakihara and Smith go back and forth for a bit before Kakihara eats the clean job to Smith's always dodgy British Fall for the pin. Again this is a clipshow so I can't really rank it as it is. RANK: ??? Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya vs. Jim Steele & Mike Barton (same day) The Steele/Barton connection continue their overpush with a clean win over Team WAR. We get to see some of the action as Barton leads the way with a powerslam on Araya for a near fall while Steele does his usual goofy nonsense on the outside with Tenryu who tries his damn hardest to make it seem worthwhile watching. Barton and co scrap until he wins out with his goofy gut punch and Ace Cutter finish on Araya for the win. Poor Araya; man went from punching bag in WAR to punching bag in All Japan with barely a difference at all in how he's getting shown off. RANK: ??? Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada v Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams (same day) They actually showed a bit more than usual with this highlight package, probably because these are the two main teams to look out for in this entire thing. Kawada gets to beat down on a T-shirt wearing Williams (seriously, was the guy just really self-conscious at the time and/or off-cycle? I'm fine with it, it's just a bit weird) with a fancy Gamengiri shot, and Fuchi gets to yuck it up with a Misawa-style neckcrank right afterwards to work the head more until the hold is broken and Varsity Club got control. Fuchi gets beat up by the two as Rotundo lands his usual Samoan Drop and Williams uses the very rarely-used (at least at this point) second rope Stampede powerslam on Fuchi: seemed a bit shaky but mostly looked fine enough, at least to get the pin anyway. Doctor D looked super gassed afterwards as he just spent a long time kneeling down and not really moving: not in a "selling" way but in a "I'm blown up" way as he wasn't even trying to get over what was happening. All in all, it's still not enough for a ranking but I can at least say this looked enjoyable, though the fact Rotundo only showed up for one move here in the total footage is really telling. RANK: ??? Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai v Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams (30.11.2000) Kakihara and co do some cool double team submissions on Williams as he pretty much just lays down and eats their stuff, Rotundo gets in to boot the two with kicks to stop any actual submission from working and making things automatically a tier lamer. They do the second rope powerslam move again though even sloppier than the last and Williams just awkwardly rolls away to get his partner pin: I get he wasn't legal for the tag, but it looked bizarre to see the dude do a random Dark Souls roll to the corner and laying there prone afterwards lol. Kakihara actually interrupts this when they try for a pinfall but it's all for nothing as he gets clocked with a forearm that he oversells like anything by stumbling out of the ring afterwards and so Rotundo gets the win with his amazingly lame Samoan Drop. Williams keeps doing his Triangle of Power pose afterwards: keen AJPW nerds like me would pick up on the relation as Kakihara was apart of the group alongside Takayama and Albright! That trivia is a lot more interesting than this match. RANK: Forgettable Barry Windham & Kendall Windham v Johnny Smith & Taiyo Kea (same day) The Windham brothers work on Kea for a decent while through the highlights showcased but Smith kept getting in the way while Kendall just stood around and didn't do anything in response. Barry looked decent here as a worker despite being way out of his prime, amazingly enough. The main issue is that it feels like all of his matches just turn into really slow NWA 80's paced formats though because he can't do anything else bar that at this point and time, and if you're not good at that kind of more grounded stuff then you really don't thrive a whole lot with him. Johnny Smith won the match with a really lame reverse DDT because Barry presumably didn't want to take the full British Fall finish (or Johnny couldn't get him up reliably) so it felt really flat and made the guy look like a goof for going down to something so tame. RANK: Forgettable Barry Windham & Kendall Windham v Jim Steele & Mike Barton (01.12.2000) Wow, a RWTL that actually has enough footage to judge it properly! What a shock. Barry does most of the actual good work as per standard out of the two with fairly slow but measured heel offence, though Kendall does showcase a really great flip bump when he misses a splash in the turnbuckle corner and Steele picks him up for a clean back suplex and powerslam for near falls respectfully. Eventually the finish just has Steele job out Kendall with his usual wacky Turbo Drop for the win. This even clipped had enough to rank it, albeit it was pretty much a average B-show outing with nothing worth mentioning bar the above. If you wanna see Barry Windham work a good match post-90's this is one of the few I'd say is worth searching out for that bizarrely specific option. RANK: Decent Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya v Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai (same day) Clipped as per most of the other RWTL outings. Tenryu dominates Nagai as per standard and lands a actually impressive powerbomb for once for a near fall on the lad, even if it takes them like three tries to actually get the thing off the ground because the guy doesn't want to jump that much and they keep mistiming. Nagai kicks out of both that and then two kneeling lariat shots to boot, forcing Tenryu to basically go full nuclear with a third one to get the conclusive pin. Good beatdown..... you get the idea by now. RANK: ??? Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya vs. Johnny Smith & Taiyo Kea (02.12.2000) Tenryu and Kea have some solid chemistry as per before and you can definitely see that student/teacher relationship here as Tenryu bumps big for the guy despite Kea still being pretty young and not quite ironed out for a actual main event push yet, even if conditions will mean he'll be pushed super hard super soon. RWTL clipping means we don't get to see much bar a few minutes, so instead of the whole match we instead have to watch Araya try to ride the wave of scary Smith bombs until some smart Tenryu assistance means he can take the lead, landing his big-guy moonsault for the successful three for a big win over the more established "young" stars. Awesome upset, just a shame there's not really that much to work with all things considered. RANK: ??? Danny Kroffat & Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) I guess this is worth checking out if you want to see small teases for a Fujiwara/Kawada match that sadly never manages to actually be a thing. They get really grumpy with each other and the general vibe is stiff angry violence, but sadly due to typical RWTL clipping this is mostly gone to the tests of time and editorial taping, so instead we have to cope with what little is left alongside the intact finish: Kroffat meekly tapping out to a tame Fuchi facelock. A shame given the matchup. RANK: ??? Barry Windham, Kendall Windham & Mike Barton v Gran Naniwa, Mohammed Yone & Shigeo Okumura (06.12.2000) Yep, 2000's AJPW at it again folks! Naniwa is cool and it's absolutely surreal watching him be around guys like Barry Windham and Barton; you'd never reasonably think this was an actual thing until you see it. Naniwa works well with the foreign talent as he's the smaller dude doing his comedy spots but mostly trying to survive the big heavyweights throwing him around here, giving them a easy night in the process. Barry booting the guy right in the face from the tag apron while he's trying to escape a submission absolutely rules, as does the trio's powerhouse stuff as Naniwa eats some solid bumps. Last few minutes had Okumura run around with some fun lucha-work and Yone got his usual kicks + big leg drop spot in so that was decent enough. Barton bumps well for a Naniwa flash-pin and tornado DDT before he takes over with some more power-work, a second rope splash; the finish is him catching Naniwa mid-Frankensteiner attempt for a impactful falling powerbomb for the three. Nothing particularly amazing, but everyone looked pretty energised here; Barry was limited as you'd expect, but Barton and Kendall surprisingly put in the work here and the crowd really appreciated it near the end as things picked up. Native side were fine for their little roles, Naniwa standing out the most obviously, dude is just so much fun to have even in matches like these. It's fine for a B-show tag, above-average given the state of AJPW at the time. Check it out if you want a strange oddity checked off the list. RANK: Good Danny Kroffat & Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai (same day) Shockingly this RWTL match was actually shown...well, some of it, anyway. We get about 6 minutes out of this. I mean listen, this is Fujiwara, it's Fujiwara WITH Kakihara and Nagai, this was