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Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction This is a kinda/sorta continuation of my AJPW series from 1995 all the way to the start of 2000, mostly covering the weird/interesting matches that others may have overlooked or simply not known about from surface viewing. I was comfortable with ranking that stuff because I had pretty good experience watching and grading that material, but AJPW in 2000 was WAY different in scope so I really wanted to just watch every single thing possible from those extremely rough 6 months when nearly all of the roster had left and guys like Wolf Hawkfield and Giant Kimala were left to keep the boat floating. This is a era that historically has been spoken of as the company's lowest ever point and one which almost killed it stone dead. Money-wise this is true, but was it really THAT bad in terms of match quality? I'm going to try to find out the answer. This will involve reviews for pretty much every All-Japan match between the first event (the first Super Power Series, which took place on the first of July) to the end of the year. Some have so little footage on them (like legit sub-30 seconds) that reviewing them would be a waste of time, but I'll try to fit in as much as humanly possible regardless. I'll be generally ranking them like this: 1. Great (MOTYC/highlight of project) 2. Good (worth watching) 3. Decent (average quality generally, not a must-watch) 4. Forgettable (don't watch) This is more of a formality so anyone who's skimming these can get a quick synopsis of what to watch and not to watch without having to read through paragraphs. Like with any ranking system this isn't really anything refined, so always try to make your own mind up on a match if you are really that curious about it. ======================= Giant Kimala v Scorpio (01.07.2000) At least 2 Cold Scorpio is still getting paychecks while AJPW burns, lol. This match really isn't that interesting for what's left of it, which is only a couple of minutes. It's a bit of a shame given Kimala did have a legitimately really fun match with Rob Van Dam a couple of years back and this could've been close to that had this been given more attention. It didn't, so erm, this is what it is. Scorpio hits the moonsault but Kimala gets out of the way and hits a running splash for the three count. Impossible to tell if this was good or not, so I'm just going to leave it as inconclusive. RANK: ??? Maunakea Mossman v Yuto Aijima (same day) Kea is the real winner out of everyone on this first event. He's the only fairly big name alongside Kawada/Fuchi to stay loyal and as such, he's gonna be rewarded with a huge push moving forward. This match really isn't a indicator of that though as it's against Yuto Aijima, a really quite crappy worker who inexplicably will end up working pretty much everywhere until getting a retirement match against the likes of Jun Akiyama, Akitoshi Saito, etc. I don't know how he got to that from this, but credit to him for grinding out a career from pretty much nothing. This was essentially a semi-squash as it went three minutes and Yuto more or less got some weak offence in before Mossman ate his lariat and finished him with some kicks + Hawaiian Crunch. Pretty nothing match. RANK: Forgettable Jinsei Shinzaki & Johnny Smith v Shigeo Okumura & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (same day) Oof the growing pains hurt in this one. This is one of the first shows without the Pillars or basically 98% of the roster, who erm, these are who's left, a bunch of freelancers and some occasional AJPW guys. We only get around about four to five minutes of this on tape and what we do end up seeing is pretty standard. Shinzaki still does all of his spots bit for bit like you'd expect as Okumura jobs his heart out for everyone, eventually falling to the Gokuraku-Gatame submission after two powerbombs off Shinzaki to boot. Nothing to really rank here beyond the footage left over, not enough for a proper rating sadly. Smith and Fujiwara not even getting a look-in bar some occasional brawling is rather unfortunate. RANK: ??? Masanobu Fuchi v Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Kawada comes into this one with a "Fight for Tomorrow" shirt on, so you know shit is real. I always seen this as a middle finger to what NOAH were promising. NOAH was offering this huge, high-budget high-production wrestling, a continuation of the excesses of Kings Road that Misawa had spearheaded during the 90's. In response, these two went out and wrestled a minimalistic, hard-hitting yet simple wrestling match all about Fuchi as the only remaining core from the Baba-era 70's against the next generation. Fuchi is obviously never going to win this and I think he knows he can't, so he drags this down to the only place where that might change: the mat. In a way this is them showing that the days of old (Fuchi's 70's style mat-wangling) simply will not cut it anymore in this new AJPW: they've moved on from the past, they don't need what the Pillars were building at this point. Fuchi tries to invoke the past further more by throwing cheap shots and trying to bully the guy like in those early 90's Tsuruta tags; Kawada's not that guy anymore though. He's not the punching bag that had to struggle in New Gen tags, he's THE guy now and he's not taking any shit from this asshole, so any attempt to skirt the rules gets answered with some pretty good aggression by Kawada. You really feel like Fuchi's whole gameplan has been utterly exposed in the first five minutes and now all he can really do is take the beating that he's had coming to him for a good while. Now as much as I like Fuchi, he never quite is able to get those peak reactions: maybe that's to do with the crowd, exposed to him mostly though his status as a undercarder/Baba six-man tag guy in the mid to late 90's, maybe that's just Fuchi's ring work. Either way, he's not quite got the chops to get this to a fever pitch, something the match really needed. Both men are still great; but there's that missing X-factor to this that just bugs me out when I'm trying to get into it. Kawada's shoot-style flirtations continue with lots of cross-armbreakers, rear naked chokes, etc. It makes for a more fleshed out Dangerous K as opposed to the more generic kick-happy version he can at times snooze into being. The two wanted to show that AJPW's hierarchy of talent was still a thing post-Pillar era and, well, they accomplished that pretty well I'd say. Wild Kawada is put over THIS much yet will only hold the Triple Crown once proper three years later. This is by far one of the better matches of the year and pretty much a must-watch for the era despite lacking that crowd heat to really make it special. Regardless of how weird it seems, this match was essential to establish Dangerous K as the ace and to redefine Fuchi from his earlier work. RANK: Good Masanobu Fuchi v Shigeo Okumura (02.07.2000) Shigeo Okumura! More known for his politicking in CMLL as a agent and talent these days, back here Okumura's just a undercarder that'll do not a whole lot but job in his years in AJPW. Fuchi's chest is still red raw from the beating yesterday by Mr K but he's all up to get the new guys over anyway, what a nice chap. We only get a few minutes of this though so it's mostly Okumura in control until Fuchi manages to impressively counter the guy by catching his arm for a inverted double wrist lock, making him tap-out pretty easily. Not much to say about this bar it being a enjoyable Fuchi opener. RANK: Decent Giant Kimala v Wolf Hawkfield (same day) Clipped slightly: we only see five minutes of this bout in action. Hawkfield scores a top rope shoulder press and works over Kimala until he counters with a running neckbreaker and a rolling senton. He tries to go for the three but Hawkfield is able to kick out, and then counters him when he tries to go to the top rope for some reason. Another top rope move in the form of a generic splash finishes things off. Not the most eventful and barely a match in of itself, complete filler. Kimala's just not cooking with much by this point. RANK: Forgettable Jinsei Shinzaki v Scorpio (same day) Now HERE'S a match worth talking about, and we thankfully get a few minutes to showcase the two. Scorpio looks pretty damn young when you consider what he'll look like in just a few years, but his apparent biggest vice (crack cocaine!) probably had something to do with that. As much as you might want to see a Shinzaki/Scorpio matchup as this really cool matchup between two guys with very innovative high-spots and tricks, sadly this was not it. Scorpio was overshooting on his big spots and Shinzaki was making him look like shit by kicking out of his moonsault at 1 