I've decided that I want to compile a list of the best matches centered around the participants beating the holy hell out of each other. I don't mean brawls or deathmatches, I mean straight wrestling matches centered around stiff strikes with stuff like matwork kept to a minimum. Off the top of my head, I'd say that Hansen/Kawada and Vader/Takada would certainly fit the bill. What else? Bonus points for matches without endless strike exchanges because I hate that shit.

Cena vs Lesnar?

 

Although technically that was Extreme Rules I guess.

Kandori vs. Hokuto is always the match I think of.

Regal vs. Finlay from Uncensored '96 comes to mind. Oh yeah and Hashimoto vs. Tenryu from the '98 G-1.

2/94 Hashimoto/Tenryu jumps to mind right away. Maybe the most brutal liver kick ever delivered.

May 1 1986

Akira Maeda vs Tatsumi Fujinami UWF vs NJPW

 

Actually the entire card from May 1 1986 with UWF vs NJPW

Both of the Samoa Joe/AJ Styles TNA PPV matches in 2005.

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jun Akiyama from the 1995 Champions Carnival

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue from the 1995 Champions Carnival

Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher from IWA.

This might seem kind of odd, and might not even be entirely what you are going for, but the first match I thought of was the Hennig v. Hansen sprint/war from the Showboat

Flair vs. Garvin

Hotta vs. Kong from January 1994 was the first one that popped in my mind.

I haven't watched this one since the Smarkschoice poll days but just to throw in a match that probably nobody else is thinking about, MS-1 vs. El Faraon was pretty wild.

I'm assuming you are talking about their 1992 match? Is that online somewhere? I've seen Morgan vs. Faraon some time ago and it made me fall in love with lucha.

 

On topic, first thing that always pops into my mind is the Nakano/Funaki match from 1989. Nothing says all-out asskicking like that bout, in my book. But there's too many to mention.

I'm assuming you are talking about their 1992 match? Is that online somewhere? I've seen Morgan vs. Faraon some time ago and it made me fall in love with lucha.

 

On topic, first thing that always pops into my mind is the Nakano/Funaki match from 1989. Nothing says all-out asskicking like that bout, in my book. But there's too many to mention.

Yes, it's the 1992 match. I am in China so youtube is blocked but I'm pretty sure it's there. Morgan vs Faraon was awesome.

I am in China so youtube is blocked but I'm pretty sure it's there. Morgan vs Faraon was awesome.

Didn't piratebay's browser fix that issue?

I never heard about that browser. I have my own VPN and two other different methods to access blocked sites but they all route through the US, UK or Japan so they are not fast enough for youtube. Every host seems to be different and sometimes solution A doesn't work and you have to try B, which had never worked for you before. It's annoying because other than blogs, porn, file sharing and social media websites the Chinese government seems to block a lot of other websites for no apparent reason.

I just read about the PirateBrowser, which I knew under another name (Tor Browser/Vidalia). It doesn't work in China (at least for MAC OSX), the directory of available proxies seems to be blocked. These guys are smart let me tell you.

Always like Vader vs. Hansen

Jun Akiyama vs Katsuyori Shibata from Wrestle-1 in 2005

Vader vs Shamrock in portions. They both seemed to get a little carried away.

Pretty much all the Vader (Bull Power) vs Otto Wanz matches are like this.

Pretty much all the Vader matches are like this.

Fixed for accuracy.

Pretty much any Ishikawa vs. Ikeda -- 8/29/99, 4/24/05, 7/26/08 six-man, take your pick.

 

The Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger stuff from the first UWF featured some great violence.

 

Really, the whole New Japan vs. WAR feud.

 

Just from recent lucha viewing, the Herodes vs. Tony Salazar match from 3/2/84 featured some awesome ass kicking.

Lightning Kid vs Wellington Wilkins from the PWA should get a mention.

The first Jerry Lawler vs Snowman match from 1990 should be mentioned. UWFI Lawler was awesome.

Thanks for the input, everyone. Of the matches mentioned, Finlay/Regal, Kong/Hotta, and Hash/Tenryu from the 98 G1 come closest to what I had in mind. I'd also go with Hash/Yamazaki from the 98 G1 and Ikeda/Otsuka from 4/26/99.