always going to be good to some degree. Kroffat is washed as always but they work around this with lots of entertaining shtick and cheating from the two as Fuji does everything he knows about in his vet playbook to keep Kroffat in the game. Lots of silly spots, Fujiwara goofing off, etc. I'm not sure if this could be described as a Fujiwara comedy match.....it is basically what this was for most of it. Great spot near the end where the two modern shooters beat the old man up with kicks, he pretends to be stunned to grab Nagai with a namesake armbar after elbowing him in the face. Nagai keeps kicking the guy until he pulls for a takedown and we get the signature (and always amazing) Fujiwara Sugar Foot counter to a Nagai takedown attempt, nearly snapping his shoulder with the leverage off his legs. If you don't know what a Sugar Foot is, I feel bad because it's a beautiful spot that every technical wrestling fan (or at least someone who says as such) should experience at least once in their wrestling viewing, just incredible looking. That's the finish as well! What a treat. As much as I wanted to really get some heated shoot-style action, I instead got a fun but noticeably hollow tournament match. Fujiwara looked great with these two while Kroffat seemed to be really just going with the motions here as he just is completely deflated and relying on cheap heel shtick. Kinda ruined by that, but if you want a tease for Fuji/Kakihara in 10+ years then I guess this is fine? If you want some more goofy Fujiwara in your life then this is solid, even if it's not the greatest shoot-style comedy match I've seen by a fair degree. RANK: Decent Johnny Smith & Taiyo Kea v Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams (same day) This is one of the few RWTL entries that's actually left mostly intact. It's amusing that Smith and co are called "Future Stars" while Johnny Smith is 36. And he's going to retire in the next two years. And he's worse than what he was in the 90's. Pretty on point for Kea though. Anyway, I thought I'd not like this given the Varsity Club 21 consisted of a guy who was great a decade or so ago and a tag specialist who even on his better days wasn't exactly amazing crowds trying to do a longform match. Kea spent most of this selling and bumping for the two older lads as they controlled the pace with very messy brawling and basic iffy offence designed to keep things as simplistic as possible: It felt more or less like a typical 80's Southern tag where the heels just controlled things as much as possible while the traditional underdog babyface fought from under a ton. Kea was solid in that role: his stuff looked good and he generally kept the pace tight despite the slower style here, never completely slowing to a crawl. Smith basically just did his usual shtick with Kea using his assistance to do some alright double team spots on Williams to try to snatch a win. Of course they couldn't, and despite Williams getting gassed up like shit here with all of the bumping and work he had to do Rotunda runs in and gets one of the most tepid "hot" tags I've ever seen, poor guy. The finish is really quite messy as everyone runs in to try stuff as Rotunda spams his Samoan Drop aplenty. Him and Williams try to setup the second rope Stampede, but the younger lads manage to interfere, allowing Kea to throw Rotunda off the top rope, making him stumble right into a Hawaiian Crusher for the big upset. Of course these guys have only won this match in the RWTL: point-wise both teams are still in contention. With that said, this was pretty dull and mostly carried by Williams running himself to death with big powerhouse bombs and stiff shots, generally showing his age and struggling near the end despite his spirited attempts. Rotunda is amazingly limited and gets zero reaction, namely because he's so shit at doing much of anything at this point that no one really sees him as a threat, nor does he really change up his style to appease the All Japan crowd. This is basically him just doing IRS shtick, take it or leave it. Smith and Kea are a well ironed unit, even if Smith doesn't really try to impress much here. Kea might be the best guy in the match overall: his big bumps and atheticism are clear, and he's massively stepped up from his days as the mostly bland Mossman moniker, the same lad jobbing to Mighty Inoue a couple of years back. All in all, not great, not terrible either. RANK: Decent Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya v Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Team WAR have no chance of making it to the finals at this point (they have 6 points, the top guys have either 10 or more and this is the last day of matches before the final) but that doesn't mean they aren't going to try to beat the AJPW home turf lads down enough for a potential upset purely to spite them. The start of this was entertaining enough as Araya got to sell and work from underneath the All Japan royalists, even if him and Fuchi don't work especially well with each other. Fuchi of course was the man in danger here from the two eventually though and of course this turned into the usual violence as we got to see Tenryu and Kawada beat the snot out of each other with stiff shit. Fuchi gets to be a violent asshole as well as he bullies Araya with closed-fist punches, boots, and generally doing whatever he wants. Of course the real attraction is Kawada/Tenryu once again and they have some cool spots together to go along with the stiff stuff. Tenryu lands a rope-hung kick to the head to stun Kawada while he's on the apron and Kawada pays him back with a running boot back later on. When Kawada tries again they boot each other at the same time for a double KO! Love that stuff, a great progression of sheer pettiness there. This was mostly really lean in terms of structure however and focused around Araya getting slowly broken down with the occasional burst of action when he tried for a comeback, dragging the middle out into mostly him bumping + selling. They really didn't go for many frills here; it was just all about just working that classic 80's vintage isolating tag dynamic (not the best fit given the last match but sure) keeping Tenryu away from the action and throwing Araya into the deep-end. Fuchi looked great barely having control here, having to do cheap shit and more often or not paying the price for it, no longer being the confident ring-general of Tsuruta-Gun and more of a crafty veteran working with his limitations. We get some masterful selling when Araya manages to bounce his legs off the ropes and make Fuchi overshoot with the backdrop; Fuchi has this delayed-sell where he gets up fine before fumbling right back down as soon as the recoil actually gets to him. Tenryu's hot tag was solid and they worked around his stuff well by having the damaged leg be the thing that slows him down and allows the All-Japan lads to crawl back into control as he just can't go full tilt. Ultimately the match does predictively have Araya going down and Tenryu having to take another loss on his record. My main issue with this match is Araya: he's not that good. His moonsault spot is always cool, but I felt like he just didn't give that needed emotive big moment to really get the crowd rooting for him. His selling was solid for what it was, I just think he dragged this down slightly for me. Still quite competent, but when you're in the ring with these guys? Competent isn't enough, simply put. However (and this is a big however) I'd still say this was great stuff. Really hard-hitting action, absolutely worth the watch despite the slow-ish pace around the middle. Anyone who missed the more grindy AJPW tags of the mid to late 80's I could see enjoying this aplenty. RANK: Good ======== end of part 4. The final will be focused purely on the last televised event of the year, involving the RWTL, Tenryu/Fujiwara finally getting a proper match, and Danny "long pants" Kroffat doing shoot-style??? See I built it up from the last mention of it, wow