and generally not being very cooperative. Scorpio immediately makes him take a proper 2-count right after for that as a dig. They also botched what I think was supposed to be a Frankensteiner counter to Scorpio's own powerbomb as Shinzaki shifts his weight wrong and they end up badly crumpling as a result. Shinzaki basically just says "fuck that" and rather than repeating the spot he just does his finish for the win. This was....pretty bad, which is crazy to say when you have two typically really reliable workers going at it. Maybe it was the fact they'd never faced off before, maybe it's a language barrier, maybe it was just bad luck. Either way, this wasn't good, sadly. RANK: Forgettable Johnny Smith v Steve Williams (same day) Clipped to be about nine minutes long. Smith has always been known as a fairly mediocre to decent worker as a guy trying to cash in on the British boom in Japan with Davey Boy and Dynamite Kid: he's not exactly amazing, especially now that he's getting on a bit and isn't far from retirement, even if he is fairly reliable in his role. Williams is a few steps from what he was at the start of the 90's and with Gordy. Smith does turn on the gas a bit with a top rope dropkick and a tornado DDT but a sloppy neckbreaker botch doesn't help any. Williams takes over and does a bunch of power moves that look fairly fine. Smith blocks the big Oklahoma Stampede and smartly holds on to his opponent's leg to evade the Doctor Bomb, but Williams just smacks him across the head and smashes him with a backdrop driver anyway for the three. These guys don't work the best together and there are some noticeable botches but this was perfectly suitable for a regular bout, no real complaints. RANK: Decent George Hines & Mike Barton v Maunakea Mossman & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Cut to around about 6 minutes. Tenryu has been allowed back into All Japan after more than a decade of Baba-induced exile. The seal has been opened, the curse has been lifted. Sadly the negative Karma for this is massive: having George Hines and Mike Barton be a threat to the ace of the company...maybe not worth it in that case. This is also cursed in other ways that we'll talk about very soon here. The action for this was mostly by the numbers, with Kawada being the big dog that Hines and co have to double team to put down, namely with fairly decent work on their part as a powerhouse duo with some tricks in their bag, Hines is quick on his feet and all that. Anyway, the pace is solid, everyone is moving around well, Mossman is slowly getting better and better with every match....and then the finish goes wrong. Kawada goes for his typical Gamengiri to the back of the head and this gets the three count on Hines: it's a bit stiff but hey, that's generally how he does it. Kawada seems a bit surprised by the fact that this is a three count, and even slaps him on the chest afterwards, almost to see if he's awake or not. He's not. Kawada immediately knows Hines is out and the guys come in to make sure he's ok. Kawada even stays long after until Hines gets dragged out by about three guys holding him. So yeah, AJPW is in the pits AND they keep messing up matches! Not a great start. Anyway, from what I seen this was relatively solid for a main event, even if Hines and Barton being at this level is very forced and not at all natural. It's the best they can do without guys like Tenryu, and yeah, they REALLY needed that to change because this was not gonna be enough. RANK: Decent Scorpio v SHINOBI (09.07.2000) Scorpio fights SHINOBI, known for..... well nothing really, he's basically just a indie/lucha undercarder with some random appearances here and there. His match is so forgettable that we skip everything up to the end, which is Scorpio hitting a moonsault and 450 splash for the win. Nothing to say about this one: too short to judge, especially with only a minute of footage. RANK: ??? Jinsei Shinzaki v Yuto Aijima (same day) Shinzaki goes up against Aijima, who was hyped up in prior showcases as a big deal. I think management legitimately did think he'd be a get for them in the long-run with his rugged appearance and admittedly decent lariat, but he just seems like a bit of a bad prospect here. Shinzaki dominates Aijima for the most part, gives him no room to do anything, gets all of his spots in, and then makes him tap out with a modified Red Ink submission. Basically just a squash match but Shinzaki looked great here so I'll give it a bonus based on that alone. RANK: Decent Johnny Smith & Yuki Ishikawa v Masanobu Fuchi & Shigeo Okumura (same day) We miss out on nearly 15 minutes of potential awesome Ishikawa/Fuchi action due to clipping, ugh. We still get a fragment of that in what's left though, with the two battling on the mat as Fuchi mostly can't handle the snappiness and speed of his younger opponent. Johnny Smith does his typical dropkick/kip-up/lariat, but gets caught with a back suplex by Fuchi in a fun alternation of his usual routine. It was cool that they were trying to at least semi-push Okumura as he beat up on Smith for a minute or so with some generic but completely competent offence. He tries for his own top rope dropkick but Smith's been spamming that move for 10+ years now so he definitely knows how to dodge it as well. He beats on Oku with a impressive piledriver into his typically weird bad British Fall: takes way, way too long to do and generally doesn't look that impressive (especially when guys like CM Punk were doing it where it looked even worse somehow) but that's the finish, amazingly. This seemed to be solid but with so much cut, it's hard to judge as anything more than average despite having some pretty nice changes in the formula for these kind of undercard matchups. RANK: Decent Maunakea Mossman & Toshiaki Kawada v Mohammed Yone & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (same day) PWFG vs AJPW? Sort of? It's a bit late for that. We got about 10 minutes of this left and hey, it's actually pretty good! Fujiwara and Kawada do some pseudo-shoot style grappling (alongside Fuji just laughing off K's kicks while sticking on a double wrist lock and socking him in the face with a punch, which was funny) we get some good heat between the two as well that's pretty solid, with Fuji managing to pull Kawada from his usual comfort zone in places. Yone is mostly the whipping boy as the AJPW faithful focus on him and.....yeah it's pretty much just that with some minor Fujiwara interactions as Mossman just goes though all of his spots, hits the Hawaiian Crusher and wins, basically. It's a clear and focused attempt to get Mossman as over as humanly possible as a new star going forward, something that will become very obvious as the year goes forward. Again, the clipping is pretty harsh here and we do miss out on a lot of the interactions that I think would've made this a little bit better than what we seen. I mean even Yone, who I historically just super dislike looked fine here with his leaner look and focus on strikes instead of mindless lariats and bad heavyweight shtick. It's a knowing look into AJPW barely staying afloat and what they were trying to do to fix that; even if it wasn't perfect, these sort of slapdash matches could at times be real solid when you had the proper pieces in place. RANK: Good Ryuji Hijikata v Shigeo Okumura (11.07.2000) Cut down massively to a few minutes! What we see isn't that interesting; just pretty generic opener-level stuff between the two until Okumura slaps on a Octopus Stretch and finishes things off. Man, Ryuji has fell off a fair bit from his Battlarts days if this is anything to go by lol. Not much to say. RANK: Forgettable Giant Kimala & Scorpio v Mike Barton & Wolf Hawkfield (same day) 20 minutes of these four in action? Hmm. Thankfully we only get a couple of minutes left over from the official VHS copy. Kimala is no longer wearing his tribal gear, instead having a pair of shorts that say "K" on them. Dangerous K? Is that what the K means there after all these years? Amazing stuff. Anyway this is just here to get over the impending Barton/Steele duo that'll have some pretty good matches in the future. Now? Not so much. Scorpio bumps like a trooper for the two as they throw in some double team offence; Barton finishes things solo with sloppy stuff, Scorpio flopping after a right hand, few quick Scorpio counters until Barton throws the dude in the air for a big Ace Crusher for the pin. This wasn't really anything super remarkable (especially with the fact that this went on for 20 MINUTES and 80% of that got chopped) but it was fairly enjoyable for what it was and Scorpio is always a treat, even when he's stuck with all of these lumpy heavyweights. RANK: Decent Masanobu Fuchi v Yoshiaki Fujiwara (same