part 3 =========== Johnny Smith v Michiyoshi Ohara (21.10.2000) Shown in full. It's the match of a lifetime! Johnny Smith, eternal midcarder, vs Michiyoshi Ohara, terrible MMA fighter! The starting exchanges have a lot of generic grappling, but I do like how Smith takes no shit from Ohara when he tries to cheap shot him and runs in to smack him up with forearms. This has that unique feeling of being more like a NJPW rush of action than a typically slow AJPW undercard experience; the crowd as a result are quite into this from the get-go uncharacteristically and the two work on that despite a relatively slow start. Smith does cool Cravat variations, Ohara rips at his nose before the two just go back to hitting each other hard lol. I mean Ohara's heel work is generic, but it gets the job done. Smith isn't very good at articulating emotion (or much, really) however he does bring some fire into this when needed, so the dynamic works enough to make the match interesting. Ohara brawls on the outside, he sinks in a awesome armbar after a German suplex for no real reason, it's just a cool spot. They get a big reaction out of Smith hooking in a double wrist lock as a counter so clearly they had some sort of plan to work with. There's definitely that element of interpromotional heat that gives this a bit more shine as opposed to a generic match. It helps a lot to making this more than just a grapplefest, which this was to a extent. Smith stealing that one Kendo Kashin spot where the two trade snapmare takeovers before Johnny slaps on a flash British Fall out of nowhere to steal the match was a fun ending to a fairly energised bout full of submissions and Ohara sleaze-heat. One of Smith's better showings. RANK: Good Nobutaka Araya & Steve Williams v Satoshi Kojima & Tatsutoshi Goto (same day) MR BD is based beyond any words that I could muster and it was cool seeing Kojima in a AJPW ring as a invading force knowing what's to come in the next year. He really does carry this a fair degree as him and Williams immediately get into a shouting match and generic starting sequences like shoulder tackles, chops, etc etc. Koji doesn't seem fully formed yet but you can tell he's getting some real flash to his routines and the crowd are liking his antics. Araya and Goto just do generic WAR-style tubby guy striking stuff, getting the crowd hyped for a long chop exchange (later STOLEN by Kobashi/Sasaki smh) before also doing even more shoulder tackle exchanges. BD does a low blow and we get some brawling to let you know that these guys are the heels, though that's already obvious. Like a conventional NWA 80's tag the heel duo hone in and cut off the ring around Araya, which gives Williams most of the match off to rally and wait in the corner. BD has some solid stuff like a piledriver and stiff lariat. Koji did his usual sthick while jawjacking with the crowd and getting some really good heat out of them as they milked the control stuff as much as possible. He also hits Williams with a little chop in the back that he just oversells by throwing himself into the guardrail from the apron lol. Koji misses a lariat and Williams looks proper rough stumbling around hitting sloppy lariats on the two despite nailing a Doctor Bomb. Last two minutes are all mostly near falls and brawling as Kojima survives the pushback from the two long enough to dodge a Araya moonsault, doing Muto moves like the low dropkick and Dragon Screw....one wonders about these random inclusions at times, especially knowing where he'd be going soon enough. BD hits a awesome backdrop on Araya and that's basically the end as Koji quickly hits a cutter and lariat to finish him off for the pin. This wasn't anything super impactful and with Williams being all taped-up for this, it was obvious that he was being used sparingly to keep him as fresh as possible; bar the start and finish he doesn't do anything bar apron work, so mostly nothing, essentially. Araya bumps well and this is again another good showing for him, even if I still think these were way too big shoes for him to fit at this stage in his career. Kojima looked like a star in the making and Goto did Goto things. All in all, solid stuff. It's a bit of a shame we never get that Steve Williams/Kojima singles matchup through, these two were cooking good with what little they had here. RANK: Good Genichiro Tenryu v Stan Hansen (same day) The semi-finals of the Triple Crown Tournament start off with these old friends/rivals having one final standoff. Honestly? This kicked ass way more than anything else on the show. First off for historical reasons this is a pretty damn huge deal: it's the second last match that Stan Hansen would ever have, and it's the last singles bout ever, against his old friend Tenryu, for the chance to get the top belt in the company. Hansen is, well, at the end of the road: broken down, 50+, and obviously isn't the same man he was even in the Super Generation Era in the early 90's, but that doesn't mean he ain't dragging his knuckles every step of the way and fighting Tenryu as best as he can. He naturally knows this already and ambushes Hansen mid entrance with a big dive to the outside: a clever call-back to their infamous tag match against Baba in which the same move was used to that effect, only Hansen is the vet who is victim to it this time. He does this twice over just to make sure he's properly hurt as well. Hansen is now properly in the red, and needs to use his bullrope to throw Tenryu around and keep some space, as well as use stuff like eye poking to equal things out. His selling here is great: properly balancing between a broken down man with his body betraying him and the viciousness that he still has bubbling inside, cussing Tenryu out when he can and answering with slaps, chops, basically anything he can throw out. There's a sense of.... vulnerability here that we don't usually ever see from Hansen, a personal weakness that Tenryu exploits to great effect, answering with every stiff strike he can go for including some genuinely disgusting full force chops and targeting Hansen's back multiple times. It's hard to watch at times as Hansen is barely able to do much with his physical limitations but seeing him pull comeback after comeback using his experience, a final Western Lariat attempt that ALMOST gets him the three, seeing him get beat down over and over to near pins is nerve-racking as he keeps getting up and dusting himself off despite the abuse stacking up. Ultimately, there could only be one winner. Despite this being less than stellar in terms of pure ring work, I thought this was legitimately a fantastic outing. Tenryu was pulling his weight hugely and Hansen's selling is legendary, trying every single thing he can to stay in the game until he just couldn't go. Some may not like the ending being essentially a throwback to the unclean finishes of 80's All Japan, but I thought it was fitting to see Hansen's volatile career habits finally catch up to him hard here. Absolutely go search this out if a fan of either man. RANK: Great Hiro Saito, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono v Masanobu Fuchi, Shiro Koshinaka & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Chono's goons having invaded for most of this card, it now fittingly ends with him in the main against AJPW's brightest and most loyal (ignore Koshi) defenders. Of course the final match on here is the big Chono six-man to work off the Fuchi match a month or so ago, as well as being a ultra rare showing of Chono and Kawada sharing the same ring something that only happened once or twice more surprisingly. As you can imagine this was the typical house show match that you'd expect from something like this, though there are *some* good moments. Tenzan as the knucklehead enforcer is SO much better than trying to make him a main event dude; I get he has his defenders but I just never seen him as being good enough for that task and this used him perfectly. Fuchi gets good reactions as he has to work from the bottom of TEAM 2000 via Saito; it means we get a meaningful buildup, and we also get to see Saito and Fuchi do MUGA sequences which is also sweet. We also get some generic "big match" stuff between Chono and Kawada as they do the typical "knock each other over and taunt/standoff" stuff alongside trading and dodging signature moves. It's ok, but it felt so painfully predictable that it wasn't even trying to be different or play it slightly unsafe. Koshinaka of course got in danger as the trio did heel stuff alongside Kojima and co who'd came out for the match. Lots of interference on the outside, lots of selling. I'm glad of this because seeing Koshinaka do stuff here just bores me to tears. He's so undynamic and unfitting of this amazing Fuchi/Kawada duo, consistently dragging things down with lame hip-attack spam or just the most bare-bones offence you'd ever see. No fire, nothing. He sucks. Saito is actually quite good for the bits he's in for, using lots of 70's style grappling to keep the bigger players down while also going full caveman mode with wild strikes when it mattered. Anyway, most of this is generic heel control stuff with occasional exciting brawls or little spots to engage interest. Fuchi works like a trooper to get the crowd engaged and gets in some fun bits where he's mangling the trio with holds. The big highlight is Chono and Kawada at the end squaring off proper before this turns into a chaotic brawl with Saito getting jobbed out after his senton splash is more or less ignored as Dangerous K just rolls away from a Tenzan flying headbutt right after and got the pin with signature spot spam. This basically met expectations; occasionally would be good, but most of it was really house showy generic shit that you've seen a million times before. Play the greatest hits and all that if you know what I mean. Very much a match stuck in its time and by the restrictions that this multi-promotional feud provides on top, making for a fairly weak bout that never really kicked off proper. Probably should've moved this to the semi-main. RANK: Decent Shiro Koshinaka vs. Toshiaki Kawada (22.10.2000) Semi Final of the Triple Crown tourney, and it's painfully obvious who's winning: the supreme Baba Loyalist, or the random aging outsider who's been with NJPW the last decade or so? Koshinaka tries to ground Kawada with rest holds and then tries to take him out with strikes: Kawada tries his best to make Koshinaka legitimately believable as a threat but his strikes aren't the best and his stalling doesn't help things so no one is falling for it. He hits a good looking German Suplex and top rope knee to the head into powerbomb for a close 2 count. Koshi also tries sneaking a win out with a small package, doesn't get the pin either. Kawada explodes at this point with stiff Pele Kicks and lariats, responding with his own powerbomb for the three. I can't really give this a big rating because of the lack of action until the end, but Koshinaka is fine when not stalling this out and gets some nice offence near the end, even if it's a little too late to make this anything worth talking about. Kawada is good as always despite general disinterest. Filler bout ultimately. RANK: Forgettable Gran Naniwa, Ryuji Hijikata & TARU v Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda (28.10.2000) Typical undercard Toryumon + friends showcase with not a whole lot else going on. We see about seven minutes of this in action and it's mostly lots of cheating from both teams, some goofy comedy spots, etc etc. Seeing TARU actually be able to work a match is crazy given even in 2005/2006 he seemed really out of it in terms of his capabilities inside the ring. I mean he still isn't fantastic; his strikes are a bit weak-looking and he does flub the occasional move; but for what this was that didn't matter too much. He hits a pretty dodgy moonsault on Susumu Mochizuki for a near fall before some sneaky cheating and a awesome Mas Mochizuki flying corner Pele Kick/German suplex ends things conclusively. Seemed enjoyable enough even if this style of wrestling isn't really something I openly engage with that much. RANK: Decent George Hines & Mike Barton v Nobutaka Araya & Shiro Koshinaka (same day) Koshi continues to be really quite dull working the cards. Lots of slow control work on Hines, who is about as sympathetic as rustling toilet paper being used to flush. Koshi has these terrible slap-punches where he makes no effort to hide the slap, and he ends up bumping for Hines and co as they do moves to a almost silent crowd. Absolutely no heat for this one. Araya is a fairly solid worker even if he isn't really equipped to handle himself at this level given his limited range of offence. He sells and bumps well, but his actual work has been so far quite lackluster. The crowd does start to come alive near the end as we get a good few near falls driven by Barton always breaking them up at the last second with great timing. Araya gets the clean win with a second moonsault to finish this off. This was good near the end but man even the clipped match dragged, would've not liked to have seen the establishing work beforehand knowing the pace they were going at. Koshi is surely a name-value guy, is bad. All of the credit goes to Araya and everyone else at least trying to get this off the ground. RANK: Forgettable Johnny Smith, Masanobu Fuchi & Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Stan Hansen, Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield (same day) Hansen's final match after nearly 30 years of wrestling doesn't come with a showcase of legends or a big retirement card, but instead a fairly abrupt and random six-man. This is understandable given this wasn't even intended to be his final match. Hansen's decline even over the last few months has been clear; he really can't do a whole lot anymore, and he's pretty much immobile in this match. Anyway this was a fine enough midcard bout that had a lot of very slow wrestling as expected. Even Steve Williams as energised as he normally is can't really make this go much quicker. Hansen yelling random English at the ref in protest was fun, I suppose, even if his back problems were at their peak and he could barely bend it anymore, let alone take any sort of bump. Fuchi takes most of the beatings until a cold Johnny Smith hot tag (with no top rope dropkick, but he does remember to do it later thankfully) as they seem to be dragging this forward to more feature Hawkfield as he hits his cool power moves. Fujiwara sadly doesn't do a whole lot in this apart from throw punches to mock Williams and lots of interference, though he gets his ass kicked near the end as everyone gets fed up with his cranky uncle antics. Smith is taken out with a Turbo Drop, but everyone runs in for a predictable pre-finish brawl before Johnny Smith once again ends up with a flubbed British Fall finish for the win over Hawkfield. Yeah, this was pretty much nothing. For some reason all of the main core All-Japan guys of the 70's (Baba/Tsuruta/Hansen/Abdullah/Dory/Terry) all have random and fairly nothing final matches, who knew? RANK: Forgettable Jinsei Shinzaki & Masahito Kakihara v Mohammed Yone & Taiyo Kea (same day) Kea's getting the big push for the eventual Tenryu title bout around the corner but first he has to fight a debuting Kakihara who had been away prior to NOAH. Kakihara was a favourite of Misawa (he even wanted Kaki over Yoshinari Ogawa for the Untouchables team all the way back in the late 90's) and probably would've been pushed super strong as a Jr heavyweight within the company had he kept going with it, however problems with Takao Omori being a dickhead and potential PRIDE aspirations meant it wasn't meant to be. He's back in the company and gets a pretty nice semi-main event spot with Kea and co. Kakihara is still doing the MMA gloves shtick from the NOAH match and this seems to be a new thing for him, probably taken from his Kingdom days where he was punching dudes all the time with said gloves on. I'm not the biggest fan of it given it means he's doing less slick grappling/Jr spots and more stand-up and rabbit punches, and said punches usually can't be sold properly so they look really phony most of the time. Yone is still doing his kicks and Jumbo knee, so we get a really awkward half shoot/half pro-style match that doesn't really blend well to the pacing overall. I mean Kea trying to do shoot-style is a interesting visual (especially given his legit amateur wrestling credentials so he could grapple quite well when needed) however it just translates to a headlock takeover and some generic holds, lame. Kea also has tons of tape over his lower stomach and back, and he really seems in pain after taking a bump on it, even if he is, obviously, playing it up slightly to get the match some more stakes behind it. Shinzaki....does his usual thing, like he works over Kea's midsection with ho-hum material. That's really it, he was kinda featureless in this match. I don't know if that's the clipping just taking out his spots or what, either way it was weird. Second clip removes the Yone hot-tag bar him trying for a a top rope Kinniku Buster but getting kicked for his troubles. Kaki gets over his striking by landing obvious wiffed punches before resorting to far better looking roundhouse kicks to KO Yone for the pinfall. Yeah this was a really weird match that has elements that COULD have been great (Kakihara's epic return, Kea injured) however there just wasn't much connecting involved by the four to try to make this actually worthwhile. Kakihara is a good worker! This PRIDE-lite gimmick isn't doing much for him though. Combined with relatively ok to featureless performances overall and you get a fairly wet fart for a match. RANK: Forgettable Genichiro Tenryu v Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Fantastic stuff and very easily the best match of the post-Pillar chunk of 2000. Tenryu's old, he's grumpy, he still hits hard and he's still giving Kawada a hard time here. The starting sequences are admittedly a bit slow, but they establish well that Tenryu's working this pretty clean as opposed to the two other matches in the tournament, breaking off from the ropes without going too crazy; he throws a little jab at one point, basically shaken off to do more normal grappling. Kawada wants to show he's the big boss, so when he gets the chance to fire back he goes crazy with his kicks. Tenryu's disappointed; he looks like a sad dad who doesn't want to sully his hands to go at K's level. He relents though with a forearm exchange and a big first chop that sends his opponent flying before kicking him in the back! There's a great general feeling of uncooperativeness off from Kawada: he eats shots but always pushes for his own, even if they aren't the most graceful or come out of the blue. He's just so scrappy, even when getting chopped in the throat by his opponent he just wants to burst back into things with shots equally as rough. The two just want to out-petty the other throughout and as expected, it's a super entertaining dynamic. The leg work being Dragon Screws and figure fours is pretty remarkable given the impending Muto-era (I wonder if they knew something about it through the grapevine?) even if it's pretty non-descript and mostly here to pace the match down. Kawada sold it well, mind you, it's not particularly interesting given you know it's not going to play much of a factor into how this match plays out. It does add into Tenryu's role of controlling things up to a point, even if Kawada has the speed and youth on his side. The last 10 minutes are just consistent great moments built between the two. They establish the powerbomb as the BIG move that Kawada needs to use to win; it's his historically best move result-wise, after all: yet he just can't get the guy up for the move despite everything he can throw out. Even two Dangerous backdrops aren't able to net him the opportunity to do so. Blood comes in right at the end after a stiff Kawada boot on the apron causes Tenryu's nose to gush with the stuff, really making Tenryu the sympathetic guy here as Kawada gets more and more violent to finish things off. That alongside the actual solid fatigue selling made things feel urgent and not at all drawn-out, leading to a pretty sudden and impactful finish where Tenryu rides out the storm and ultimately wins out with his signature punches + brainbuster to drag out the win here. One wonders if Kawada would've been a better choice for champ, but knowing what's to come I think Tenryu winning this made a lot more sense. Not as good as the 2001 Muto series, regardless this was still super solid and tense. They never overexposed the big bombs in terms of usage and while Kawada's selling can be super overdramatic at points, I think he keeps it to a consistent enough level here to where the match still keeps its tension intact without going overboard into melodramatics. RANK: Great Mike Rotundo & Steve Williams v Danny Kroffat & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (19.11.2000) Varsity Club are back and they're pretty much as good as you would imagine for two 80's NWA/Mid-South guys who peaked in the early 90's. Thankfully this was a one minute squash over arguably the weakest team in this literation of the RWTL, so I wasn't complaining. Not much else to say though, because, again, this was a minute long squash. Road Warriors these two aren't. RANK: Forgettable Jim Steele & Mike Barton v Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai (same day) Wolf Hawkfield is DEAD. The awesomeness is over. Enter Jim Steele. Now these two will actually become a legitimately solid team for the time (getting good enough that NJPW will snap them up alongside WWE even using them for some tryouts as a pair) but this is definitely still the start of that being a thing. Barton and Steele are generic Gaijin babyfaces, with Barton literally shaking the hand of a baby just to show he is indeed a babyface here. Nagai and Kakihara are the shoot style-nostalgia duo and start this off with a prematch beatdown via a goofy double spinning wheel kick lol. The match from then on in felt really non-descript: both teams got their shtick in, but there was no real point of the match where things got interesting, mostly because Jim Steele is at best a very very mediocre power-wrestler with one or two tricks in his pocket and nothing else. The guy is as bland as white bread, no real other way to put it. Some of the Barton work was decent at best, and the double teaming could get funny, especially with a weird slingshot into boot special on display here. There was no real position of the match wherein you felt like the two teams were clicking. Nagai spent most of this feeding to the two as they slammed him a lot until he got a shoulder charge in and Kakihara did his hot tag, which admittedly was cool to see if only for the kicks and high-angle STO always looking flush. The finishing stretch was entertaining enough as Steele and Barton helped each other out against the duo, with Steele being pushed hard as he handles the two and manages to get his top rope splash and Turbo Drop on Nagai for the win. Nothing special about this, yet I will also say that it's well-put together and about as good a match Steele was going to have bar the 2002 TenKoji showing and it shows. The dude was trying hard and getting a mediocre result. Barton was fine, Kakihara and Nagai are obviously just here to mostly eat pins but Kakihara still looks solid in the ring while Nagai barely did anything worth noting here, sadly. It's a so-so starting match for both pairings, generally due to a lack of definitive chemistry. RANK: Decent Barry Windham & Kendall Windham v Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya (same day) I reviewed this already. Pretty sturdy for what it's trying to be. RANK: Good Johnny Smith & Taiyo Kea v Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Clipped by about 10 minutes. This had a solid dynamic going for it, even if I think guys like Smith at this point felt rather washed by comparison to the other individuals here. Fuchi worked his usual tag-formula of being a reliable sidekick with sticky technical work while also taking the fair share of beatings when it came down to it. Kawada has settled well into being the big mean ace of the brand, using his kicks and dominant Stretch Plum to grind down Smith in particular for a while, making sure to establish his lead alongside the usual kicks and big bombs. Kea is the young upstart they really want to push, so him and Dangerous K get into it a lot here with kick exchanges and showcasing his more frantic pace by eating shots and pushing though. He's not as good as Kawada is, but he's reliant enough to occasionally push though his stuff to get in some nifty offence of his own. Of course Kea's main problem is that he's a bit featureless personality-wise and doesn't have a lot of charisma to go along with his not remarkably impressive range, yet with with Kawada here to squeeze aggression out of the guy they do end up working well and get good life into their respective showings. Those bits are pretty much the best features of the match in terms of out and out workrate. The crowd gets loud for those two in particular, and they work the finish into Kea's favour by him landing his big Hawaiian Crusher for a near fall, having Fuchi interrupt and the bell ringing for the draw before Kawada takes any more potential match-ending damage; saving him from a potential upset. Sure, this is generic for a top guy/challenger format match and definitely below standards for any 90's quality for a big main event, but Kawada and Fuchi are a sturdy pair and Kea and Smith try their best to keep up, even if I think Smith was never really believable in these big high-stakes matches. I mean just for reference Kea and Smith were having trouble with bloody Masao Inoue/Tamon Honda just a year ago: those guys were life-long midcard dudes: how can they magically be giving the top guys trouble now? Not seeing it. RANK: Decent ================= end of part 3. Next time we'll see Tenryu/Fujiwara interact and Danny Kroffat dipping his foot into shoot-style? Maybe? What a strange time

If this was a list of "top 100 coolest wrestlers" he'd definitely be like, top 20 or something lol. Fairly enjoyable LU run but everything else since never matched his insane hype from the time and has, frankly, underperformed. Whether or not that's down to him just coasting for the most part or general lethargic booking is up to interpretation. Not a lock for top 100 by a good mile.

I love the guy but he really seems like someone who peaked massively with a couple of real great showings and never really got to that level again. The Dragon Kid/KENTA showings are his greatest stuff and both follow the same fake finish/restart/real match formula pretty reliably, with a lot of his Toryumon stuff being kinda underwhelming for someone with so much natural scummy energy. It honestly feels like he struck gold due to his opponents being great bases more than him doing his thing. What really hurts him ultimately is his injuries coming right as he's starting to peak with his freelancer stuff and then again in 2013 when he tried to make a comeback. Just real unfortunate luck that took a lot of air out of his sails. Good wrestler, not near a top 100 for me personally.

During my Mariko Yoshida project she stood out VERY well, probably one of her best dance partners she had all things considered when it came to rivalling Yoshida's performances on the mat and whatnot, which is really saying something. Absolutely amazing at doing emotive brawls with the best of them be it female or otherwise, even if her later Stardom stuff wasn't really anything to be amazed at by comparison as it trails more into shtick. I guess she's mostly hurt by most of her best years being during the Dark Age where footage is (still) really scant, but I think with recent discoveries and explosion of wrestling content there is plenty of gems to be probably dug up along the recommended. Speaking of, I'd also recommend watching her IBUKI Yoshida match (07.16.2006) and the Yuko Miyamoto deathmatch (05.04.2008). Top 100? I'd have to think about that a bit further.