day) This was aired with a couple of minutes, was caught in full via camcorder. Fuchi and Fujiwara for 30 minutes of technical work.... in the 2000's doesn't sound like the GOAT match of all time, but this wasn't actually bad at all, outside of some stalling at the start and unnecessary ring work. I love the intensity that goes on here: Fuchi tries to play it cheeky with some toying around but Fujiwara immediately grabs on multiple armbars despite Fuchi's best technical attempts to escape and this plays into the rest of the match, as Fuchi now has to wrestle with one good arm while Fujiwara does some vicious limb work to it. Fujiwara is pretty brutal as well during this, wrapping Fuchi's arm up in the ropes and just not letting go, stomping on it, kicking it, basically anytime he can get his hands on Fuchi, he's working the arm in some manner with some cool stuff. Fujiwara's aggression allows Fuchi to get openings as well: both men struggle with a cross armbreaker but Fuchi is able to roll him up and get some stiff slaps in with his other arm, and manages to get a free leg to grind his face in as well. Not withstanding later when Fuchi's just booting the dude in the face multiple times for the sake of it. Second half has Fuchi slap on a very long STF/leg vine submission, as well as using his free arm to also make sure Fujiwara can't get to the ropes, and when he does, he manages to escape a second attempt with a very good ground to standing transition via a monkey flip as per Fujiwara spots tend to include. Not to be outdone, Fuchi focuses in on Fujiwara's leg, using the ring post multiple times to damage it further. From then on in, Fujiwara limps through proceedings. Latter half has Fuchi and Fujiwara exchange leg and arm holds, with Fuchi getting a really good leg vice wrapped in, even arching for the move itself. Fuchi has his opponent on the ropes a few times but Fujiwara uses closed fists to take back any lost ground, as well as choking the life out of him. Dude nails him with like at least 10 headbutts in a row yet Fuchi won't quit and nails some big slaps. He pulls through a few attempts to make him tap as well as expertly reversing a Fujiwara Armbar into a sleeper hold until the bell sounds for the time limit draw before he could've potentially got the win. This is a pretty well hidden gem: it's not just two old guys beating the crap out of each other, it's also a super basic, albeit very well done technical showcase by two masters of the game really grinding things down into a simplistic rhythm. Solid showcase that you could only really get out of this weird age of All Japan. RANK: Good Steve Williams v Mohammed Yone (same day) Steve Williams could still bring the goods and this further shows that as the case despite no longer being the more workrate/smark favourite from the 90's. Yone still bumps big for the guy, but Steve's got a good niche as being a slower heavyweight that just throws people around, even if it means he has to eat a few shots in return to get his hands on someone. Him hitting Yone with a Dangerous Backdrop on the turnbuckle was a surprisingly safe spot for how impactful it looked, especially with Yone selling it like he just lost consciousness right afterwards. There's some good struggle between the two as Yone tries using a lot of speed to counter and escape, yet he's still pretty much helpless to deal with Williams just running him over until he can finally put the spirited lad down. Good sprint of a match; you have to wonder what Yone would've looked like if he hadn't went to NOAH. Would he have been a bigger deal? I'm not sure, but these sort of matches were way more engaging than what they had him doing. RANK: Decent Jinsei Shinzaki & Yuki Ishikawa vs Maunakea Mossman & Toshiaki Kawada (same day) Reviewed this already. RANK: Good Masanobu Fuchi v Shigeo Okumura II (23.07.2000) Few minutes left on this (namely the beginning and most of the middle) but for what it's worth I thought it was better than expected. Mileage for Fuchi can vary but I thought he did a decent job working the opener as a experienced and confident vet, easily countering a German suplex into a double wrist lock transition and generally keeping control over the match. Despite Okumura getting over with some spirited resistance he's eventually put out with a limp flying kick and big backdrop.....or so you think, but nope! He kicks out of that as well. Few limp dropkicks into a second huge backdrop finally finishes things off proper. Real nothing match that was mostly a Fuchi squash, but hey Fuchi's pretty good at those after about two decades or so, who knew? Okumura bumps super well for the guy and it gets to the point where even Fuchi was checking up on him post-match to see if he was alright, which says a lot all things considered. RANK: Decent SHIIBA v SHINOBI (same day) Clipped to about 2 or so minutes. I'm gonna be honest I have no fucking idea what was going on here, it's just a cut into SHIIBA doing a big elaborate drum routine while SHINOBI looks at him and kicks the drum over like a uber heel. It felt like a weird DDT skit where you just have to go with it because it's all meta-jokes that you'd only know if you were Japanese, it's silly. Cut to SHI doing a weird leaping headbutt off the top rope and things seem interesting...but then the two just have really sloppy exchanges that pull you right out again. Things finish quick with a snappy SHI modified German suplex, pin-fall and we're done. This would be SHINOBI's last proper match as this German suplex was seemingly botched/he got injured earlier, suffering from what appears to be a shoulder injury which pretty much ended his career bar a final battle royal appearance he'd do next year before vanishing. I'm not going to pretend like he was any good, but no one likes to see that in a wrestling ring. Pretty sad and weird end to All Japan's original experimentation with lucharesu (though Ryota Chikuzen will do a 2001 tour of the company with the SHIIBA gimmick, it's the last we'll see of it). Can't really rate this knowing what was going on here. RANK: ??? Giant Kimala v Yuto Aijima (same day) ...yeah this stunk. I'm not going to pretend like these two actually had a five star classic, that's just insulting your intelligence. They still showed about 4 or so minutes of it though for some reason. Kimala is gassed up but still bumps and jumps for Aijima's stuff fairly reliably until he lands a flying clothesline. Kimala lets loose with shitty forearms before hitting a splash into his signature rolling senton. Also not enough, he then gets the crowd hyped for a classic Kimala splash that gets the fall and the match. I mean it wasn't terrible or anything but good lord it's sad seeing what used to be one of the most acclaimed companies in the world stick matches like this up for paying crowds, rough times. RANK: Forgettable George Hines & Scorpio v Mike Barton & Wolf Hawkfield (same day) 5 minutes left on this one and it's the first actual decent outing of this entire card, who knew? Scorpio is doing sick spots as per standard and the beefy Barton/Wolf pair are starting to get a grove on together as a unit with some custom double-team moves for the occasion. Hines almost fucks up bumping for a double flapjack as he doesn't keep his back straight, almost going headfirst into the mat, yikes! Nice double top rope move as we get a Wolf splash into Barton elbow for another broken up near fall. Hines and co decide "nah we can do a cooler version" and we then get a Hines diving headbutt into a Scorpio 450, which was pretty damn flush and way too cool for a All-Japan undercard. Finish is amazing: Scorpio is out on the apron, Bart misses a lariat and gets hit with a forearm to the back of the head. Scorpio flings himself off and gets hit with a Barton Ace Cutter out of nowhere! Actually amazing to see a Orton-tier spot involving a cutter before he was even a wrestler lol. That's the finish of course, and wow, this was quite good. Granted there's next to no selling and it's almost all spots, but shit I would've liked to have seen a bit more of this given how well everything was going here. Solid stuff. RANK: Good Johnny Smith v Yoshiaki Fujiwara (same day) We only get a few minutes of this and my god it was probably the best Johnny Smith has looked in years if ever. I mean it's Fujiwara, expected, but these two just clicked in the footage I seen of this, it was unreal. Smith struggling for the back to snap on some brutal German suplexes, Fuji furiously trying to get on a submission or even to slip away onto the ropes....like it was super well done just to build up a simple move, the levels of struggle involved were really well produced. Fuji had zero escape as Smith shifted weight and used his legs to make sure the leverage never went Fuji's way, so he was kinda stuck and had to turtle for his life. It's understandable why Smith would be so relentless given his opponent could snap him in any other angle, just wish we got the build-up for this so it would mean more. Smith hits a second German and shoves his forearm in the face of Fuji for the near fall. He tries for a top rope dropkick and hits it for the usual kip-up, but Smith's a dummy so instead of going right into more suplexes he tries for a lariat, because that's how his routine usually goes, right? Big mistake. Fuji grabs his swinging arm for a easy namesake armbar and a equally easy tapout. Fujiwara is such a dick post match, smiling like he was never in any trouble. Anyway this was a few minutes of some solid wrestling. Do you know these two ALSO had a 30 minute time-limit draw next year....and that it wasn't filmed at all? Sigh. If Smith had these matches properly recorded by anyone he'd probably be a top 200 wrestler by now. RANK: Good Jinsei Shinzaki v Steve Williams (same day) Super rare match here, and it shows: this is just seven minutes of what was a 15+ minute bout, pretty severe clipping there. Both guys start with stiffing each other with some pretty hard strikes, and then Williams dumps Shinzaki outside with a gorilla press, which looked pretty nasty as he'd slam on his side on a nearby table. Match later picks up with Shinzaki knocking Williams down with a few Enzuigiri attempts. He tries to fall up with a shoulder press from the top rope but it's pretty obvious that Williams isn't going to be tagged by it by how long it takes for the setup lol, and he dodges and gets a Doctor Bomb off for a close two. A powerslam doesn't get the job done either. Shinzaki reverses a Backdrop attempt into a close pin, but Williams overpowers and goes for another: Shinzaki gets up almost at once afterwards but flops to the ground, which looked pretty silly. I get this spot is supposed to be dramatic and one based on someone essentially pushing their body with raw fighting spirit, it's just that the actual application of the spot has almost always looked really stupid, and Shinzaki doing it here was pretty much just as if not worse given how he was doing it. A last Backdrop and a scary looking bump into Shinzaki's neck ends the match. From what I've seen, both guys were pretty gassed throughout the match that was shown, which seems to imply that the cut footage was probably a lot of downtime and rest spots. Either way, it's near impossible to grade this with how little we do see, but the action of what was shown was fine, so I can't really grade it beyond a average rating. Table spot was crazy though. RANK: Decent Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada v Maunakea Mossman & Stan Hansen (same day) Mossman still comes out to his old theme but with a new hairdo and all black gear it's clear his impending push is coming in more than one way. The people want to see Tenryu...so we get Kawada and Mossman doing amateur wrestling for a few minutes, of course. It's not bad actually but definitely not what the fans want, though a fairly fiery striking exchange gets the crowd a bit more interested. Hansen even at this point has these great little tendencies: when Tenryu matches in and starts throwing shots to him on the apron he doesn't just sell a bit and then reset, he gets in there and starts just throwing hands back like you would in a actual fight. We even get Hansen headbutting, which he sells wonderfully afterwards because, you know, headbutts hurt on both sides in a actual fight. As I said, Hansen's just a supreme little things worker, even with his back wrecked beyond belief and a near incapable ability to bump he's still able to play with the crowd here as both a hard-hitter but also a old cowboy riding with little left in the tank, spending most of this on the backend of beatings and having to use every little scrappy trick, dirty or otherwise, to survive. Tenryu comes in to beat up Mossman during a fairly awkward sequence with Kawada and they do quite well; Kea has talked about how Tenryu was one of his best opponents and teachers, showing him about how to pace himself during wrestling matches, intensity, etc. You really get that from here as Tenryu eats lots of hard shots from the younger opponent but always answers back with his own, really dragging any advantage out and hooking the crowd big when it does happen, rather than just going tit for tat over and over ad nauseam while the crowd just sits and watches. Hansen gets his signature outside brawl and throws sick punches, always a treat. The middle is mostly a control segment with Kawada doing all of the selling, so as you can imagine this was quite solid! Mossman even gets some good fire scrapping with him on the mat, though can't get a win despite even hitting his greatest hits. Tenryu runs in for some nasty shots, Mossman does the spit sell for some chops in particular that just look rough as anything. Brutal German suplex from him thanks to some Hansen assistance, he teases another Smasher on Tenryu before getting double-teamed. Road to finish has Hansen interrupt a 53-Sai but get wrecked off a great double team kick combo but just manages to recover to tag Tenryu off a Western Lariat, which balances the books and more or less leaves Mossman by himself. A fresh Kawada comes in to pick off Mossman and despite some spirited exchanges the latter is just way too fatigued to do much about it; he has no strength left bar kicking out and no selling a few times before a powerbomb firmly stops him for the pin. This is a great tag match that firmly puts over Mossman as a rising star, but also showcases everyone else in their respective roles, with Hansen still being a threat alongside Kawada as ace and Tenryu as his biggest challenge to date. The pace is kept strong despite some messy moments and all in all it works for what it tries to do. It's not a match you could stick tons of GIF's on, but it is one that you can watch a few times over and appreciate the amount of detail that the four try to work in. RANK: Good Masanobu Fuchi v Yuto Aijima (20.08.2000) Oh boy my favourite, Aijima matches. Sigh. This was Fuchi trying to carry this lump to something and succeeding somewhat, even if that something was rather boring. Fuchi dominates with basic unimpactful work (AKA stuff this guy can't botch or muck up) Aijima gets up to do a powerslam and a lariat before Fuchi slams some great backdrops to make the dude look like ass before tapping him out with the vintage rookie-killer, AKA the single leg Boston Crab. Nothing opener that was mostly there to showcase Fuchi in his new role as rookie stretcher. RANK: Forgettable Damien 666 & Halloween v Super Calo & Super Parka (same day) This is shown in a dramatic and super edited way, so the amount of actual match we get out of the whole slice is pretty small; just a few cool spots and that's around about it for anything worth mentioning from myself. 666 does a cool double springboard arm drag, Halloween lands a big double dropkick, but Calo is able to steal a win with a top rope Frankensteiner on Hallo to get the fall. Post-match has M2K show up to talk trash to build for their mini-feud to come, thus starting the beginning of more lucha stuff being involved with All-Japan cards. Nothing much else to add, it's more or less a competent lucha spotfest for what was shown. RANK: Forgettable Sabu v Shigeo Okumura (same day) Basically a typical Sabu match, so tolerance varies depending on how much you like watching those. Sabu was also working this at half-speed as well, kinda just waiting to do his spots. He smashes his neck off the guardrail when he misses a chair-assisted plancha to the outside and Okumura takes over with headlocks and lumpy WAR-style offence, so forearms and slams mostly. There's a cool (ish) spot where Sabu dodges a chair swing by sliding his legs between Okumura to trip him up before then doing a shitty Arabian Skullcrusher that he fell basically ass first on; you can hear him groan afterwards if you don't believe me. Good Triple Jump Moonsault gets a near fall, Sabu is too occupied with chair arrangement to notice Okumura recovering and trying for a superplex, but failing. Sabu grabs the chair for a fucking vicious shot to the back of Okumura's head before finishing things with a Arabian Facebuster for the finish. As I said, if you love Sabu shit then this'll work, but even then it's a fairly low-end Sabu performance with a generic baby-blue Okumura, so you know he's getting jobbed out and...yep, he does. RANK: Decent Genichiro Tenryu, Nobutaka Araya & Toshiaki Kawada v Johnny Smith, Mike Barton & Stan Hansen (same day) This almost felt like a cool 90's All Japan main event bar Araya and Tenryu being here. Also