part the second ============== Ryuji Hijikata v Sabu (25.08.2000) Actually a half decent match. Sabu isn't exactly amazing without hardcore stipulations but he does the technical work fine and keeps focusing on Hijikata's leg, and he still does get a few good spots in without botching/adding tension by pretending to botch. He mostly dominates the match outside of a small comeback from Hijikata where he awesomely kicks a chair into Sabu's face. Otherwise it's all him, and he quickly puts him away with a chair-assisted moonsault. Fun showcase and the crowd were into Sabu from the start from what footage was intact. RANK: Decent Johnny Smith v The Cedman (same day) Wanna see Johnny Smith carry a rubbish Steve Williams-scouting hire? No? I mean....I don't blame you. As much as I can hate on some of the lesser guys in AJPW during the Pillars era of the 90's (and especially the one-time hires that they were bringing in the downturn years) this is a far, far cry from any of that. Ced is in decent shape but he's about as useful as the lumps Michinoku Pro used to randomly hire to job for them, just green, basic, botches every third move, ugh. Smith is here to work a house-show match so he's doing the basics, and even then Ced is not in time to Smith's usual big sequences so even those are awkward. Match mostly just happens, moves are done sloppily. Smith finishes things with a good German suplex followed by a sloppy British Fall for the finish as fans laugh and enjoy themselves watching this big lump finally stop wrestling. Simply bad, Smith isn't really in much of a mood to do a whole lot aside from the basics of his routine and Ced is pretty unseasoned. He has some atheticism but he needed at least 2 years of extra experience before even getting a look in. RANK: Forgettable Genichiro Tenryu, Jinsei Shinzaki & Stan Hansen v Taiyo Kea, Toshiaki Kawada & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (same day) We get 7 minutes of this on the clock and yeah, it's pretty good; you can just look at the two teams here and judge that as such for yourself without anything else said by me. The Kawada/Tenryu build is mounting incredibly well with the two beating the shit out of each other with chops and boots with some strong exchanges. Tenryu's punches even don't get much use as Kawada is still able to truck along and hurl his own signature spots right back. Fujiwara/Hansen is incredible; just the way Hansen sells the Fuji headbutts by just slumping over and not even trying to back-bump, seeing the two scrap and brawl for every inch of advantage possible is great. Hansen sells everything as laboured and earned, probably because it was very laboured and very earned due to his back injuries making him almost incapable of doing much of anything. Shinzaki's ok. I'm never a huge fan of the guy and his role here seemed to be mostly the fall guy given Hansen and Tenryu DEFINITELY aren't taking a fall here, so he has to endure a beating from Kea, then Kawada, then a few kicks and powerbomb later and the match is all up and done. This match never broke any ground for me, but it's full of some top-notch action and everyone being at the top of their game....well Hansen wasn't, but even a no-back 50+ Hansen delivers well for what this needed. Kea looked smooth as butter and really seems to be getting up there in stature and popularity as his push and name-change are all in near full force. All in all, a solid enough showing. RANK: Good Masanobu Fuchi v Nobutaka Araya (26.08.2000) Fuchi is the undercarder from hell and he definitely wants you to know it given this current streak of matches where he's dominating and getting win streaks. I would've actually liked to have seen this match in full given this is Araya's first appearance on-camera and he's a reasonably sound worker, sadly we get yet another highlight reel of Fuchi jobbing out the WAR dude with his signature spots and big meaty backdrop. It is what it is, I suppose. RANK: Forgettable Damien 666, Halloween & Super Parka v Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda (same day) Super short match that's also cut up into a few minutes of footage. The M2K guys come down on their very menacing scooters and seem to work the traditional rudo style of the time, lots of double/triple team antics and dirty tactics to keep control. Even when 666 tries to do stuff the trio are just way too organised and brutal for any momentum to be built up for the lucha lads so they mostly get isolated and controlled. The finish is a bit wonky as Damien is pinned off a clearly sandbagged brainbuster (he provides zero give for the move and as such, it purposely looks like shit) while Parka just stands in the background doing absolutely fuck-all to break the pin apart from a half hearted leap to the apron. Not much to judge this on, but it seemed to be pretty by the numbers all things considered. RANK: Decent Shigeo Okumura & The Cedman v Taiyo Kea & Yuto Aijima (same day) Nothing says great booking like getting over your next potential big main eventer by pairing him up with your opener punching bag, Cedman, and the second worst wrestler of the roster. Thankfully the gods smiled because this was NOT shown in full, far from it, they just show some of the highlights from the match like Kea getting in a strike exchange with Okumura and kicking Ced's ass around the block. We finish up with a typical Kea Hawaiian Crusher for the pin and it's all over. RANK: ??? Johnny Smith v Toshiaki Kawada (same day) This was seemingly unfilmed despite being a Korakuen Hall show, so all we get are scant highlights from a ringside camera; a shame because a match between these two could've been pretty good all things considered had they went all out like Smith did with the Kobashi match. All we really get ultimately is Smith kicking out of a big Kawada powerbomb for no real reason before Smith taps out to what is pretty much just a meaner-looking Misawa face-crank (but noticeably not his Stretch Plum?) probably innovated from Fujiwara given he would snap this one up for matches and training videos. A shame it's cut but hey, what can you do? RANK: ??? Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen v Mike Barton & Steve Williams (same day) This also got scant footage with about a few instances left for the end and some struggling, ultimately having Barton job out to not even a definitive big finish, but instead a regular Tenryu lariat. I know, a Tenryu lariat is hardly "regular" but still this was pretty extreme lol. Poor guy. RANK: ??? Damien 666, Halloween & Super Calo v Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda (29.08.2000) Yet another match between these six and it's basically a house show anyway so this was half-assed to hell and back. The start is cool with M2K's scooters getting stolen and used by the lucha guys (well "used" is a nice term because man did they struggle). We cut to Calo doing a fancy top rope scissor takedown that almost takes Suzumu's head off because he rolls for it incorrectly before we get a cool spot where Calo teases a dive, opponent moves away, and then Calo hits them from the apron instead lol. Damien hits a nice Kinniku Buster and attempts a pin, but everyone gets inside the ring for a huge brawl to break that up. M2K take over with some heel antics by having the ref distracted to bonk 666 with a chair, stunning him for a M Mochizuki running Pele kick off the ropes and a diving elbow by Kanda to steal yet another win. This seemed solid enough for a match despite the obvious conditions making it hard to judge, I think I'll say it's still pretty average for a spotshow though. RANK: Decent Genichiro Tenryu, Jinsei Shinzaki & Toshiaki Kawada v Johnny Smith, Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea (same day) This was cut to around about a few instances of definitive footage, mostly highlights and whatever. This is intended to build up Kawada/Williams against Hansen/Tenryu for the impending main event showing, so what is left is more or less Hansen battling against the two and their stiff strikes, Kea also getting some action in against Kawada, and Shinzaki doing a amazing flip-bump for a Hansen Western Lariat, easily the best I've seen all year out of the guy so far. It's a shame that Shinzaki is once again drawn up to job for the natives but hey, I'd take this over 20 minute Cedman/Barton showings. RANK: ??? Masanobu Fuchi vs. Shigeo Okumura III (01.09.2000) A rematch between these two could've been cool, but it's cut up again into a few bits that sadly just isn't enough to put any sort of rating on it. It was cool to see some brawling on the outside as Fuchi brought the aggression by throwing Okumura out of the ring, with the opponent bumping pretty well all things considered. Fuchi catches the guy with a backdrop, and it's all over before you can blink. RANK: ??? Damien 666, Halloween & Super Parka v Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda II (same day) Another six-man? Yep, this feud keeps on trucking. It's fun enough to have just a small tiny bit of footage committed to it in the first place. Susumu does some cool stuff on Damien before we get the combined M2K and finish out of Kanda via the elbow drop, not very original compared to the last match shown smh. Still, it's a match, it's apart of the build, so you can't really diss it. RANK: Forgettable Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen v Johnny Smith & Nobutaka Araya (same day) As a final build for the impending Kawada/Williams vs Tenryu/Hansen match, we get the older pair jobbing out some fairly hapless victims for a fairly short semi-main match all things considered, only clocking in at around about 10 minutes. The match is cut much less than that, so you can imagine this isn't much worth discussing. Araya is a great bumper and seller so he gets the blunt of the beatings to the powerhouse duo, ending after Hansen