cool to see more of Hansen's last months working, even if he doesn't do a whole lot. Araya is cool with his moonsaults and fat-guy work, even if he's by far the weakest link here. I don't get Smith no-selling a full on lariat to do a German suplex though, seemed awkward looking back at it. Hansen can't work for longer than maybe two minutes or so by this point and most assuredly can't bump big, but he uses that smartly to lead into the other big guys as this huge old vet that can knock people around and takes a lot to properly put down. Him and Tenryu bring the hate with scrappy stuff, but it's arguably Barton with his sharp strikes that gets more out of the same exchange, putting him over by having Kawada need to assist to allow Tenryu to get the advantage against the big puncher. Him and Kawada do this awesome double Enzuigiri and Kawada leads with his usual mannerisms, inevitably having to eat the bumps when Barton digs out of the hole with a cutter and forcing everyone to get in as a result. Hansen strolls in to deliver a sneaky Western Lariat to Kawada during the commotion, allowing Barton the upset with his gut punch and powerbomb to steal the win over the guy in one of his first big victories. Not bad! Everyone here mostly is on B-show mode, so we got sneak peaks at feuds and matches but not a lot of substance, especially with Kawada barely showing up until the very end. I definitely think this is one of the weaker main events at the time, namely because of how many people are here who are either limited, out of their prime, or just not capable of a great showing at this point and time. Heat was definitely solid, it just didn't translate into much worth talking about. RANK: Decent ========== end of part 1

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Another year, another thread. Just managing to finish 1980 is a milestone I initially wasn't 100% sure I'd reach but it turned out to be a good starter year to find my footing on a project like this. As I delve further into the decade the task only becomes more daunting as more promotions have more footage exposure, and the sheer quantity of matches is about to explode in a few years. But that's a problem for another day. For 1981 I'm thankful that we seem to be getting more matches from the Mid-South Coliseum, AWA footage takes a big jump, by the end of the year we have both Mid-Atlantic and Mid-South TV, and the Network has finally started uploading Championship Wrestling episodes. On the down side, WCCW footage doesn't seem to take off until 1982, I only have one Puerto Rico match and maybe no Lucha matches at all lined up in my watch list, so will have to wait until future years to begin on those. Just as a recap for anybody who actually cares, I try not to go too deep in the play-by-play of each match, but I'll cover the key moments for context and it helps my memory when I go back and look at my reviews, otherwise I try and focus on the individual wrestlers, their performances, and how that weaves into a general GWE discussion. I know not everybody does star ratings, but for me it helps just demarcate stuff into general tiers. I'm much more picky and granular at the top level, so I do quarter stars for those that I think are 4 stars and above, but otherwise I just pool matches into three tiers for simplicity: 1 star = not good, 2 stars = fine, 3 stars = good. January 1981-01-XX AJW Mimi Hagiwara vs. Lucy Kayama Japan ★★ It’s been a long while since Hagiwara made tape and it felt like she’d put it all together here a bit more than her last time around. There weren’t so many dead spots where she seemed a little lost. I can’t say that she made a strong impression on me though, she still just feels a bit like the pretty girl of the roster that the guys come to see. And there certainly were some leering looks from the front row for this one. Kayama herself appeared decidedly older here despite it only being a few months since her last taped match. She definitely looked more mature. I’m not sure what effect this’ll have on her work as I thought one of the most endearing qualities she had was how her Bambi-ness made her offense feel more earnest and made her eminently more rootable than most of the roster. If she loses that moving forwards then I’m not sure she necessarily has the tools to compensate. She still has a beautiful looking neckbreaker though which she pulled out a couple times here. The match itself was completely forgettable really. Not a good sign when the most notable event was Hagiwara braining Kayama with a giant yellow melon that one of the commentators had inexplicably brought to ringside. It went the full 20 minutes for a time limit draw, but I can’t really remember any point where either girl looked like they were properly in the driver’s seat and pushing for the win. A real placeholder match that didn’t seem to elevate either woman. 1981-01-XX AJW Devil Masami, Mami Kumano, Wendi Richter vs. Yukari Omori, Mimi Hagiwara, Tomoko Kitamura Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Match Japan ★★ As to be expected with these six person matches, it was all a bit chaotic. AJW isn’t noted for its coherent match structures and this was no different. The face team of Omori, Hagiwara and Kitamura were so nondescript as to almost fade away entirely, and perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise to me that the heels won the thing in two straight falls. All the best parts of the action were driven by the heel team. I much preferred Richter when she showed up in the Guam footage from August ‘80 - here her actions felt much more clumsy, but Masami and Kumano displayed their chops and kept this ticking along just enough to make this somewhat enjoyable. Despite being the smallest of the bunch Kumano certainly felt like the team leader and I wouldn’t be hesitant to say that at this point she’s a little further along than Masami as a worker as well, as she does a few little things each match that it feels nobody in the company is doing, especially in terms of heel psychology and characterisation. That said, I would absolutely be down to watch these two partner as a permanent tag team. I feel that they would have excellent chemistry together and I have a hunch Ikeshita isn’t long for AJW. 1981-01-XX AJW Jackie Sato vs. Mami Kumano Japan ★★ Both women had their entourages at ringside, and we know that means the faces will stand around and do nothing while the heels will interject themselves into the match with impunity. Kumano’s main ally was of course Masami, and she liberally interfered, to the extent that this may as well just have been a handicap match. It feels like a lot of Jackie’s run on top over the past year has been booked similarly, giving her insurmountable odds that she, you know, surmounts. From a match quality perspective I think it definitely hurts her matches, as the push to get her over with the crowd comes from booking rather than through her actual performances, when I feel they could have got the same result by just letting her do her thing. Kumano had several neat little moments, like shadowing the referee and using him as a human obstacle, that added some nice flavour to the match, but the aforementioned interferences broke up the flow of the match. Jackie was forced to work underneath for nearly the whole thing, but wasn’t given the room to sell due to just being swarmed most of the time, so it lacked that narrative hook you’re looking for. That said, the stretches when Jackie was on offense just consolidated my view that nobody had better offense than her in the world at this point in time. Things finished with an awkward pin that the referee seemed to botch for a very anticlimactic Jackie victory. This could, and should, have been so much better than it was. Increasingly I feel like AJW are getting in their own way.

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1980-04-18 AJPW Abdullah The Butcher vs. Terry Funk Champion Carnival 1980 Match Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★★ Can’t say this was good but it definitely was a spectacle. Both guys were pouring blood by the end of it. There was no messing around and they got right to it off the bat. Abby can barely sell a thing but with Terry shrieking like a banshee throughout it was never less than compelling viewing. After the inevitable double count out they even had to cut away because the ensuing attack on Terry was too violent to be shown. This is exactly what you would expect a Funk vs Abby match to be and it was a whole lot of fun, if you don’t mind a bit of blood. I thought Terry Funk was great, as usual, but Abby here was a bit too static to give any real sense of threat or drama, so in a sense it did feel a little bit like two guys getting together to bleed in a ring.

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1980-04-04 AJPW Jumbo Tsuruta vs Terry Funk Champion Carnival 1980 Match Tendai Town Gymnasium, Chiba, Japan Card ★★★ Terry is often described as the Gaijin babyface ace of All Japan but I wanted to see how the crowd responded when he matched up against somebody like Jumbo and it was pretty clear from the start, and throughout the match, that Terry was, in fact, the fan favourite between the two and he generated far stronger reactions at various points. I think they spent far too long on the mat-work portion of the match, and what they did was rather poor. It felt at times that they were completely out of sync and it was hard to figure out what they were going for at various points. Things picked up a lot in the final 15 minutes or so when they just started throwing bombs at each other and we had a strong stretch where things reached a fever pitch. Ultimately they ran out of time and we had the predictable time limit draw. Funk really stood out between these two as he just about did everything you’d want a wrestler to do better than Jumbo here: selling, bumping, facial expressions, great offense. Jumbo’s offense, especially his slam and suplexes, are great but that’s about the only thing he was able to match Terry on. There are glimpses here and there that I find promising but I think it’s obvious, especially when matched up against such a great babyface like Terry Funk, that Jumbo isn’t the kind of guy who’s inherently lovable. I think he could be likeable and obviously he wasn’t a heel that was looking to be disliked, but he didn’t have that loveable quality. Instead I feel like he works best when he leans into being more smug and more entitled. When he transitioned into his Grumpy Jumbo phase it was these qualities more than anything else that really solidified his persona. He was fighting to retain his top spot, he couldn’t believe that these young guys were trying to usurp him and those were the defining characteristics of late Jumbo. Either way, in 1980 he was still more of a bland generic babyface than any clearly defined character and I think it would have served him well if he’d leaned into those aspects of his personality sooner.

Every wrestler here fit their role perfectly. The standouts were Baba with decades of skill and experience, Fuchi with smarts and skill and Tenryu, the god of grump. No one is better than Tenryu in showing strength and weakness simultaneously...other than Kawada and Terry Funk IMO. One really felt that the Triple Crown champ was on the ropes when 1000 year old Rusher Kimura was head butting him but, seamlessly, Tenryu would chop Kimura in the fucking throat and change the momentum. Brilliantly, Fuchi would storm in like Jr. Tenryu that he is and get brutal even on the bully champ. Fuyuki and Kawada were perfect lackeys in this match and kept their schtick simple. This benefitted Kawada the most. Here he looked like the Kawada who would bloom fully in late 1991 and 1992. Godbless Dangerous K. This period of wrestling is full of diamonds in the rough and this is a perfect example.

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Dempsey dominates the early going, with the champion not being able to string together much offense. Nakajima realizes he can’t out-grapple Dempsey, so he resorts to striking and goads him into a skirmish on the outside. Dempsey’s work is smooth yet rugged. His European uppercuts have a little more oomph behind them, and he nearly bent Nakajima in half with a Boston Crab. Regaining control, Dempsey adjusted his game plan of gradually wearing down Nakajima for a more direct approach, going after his opponent’s leg. Dempsey’s dragonscrew leg whips are gorgeous, as he almost bridges backward with Nakajima’s leg while holding onto it. Dempsey hit a rolling Cattle Mutilation at one point, a neat variation on that spot I can’t recall seeing before. He also seamlessly transitioned from that into a gorgeous Fujiwara armbar. I also dug Nakajima baiting Dempsey in by going for a move with his bad leg, only to catch him with an Enziguri. Dempsey provided a little more focus than Nakajima’s recent matches have had, but I don’t love the showtime spot where Katsuhiko poses in the corner. It just feels unnecessary. Nakajima and Dempsey throw heaters, so the late elbow exchange didn’t bother me too much. Dempsey’s brief comeback was also a standout, with his late bridging backslide and Regal Plex dazzling. Nakajima eventually retained with a Northern Lights Bomb. While there’s still work to be done, working with a younger wrestler who hasn’t had time to pick up bad habits did wonders to rein in Nakajima’s worst instincts. Only time will tell if Dempsey will continue to develop steadily, given the wasteland that is NXT, but if he does, he could be something special. As is, this was a quality match to kick off the new year.

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It's been said before, but parts of AJPW felt pretty old hat by 1999. Case in point: matches like this. Misawa no sells a few moves, parts of the Kawada/Misawa sections came dangerously close to current NJPW elbowfests, and the build and sense of escalation seemed to be lacking overall. It picks up here or there, but it speak volumes to me that 2 minutes before the finish in this match Misawa and Kawada were still working fairly standard exchanges that didn't feel like they were preceded by a 20 minute match at all. It was a pretty stiff match, so even if it wasn't exciting, it was atleast painful. Shinzaki didn't really add much besides a few different moves. He threw a few uppercuts, so I guess that makes him the stand-in for Great Kabuki.

Fuchi the GOAT for being 70 and having a 20 minute match with one of All Japan's brightest and youngest stars. It was also really cool to see 90's prick Fuchi return; cool uncle Fuchi is nice and all, but that was his peak years in terms of entertainment and even here with all of the natural wear and tear he's brought with him you still get that occasional moment of greatness out of the guy that brings you back to those times. Anzai humours the vet with some basic lockup exchanges until Fuchi pokes the bear a bit too much with a cheeky slap to the face and a flash backdrop to try to end the match early for the upset, inviting a big beatdown from Anzai as he essentially runs over the guy with his Jumbo knee and other finishes. I do like how the match doesn't try to pretend that Fuchi is on any big equal footing with his opponent: he's consistently struck down and having to really sell through a ton of work just to get maybe a couple of shots in, and even those aren't really that effective. Consistent great camera shots of Fuchi's struggle as he has to claw himself back up from his beatdowns conveys a naturally very compelling narrative that the crowd took easy to with numerous chants and big heat whenever Fuchi did actually manage to get something out. Was also cool seeing him hit some throwbacks like the Fuchi dropkick and Baba chops/boot. I thought this also really did a great job with how minimalistic it was at times; getting convincingly solid sequences out of exchanging and struggling out of surfboards, getting huge reactions for them struggling over who can bodyslam who, etc. It was a breath of fresh air to see someone throw actual good punches for once as Fuchi gets to do his dirty antics for old times sake. The last third being a battle for survival as Fuchi battles his own ailing body more than Anzai himself, taking consistent running knees and barely able to do anything but kick out. The big finish being around imparting his signature facelock to the younger talent by tapping out to it was especially cool to see. Obviously this is going to be limited by your tolerance for a 70 year old wrestling but in terms of guys his age Fuchi is WAY better than a lot of wrestlers both his age and younger, you can tell he's at least kept himself in relatively good shape all this time given he could still hit the beats here and whatnot. It's less about the workrate anyway, it's all about milking crowd reactions with a beloved talent with relatively little action, and guess what? It worked very well in that regard. Anzai did a solid job carrying Fuchi physically to something beyond what he would do normally, but as a consequence of that he seemed a bit muted by contrast, more as the wall for Fuchi to bounce off and work off than his own standalone personality.