hits a uncharacteristically weak Western Lariat to finish. Not much to judge, but seemed to be pretty by the numbers by the reactions. It's a house-show, so this is very much expected. RANK: Forgettable Jinsei Shinzaki, Taiyo Kea & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mike Barton, Steve Williams & The Cedman (same day) Oh god Cedman for 20 minutes lol, thank the lord this is 99% cut down to mostly Kawada/Williams highlights to build to the big main event. Poor Barton does more bumping around with Kawada kicks (don't they know he's going to be in the finals of a Champion Carnival with Muto in the next year and a half???) and then Kea takes his sweet time setting up a Hawaiian Crusher to job the dude out. I mean comparing the two matches, I think beating Barton is a tad more impressive than a random WAR indie guy, but sure I guess. RANK: ??? Halloween v Super Calo v Super Parka (02.09.2000) All Japan's flirtation with lucha stuff continues with a fairly enjoyable if hollow showing. The crowd was into it though, so I guess that's at least something done. Halloween and Parka teamed up for a good portion before Hallo tried to sneak a win with a small package, and then it was a free for all basically. Super Parka was quite old here, but he held up well despite some slip-ups. For a nothing lucha spot-show with zero real work it was decent, with the three keeping a good pace as they all worked together on spots happily and/or stood around until the next bit to happen. The only real spots that got me was OG Parka doing a dive to the outside near 50 years old, and the finish, which had Calo's top rope frankensteiner get turned into a powerbomb mid-air by Halloween for the pin. If you like these kind of spotshows, great! I don't really care for them though, so bar the spots mentioned this was just something to turn your brain off at. RANK: Decent Damien 666 v Sabu (same day) This was pretty bleh. In all fairness the two have a fun Sabu-paced match, with Damien trying to do his copying shtick and getting wrecked for it. Sabu does a cool jumping Frankensteiner off the top ropes, but bar that you could tell he was hurt here: he had tape around his jawline (like his entire jaw, not sure what happened there) and he seemingly hurts his arm (or hurt it pre-match) as he neglects to use it for most of the duration and seems to have issues with it. There's zero psychology: Damien takes a tornado DDT into a pair of chairs and not only kicks out sharp at the count of one but then almost immediately beats up Sabu with forearms seconds later: so this was another spotshow basically. Sabu seemed grumpy and he didn't really think much of Damien as he barely sold for the guy, him botching a Muto-style moonsault by smashing into his back probably definitely didn't help either. The finish seems to be improvised as Sabu does a regular Triple Jump into leg-drop, but then complains about his back hurting and then quickly pins Damien to end things quick. All in all a pretty nothing match, if you like Damien's shtick then this might be worth watching for the sheer novelty value. RANK: Decent CIMA, Sumo Dandy Fuji & SUWA v Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda (same day) This is a typical crazy Toryumon trios pace, so a ton of spots at a fast pace. Don Fuji doing his silly sumo shtick was pretty funny though, easily one of the highlights of this entire thing. But yeah, lots of spots and....lots of spots indeed. Describing it in detail would've taken ten years given there's so much shit flying by there's really no time to describe it before there's at least been five more sequences done, so that's a losing battle. M2K were established as being heels and not as impressive as the other trio, having to use cheating antics to get their way more often than not. It's quite funny though because despite them being heels we've also got SUWA just being a huge scumbag despite being paired with the babyfaces, so it's super jarring. Some stuff is a little bit too contrived for my liking where it's basically just in your face spot set-up without even trying to disguise that fact, however for the most part they managed to pace this well and most of what we ended up seeing was executed to near perfection once they managed to set it up. The finish with Fuji going nuts with his Jr-Sumo spots was great and put him over really well before M2K bonk him with the infamous scooter and he gets dropped with a slick axe kick and Dragon Suplex by Mas Mochizuki for the pin. Probably the best match of the night action-wise, you really couldn't top this if you tried. Pure fun. RANK: Good Jinsei Shinzaki, Mohammed Yone & Taiyo Kea v Johnny Smith, Mike Barton & The Cedman (same day) Yep, this is just bleh. The only big pointers were Yone showing up (which is weird because he'd be a NOAH guy very soon) and Cedman stinking stuff up some more. He looks like Yoshinari Ogawa but taller and on roids, sadly without much of the talent though and you quickly realise he's pretty hopeless here. This felt average for the most part bar a fun Smith/Shinzaki exchange: Kea with his new moniker looked real sharp and worked smoothly in the ring; he is able to weather the storm that Barton and co put him under with a good few near falls, and gets a fiery chop exchange over with the crowd, being a sturdy piece of the match. Yone comes in to essentially job, but lands some good knee drops and a top rope leg drop for a near fall before Barton catches one of his kicks, answers with a gut punch, and finishes with his powerbomb. All in all, a fairly average six-man with the only highlights being Shinzaki, Smith, and Kea. Everyone else is on the side and not really doing a whole lot as a result, so what we get is a fairly so-so showing with occasional good bits, but mostly drifting away into mediocrity. RANK: Forgettable Masahiro Chono v Masanobu Fuchi (same day) Chono coming in to wrestle this in casual shirt and clothes might bug some out, but I liked the touch: he's has been looking down at Fuchi all this time with this little NJPW/AJPW feud, you really think he's coming in here to wrestle seriously by going down to Fuchi's level? Dude is here to disrespect this old timer first and foremost, and that's how he gets caught with a early backdrop and very big cheers as he tries to rake the eyes and pays for it with a Misawa-style headcrank to torment the guy further. Now, that's a great start, yet sadly the match suffers from a few issues, namely that Chono wrestling-wise is shoddy and so they keep away from that as much as possible with a 4-minute (yes, 4 whole minutes and all) stalling sequence of him teasing leaving the match altogether before then returning and throwing cheap shots; this already deflates the crowd slightly. This then leads to a long and boring punch/kick control segment where they brawl, the ref moans at the rule bending, Chono gets in his face and cheats more, repeat etc. It was rather dull and not really much happens to warrant this going as long as it does. The crowd does get loud for the occasional Fuchi strike or comeback, but then Chono just takes back control and it's back to the boring pace again. The occasional big moment when Fuchi got stuff in was fun, and seeing Chono in danger was definitely something that the match needed to be done to work, everything still feels like it's moving fairly slow. There's no real moment where you feel like the guy will tangibly lose the match and as a result Fuchi's work seems more or less supercilious. It's cool to see Fuchi work as a underdog babyface; he does a fairly solid job at it as well, rather surprisingly given his prior decade of not really doing so. The finish has Chono inevitably go over with a low blow and despite two STF attempts he can't make Fuchi submit and so has to break him down with Kenka Kicks instead until he finally gets the pin. This could've been a great sub-10 scrap, but sadly I had to instead endure a boring Chono control sequence where nothing of worth happened in-between the good Fuchi bursts of action. Way, way too long, which combined with the inevitability of the winner just drags this way down for me. I don't think it's a issue of Fuchi doing any aspect of this wrong, it's more an issue of not being able to build proper off the mountain these two dug up; maybe that's just Chono being his usual lazy self. I do also feel like this and the Kawada match do show that while Fuchi is a solid workhouse, there is a.....limit to how good he can be, especially when trying to step to levels of big star charisma lads. This seemed a tad out of his ballpark. RANK: Decent Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen v Steve Williams & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Stan's final main event outing is a symbolic outing with his old pal Tenryu against their new incarnations in Steve Williams (the man who took over for Hansen) and Kawada (who took over stylistically for Tenryu). The first half has some spirited moments, but veers too much into aimless Hansen "work the lariat arm" filler and rest holds, though Tenryu and Kawada especially try to make these seem as epic as possible as a task. Williams bumps like a trooper for Hansen starting off, but Hansen himself spends most of this on the backend to then put over Kawada. Hansen is pretty much done at this point physically; even his usual limited routine from the late 90's is something he clearly struggles to do due to the discomfort his back issues were giving him by this point, so Tenryu has to carry the workrate for the pair in terms of actual moves and whatnot. Him and Kawada have a predictably fun routine as they hit each other hard, battle over who can throw bombs, and generally have a good pace between the two. Tenryu does a apron brainbuster that was messy as shit. Williams butts in to let Kawada take back control, as well as landing a smooth Doctor Bomb of his own. Kawada felt super confident as he ran over Tenryu with his usual assortment of bombs, even being able to brave though his punches to get in more kicks. Hansen starts to sneak in when Williams is trying to finish the job, eating up strikes to allow Tenryu time to recover. We also get probably the worst lariat in All-Japan history as Williams (THE Steve Williams in case you've forgot) meekly runs to Tenryu and basically taps him with his arm to knock him down. Dead serious, this looked terrible lol. They then repeat this shortly after with Tenryu somehow winning out with a equally shitty one? Wtf? How are these two sucking so badly at this? Something was definitely in the water there. Hansen primes the arm for the Western Lariat but the two do sloppy strikes until Williams summons the last of his energy to do a huge Doctor Bomb on his opponent. Tenryu does his classic sumo-slaps to get him out of the ring so him and Hansen can double team and take out Kawada, namely with a lethargic Western Lariat. Williams gets bullied with a good few signature spots (including a second-rope elbow and a crappy Hansen powerbomb) before a combo of the Tenryu Enzuigiri and another Western Lariat get the win. Here's the main issue: Williams and Hansen gas out hard by the halfway mark (Hansen so badly he was still huffing and puffing post-match to the point that he couldn't even make words) and so the two get super sloppy because, well, they just aren't really built for these kind of long-style bouts All Japan were known for. Hansen can't do a whole lot anyway and him being pushed here to the forefront means he just didn't look good most of the time despite his selling and general experience aiding him massively. Kawada and Tenryu do better, but we don't get anything remarkably unique that you can't see in more detail and frankly miles better elsewhere. While this does have some enjoyable moments (alongside the general coolness factor of the four of them just slugging it out) there's also a lot of frankly sub-par stuff that dragged this down, mostly due to poor conditioning. This drew big numbers as a event; it, however, was easy to see that the AJPW crew were hurting, and this was merely the beginning of a downturn they'd never truly recover from. RANK: Decent Giant Kimala, Gran Naniwa & TARU v Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda (14.10.2000) This has to be the most 2000's AJPW 6-man I've ever seen lol. TARU, Kimala, Naniwa, and a bunch of Toryumon lads all just thrown into a pot in Korakuen and made to wrestle. Kimala is wearing his singlet he used with Gary Albright back in 98 so you know he means business, throwing on headbutts, chops, and a Dragon Sleeper? Fu-Ten Kimala when? Sadly never. TARU has looked and worked the same since forever, though he's a bit more agile than usual. This was a weird one because whenever TARU or Naniwa were in this was basically just business as usual where everyone just went from sequence to sequence with no real attempt to articulate any sort of psychology or selling beyond rudos and good guys, but then Kimala would enter and then this would just change pace into him doing 80's nerve pinches and throwing around everyone. To be fair to the guy he still landed his signature spots well and did his job pretty well, so you can't truly complain a whole lot about him just chilling here. All in all a decent showing; nothing really that interesting match-wise beyond a big old spotfest, but it's a fucking Giant Kimala/Toryumon crossover, logic isn't on the table here. RANK: Good Johnny Smith v Shiro Koshinaka (same day) Contender for the worst match out of this entire Deep Dive? I'd sure say so. We're now at the point where I have to talk about Shiro Koshinaka's All-Japan run, and this is the point where I also have to warn you to not do what I did because all of his matches suck ass. I'm not sure how given Koshi will do just fine afterwards, it's just for some strange reason he just had zero effort in the tank for anything to do with AJPW in the slightest. Perhaps he thought the promotion was going to die anyway and just wanted to get it over with. These two are also contending for the chance to get the Triple Crown, which has been vacated since Kobashi left the company; yep, Johnny Smith was a contender for a Triple Crown once against a guy who hadn't even wrestled in the company since the mid 80's. Rough times. The other matches included around this time will mostly be of this same tournament as well. Both men exchange a lot of rest holds and basically wrestle like they'd do in the 70's for the most part, only this isn't the good 70's stuff where it seems like there's a tangible struggle or a pace made with these, it just feels like they have absolutely zero ideas and just want to hang around on the mat. This only changes right at the end with a elbow drop by Smith and a diving hip attack by Koshinaka, followed up by a another hip attack and a powerbomb for the three. Painfully boring and slow: I'd give the technical work a pass if it meant anything or went anywhere but it didn't, it's just all rest holds to follow rest holds. Maybe there's a dramatic plot I didn't see in the clipped 3 or 4 minutes missing, but this was rough to get through in the first place. Koshinaka looks terrible, Smith wasn't exactly doing much to aid with that given he basically just acted like a complete ragdoll for Koshi to bang his ass into until he lost. I mean I wouldn't be happy jobbing after a decade+ of loyalty while some random Jr gets to beat me purely off his name-value alone, but still..... RANK: Forgettable Steve Williams v Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Five or so years ago this would've been a wonder of a match. Things have changed, however, and these two simply aren't the same as they once were. These two have some good intensity from the start: Williams slaps Kawada very early on and they stare daggers into each other before going into a slap fight which Kawada edges out thanks to his kicks. Williams recognises the threat and immediately starts to work over said legs to take away his advantage. When Kawada tries to get up, he gets blasted with closed fist strikes and chops to cut him down. The gameplan is to obviously keep Kawada down and work him on the mat not allowing him to pull out any of his signature bombastic offence, something Williams sticks to until he's confident he can hit his big plays. This is remarkably smart from a guy who's best matches were known for just being him steamrolling people and dropping them on his head, and it does show; ever so slightly; that he's threatened by Kawada's reputation. There's a great selling bit as per standard by Kawada that has him just crumble to the mat after getting socked in the face: looked brutal. He also gets over the danger of the Backdrop Driver by doing anything to get out of it, trying rope breaks and back-elbows as soon as it gets attempted and refusing to give him any headroom to measure it up. Eventually Kawada escapes out of one too many of these attempts and lands multiple Gamengiri shots to take him out of the tournament with a three count, not even needing a powerbomb to finish the job. By far not the best match these two have had together: it was obvious that both men had gone down a couple of levels since they last met: but it's a intense affair that has some close calls and some great strikes and played perfectly with the fact that these two knew the other so very well. Kawada really gets over some close calls and is in general a super solid talent here with his strikes. Williams is a lot slower now and can't really do a ton beyond strikes and his big power moves, as I've said before that's not really a bad thing given it just makes his more lumbering presence something to really pay attention to as opposed to him flinging himself all over the place. RANK: Good Jinsei Shinzaki v Stan Hansen (16.10.2000) Clipped a decent chunk: this shows maybe 3 minutes of the original 14 minute bout. Hansen gets his lariat arm worked over (because EVERY Hansen match is paced around this since the 70's) and while Hansen tries to get one of those off at points, Shinzaki is determined to keep him from landing it as he knows it'll end the match and keeps throwing him in armbars. As you can imagine, this is not exactly the most engaging format for a match and certainly wasn't very good either. Finish has Hansen block a Pele kick by Shinzaki and hit a surprise lariat for the three count. Barely a match to talk about here, and Hansen as we'd see in the Tenryu bout was struggling to do a lot in the ring by this point (even more so than the Baba/Tsuruta nostalgia tag Hansen of the late 90's) so I'm not really annoyed about not seeing the rest of the match as it was probably a lot of rest holds and heatless arm work. Not very good beyond the lariat at the end. RANK: Forgettable Genichiro Tenryu vs. Mike Barton (18.10.2000) Clipped drastically. Barton scores a gut punch and goes for a weird knee drop, but he lands on Tenryu like a regular splash? Idk. Tenryu would eventually score the win with a lariat to next to zero heat, basically just silence. Maybe it's better that this wasn't shown as the crowd were super not into it, even for the finish, probably because they clearly know that Mike Barton vs Genichiro Tenryu is not as interesting as Tenryu vs Kawada, making the winner painfully obvious. Maybe just a hunch. RANK: ??? ========== end of part 2 It probably wasn't, but those two minutes were so epic that I had to give Smith his due, especially given he wasn't exactly doing a whole lot else in 2000 that was that outstanding. Tag League stuff from my first watch was mostly clipped bad, but there's some real entertaining gems in there including some amazing Tenryu/Fujiwara antics alongside Araya getting his first big moments in the company, so it's definitely worth the trouble