Pretty by the numbers japanese big match but not bad. Sasaki gets the advantage using his power early on, finisher on the floor, some limbwork ensues, lots of stiff shots etc. It's a formula that works and these two are good at it. Sasaki is pretty fly here hitting a big plancha to the floor and really walloping Kawada with potatoes. There is some neck work which ends up not being of much importance but leads to some fun moments. Sasaki cosplays 90s Kobashi by chopping Kawada in the neck and hitting flimsy bulldogs, it also leads to a pretty sick piledriver. Kawada was halfway into lazy mode as he had some nice transitions such as kicking Sasaki in the face when he tried his silly facebuster or slipping underneath for the cheap powerbomb, but he would also just go back on offense at other times. Kind of dumb finishing stretch, but not offensively dumb.

It's the end of 2023 and it is time for the Best Matches Watched of 2023. I've been trying to stick to different themes/projects each month so I thought it right to organize my list accordingly. If you want to go back and read the reviews then this should help you out. Plus there's a lot of very good and great matches you'll be able to explore that are not included here. A plus sign (+) means its an all time classic match and a contender for Best Match Watched for '23. HM stands for Honorable Mention and is usually a near classic match (like ****1/4) and everything else is what I thought was a classic (****1/2 or more). So Honorable Mention to Classic to All Time Classic if its on a continuum. January Crush Gals vs. Jumping Bomb Angels (AJW 09/14/1987) Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama (JWP 10/10/90) HM Mariko Yoshida vs. Manami Toyota (AJW 08/30/92) Chigusa Nagayo vs. Mayumi Ozaki (JWP 05/22/94) Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai (JWP 05/22/94) +Ayako Hamada & AKINO vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (ARSION 12/11/1999) + +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/9/00 - Cage Match) + Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa - (AJW 2/28/01 - Elimination Match) Yumiko Hotta & Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs. Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe & Momoe Nakanishi (AJW 04/01/01) Momoe Nakanishi vs Kaoru Ito (AJW 07/08/01) February Masato Tanaka vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 02/27/99) Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 03/19/99) March Eagle Sawai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito (JWP 04/26/91) HM Keiji Mutoh vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 02/24/2002) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Satoshi Kojima (AJPW 07/17/2002) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori (AJPW 07/18/04) HM Kaz Hayashi vs Shuji Kondo (AJPW 08/30/09) April/May Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (AJPW 05/22/84) Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (AJPW 08/26/84) Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (AJPW 12/08/84) +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) + +Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84) + May Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki (M-Pro 03/31/1994) Great Sasuke & Ultimo Dragon vs Jinsei Shinzaki & Gedo (M-Pro 07/30/1994) HM Great Sasuke vs TAKA Michinoku (12/15/94) HM Curry Man, CIMA & Super Boy vs Minoru Fujita, Shiryu II & Jody Fleisch (M-Pro 12/21/99) Jado & Gedo vs The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV (M-Pro 08/19/01) HM June Briscoes vs. Kota Ibushi & Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH 07/01/07) HM Briscoes vs. Marufuji & Suguira (NOAH 03/02/08) Briscoe Brothers vs Katsu Nakajima & Kota Ibushi (NOAH 09/06/08) Re-post but a classic Go Shiozaki vs Joe Doering (AJPW 01/03/15) HM July Las Cachorras Orientales vs. Watanabe & Maekawa (AJW 06/18/97) +Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA 04/15/95)+ Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs KAORU & Kiyoko Ichiki (GAEA 01/19/97) HM Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato (GAEA 08/23/98) August LAX (Homicide/Hernandez) vs AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels (TNA Bound for Glory 2006) James Storm vs Chris Harris (TNA Sacrifice 2007) Re-watch but a classic Samoa Joe vs Homicide (ROH Death Before Dishonor 2, Night 1 07/23/04) September Bryan Danielson vs Paul London (ROH - Night of the Butcher 12/07/02) Bryan Danielson vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TPI 2004 Finals 09/18/04 IWA-MS) Bryan Danielson vs Chris Hero (TPI 2005 09/24/2005 IWA-MS) HM October Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 06/21/85) Riki Choshu vs Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 06/21/85) Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 08/31 aired 09/07/85) Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 08/31 aired 09/07/85)HM November Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (AJPW 10/21/85) Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 11/30/85) Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (AJPW 12/12/85) Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (12/12/85 aired 12/14) only 1/2 aired December Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki (GAEA 04/04/99) LCO vs Hokuto and Ozaki (GAEA 09/15/99) HM Sonoko Kato vs. Meiko Satomura (GAEA 10/11/99) +Aja Kong vs KAORU (GAEA 02/13/00)+ ----- I'll sort by decade as well. Why not? 1980's Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (AJPW 05/22/84) Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (AJPW 08/26/84) Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (AJPW 12/08/84) +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) + +Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84) + Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 06/21/85) Riki Choshu vs Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 06/21/85) Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask (AJPW 08/31 aired 09/07/85) Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 08/31 aired 09/07/85)HM Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (AJPW 10/21/85) Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 11/30/85) Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (AJPW 12/12/85) Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (12/12/85 aired 12/14) only 1/2 aired Crush Gals vs. Jumping Bomb Angels (AJW 09/14/1987) 1990's Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama (JWP 10/10/90) HM Eagle Sawai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito (JWP 04/26/91) HM Mariko Yoshida vs. Manami Toyota (AJW 08/30/92) Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki (M-Pro 03/31/1994) Chigusa Nagayo vs. Mayumi Ozaki (JWP 05/22/94) Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai (JWP 05/22/94) Great Sasuke & Ultimo Dragon vs Jinsei Shinzaki & Gedo (M-Pro 07/30/1994) HM Great Sasuke vs TAKA Michinoku (12/15/94) HM +Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA 04/15/95)+ Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs KAORU & Kiyoko Ichiki (GAEA 01/19/97) HM Las Cachorras Orientales vs. Watanabe & Maekawa (AJW 06/18/97) Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato (GAEA 08/23/98) Masato Tanaka vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 02/27/99) Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 03/19/99) Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki (GAEA 04/04/99) LCO vs Hokuto and Ozaki (GAEA 09/15/99) HM Sonoko Kato vs. Meiko Satomura (GAEA 10/11/99) +Ayako Hamada & AKINO vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (ARSION 12/11/1999) + Curry Man, CIMA & Super Boy vs Minoru Fujita, Shiryu II & Jody Fleisch (M-Pro 12/21/99) 2000's +Aja Kong vs KAORU (GAEA 02/13/00)+ +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/9/00 - Cage Match) + Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa - (AJW 2/28/01 - Elim. Match) Yumiko Hotta, Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs. Kaoru Ito, Tomoko Watanabe & Momoe Nakanishi (AJW 04/01/01) Momoe Nakanishi vs Kaoru Ito (AJW 07/08/01) Jado & Gedo vs The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV (M-Pro 08/19/01) HM Keiji Mutoh vs. Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 02/24/2002) Genichiro Tenryu vs. Satoshi Kojima (AJPW 07/17/2002) Bryan Danielson vs Paul London (ROH - Night of the Butcher 12/07/02) Bryan Danielson vs Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (TPI 2004 Finals 09/18/04 IWA-MS) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori (AJPW 07/18/04) HM Samoa Joe vs Homicide (ROH Death Before Dishonor 2, Night 1 07/23/04) Bryan Danielson vs Chris Hero (TPI 2005 09/24/2005 IWA-MS) HM LAX (Homicide/Hernandez) vs AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels (TNA Bound for Glory 2006) James Storm vs Chris Harris (TNA Sacrifice 2007) Re-watch but a classic Kaz Hayashi vs Shuji Kondo (AJPW 08/30/09) Feud of the Year: There's been some really good feuds this year. I think the ones that stick with me are Brody & Hansen vs All Japan in '84. Another one is SSU is GAEA in '99...I didn't get into it but its basically Lioness Asuka and stars of the 90's + Ozaki's students vs Chigusa and GAEA. Early on LCO vs AJW specifically Kaoru Ito. I think the feud of the year is Riki & co. vs All Japan in 1985. You have the amazing early part of '85 which is very much Riki and his pals (Yatsu, Hamaguchi, Masa Saito, Killer Khan, Teranishi, Kobayashi) and a variety of tags. These might not have made the Best Matches Watched list BUT these are night in-night out great matches. And absolutely worth mentioning here as part of the BMW superlatives. Wrestler of the Year: Piggybacking off the feud of the year, Riki Choshu is a man worthy of best wrestler. I'd also say Stan Hansen for his work in '84 & '85 AJPW... same goes for Jumbo Tsuruta. I think Dory Funk Jr. & Genichiro Tenryu have a case to be made as well. For Joshi, I would definitely highlight Kaoru Ito who was an absolute beast. Mayumi Ozaki was a consummate talent throughout the year in early JWP and GAEA. Similarly Aja Kong was ubiquitous presence in my joshi watching (1997 AJW, Arsion and GAEA). Chigusa Nagayo and perhaps Devil Masami should be in consideration too. In January, Kaoru Ito was the clear front runner and deserves a big time nod. All that said, I think Jumbo and Aja Kong are the best wrestlers of 2023. The quality and consistency of their work as top talent earn them this distinction. With Jumbo, I think about his excellent matches with Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell. With Aja Kong, I think about her matches with Meiko Satomura and KAORU. In both cases, they elevated their opponents and the matches through their work. This was the case in every match I saw. Surprise of the Year: I pushed myself this year by trying to post once a week. I also tried to have monthly themes to help keep things fresh as well as keep me on track watching stuff I've been meaning to watch and not get distracted. So in a way I could say there were no big surprises. That's not truly the case because I have been pleasantly surprised with how much I have enjoyed GAEA. Originally I had only 15 matches listed to watch. That's a two week project. So I've been surprised that I'm liking it so much despite dismissing it for a long time. Thank goodness it's available on YouTube! A negative surprise would be that I've not really loved the Satomura vs Kong matches as everyone else has. Those are sort of the sure thing of GAEA but both have done better work there. Perhaps if I had limited my GAEA watching to 15 matches then, those may have been classics to me. Aja's work is phenomenal in them but I feel that Satomura lacks variety in these matches... she's only debuted in 1995 so it's completely understandable. I think the matches were overrated in the past. In the context of GAEA they absolutely accomplish what they set out to do by elevating Satomura. Match of the Year/Best Match Watched: The most difficult choice to make. I've added plus signs (+) to the all time classic matches above. Let me separate those below to help: +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) + +Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84) + +Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA 04/15/95)+ +Ayako Hamada & AKINO vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (ARSION 12/11/1999) + +Aja Kong vs KAORU (GAEA 02/13/00)+ +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/09/00 - Cage Match) + That's helluva list! Kong vs KAORU is the only singles match so we can say it is the best singles match watched for 2023. But is it the best of them all? Shit...this is really hard to pick since they all have great wrestling and amazing storytelling. I'm going to take LCO vs Hamada & AKINO as well as Kong vs KAORU off the table for the fact that these bouts lack the historical depth that the others have. That's to say, the remaining matches have a history both within the year as well as amongst the wrestlers. So we have: +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) + +Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 12/12/84) + +Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA 04/15/95)+ +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/09/00 - Cage Match) + That's better. Now I'll pick top men's and top women's match based on which one "stuck with me more" throughout the year...those are: +Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 12/08/84) + +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/09/00 - Cage Match) + Applying that same criteria, my Best Match Watched of 2023 is: +Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Kaoru Ito vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW 12/09/00 - Cage Match) + This was one of the earlier matches watched in 2023 but it has stuck with me all year. It's been that match that others are compared against this past year. In some ways I see the bias since it was put upon a pedestal early and perhaps the others were never allowed to stand on their own. On the other hand, it's been 300+ days since I've seen it and I've watched a good bit of wrestling in the meantime. I won't lie, there's a couple matches on the month by month list that I don't remember. Any of the All Time Classic matches are ones that you just don't forget. So all 6 get my highest recommendation and you really ought to give them a watch. Hopefully this helps you out if you're looking for something different to watch. Or maybe there's something here you've passed over in your wrestling journey because of a luke warm review in the past. Either way it has been a fantastic year for watching old wrestling and I recommend checking some of these out. Thanks for reading!

I thought I would give myself some time and wait til after Thanksgiving to post this. So here we are at the end of 1985, we've got a bunch of tag matches. Let's get going! Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith v. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Norio Honaga (12/04/85): Good match but not really anything special here. I'm sure you can guess the outcome. If this is on a . compilation for the Bulldogs then, its enjoyable enough. Jumbo Tsuruta v. Curt Hennig (12/04/85): Good match but boy was the crowd dead for this match. Oof! Jumbo and Curt did a nice clean match with some good action. I know no one thought Curt would win but man this was a lot better than their silence would indicate. This is one instance where the "quiet Japanese crowd" stereotype is true. Anyhow watched this after Smackdown on Friday. One thing is that I liked this simple match better than anything on there. One part is that everything was really snug and well executed. The other part is everything on Smackdown is so bright and obnoxious... tons of fucking colors, camera angle changes and absolute move overkill. One thing I'll give those wrestlers is they have a lot of athleticism. There's very little break in the action (it's a TV show after all) and they are in great shape. It's just worlds away from this stuff... but I guess that's what almost 40 years will do. Riki Choshu vs Nick Bockwinkel (12/04/85 aired 12/28): joined in progress. Pretty good match here with some good wrestling filling out the majority of the match. The final few minutes are Riki's high impact offense style. Nothing earth shattering but a good showing from both guys. I felt Bock is actually what made this worthwhile so if you're a fan of his then maybe give yourself 10 minutes and check this out. Shoehi Baba/Dory Jr. v. Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase (12/04/85): Quiet crowd but they pop during this match at least This bout is great though because it is well paced. It is simple yet well executed and well Hansen beats on Dory Jr. like he owes him money. Holy cow, I can't believe he didn't induce a heart attack with those clubbing blows to the chest! One of the main reasons that I bought this DVD set was for the abundance of Hansen/DiBiase tag matches and they do not disappoint. Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Nick Bockwinkle/Curt Hennig (12/07/85): Not a long match but a very fun one! I hesitate to say that its anything else because there was a possibility for Bockwinkel to be more involved especially with Stan Hansen. I could tell from the pacing (more Hansen's pace) that it was not going to be some sort of lost classic. That said this might be the best showing from Hennig. He really cuts loose during the closing couple of minutes. The fans were super excited. His athletics were comparable to Misawa Tiger Mask. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith (12/07/85): Two big teams that have been on parallel courses throughout 1985 finally meet. And it's a blast! The Bulldogs are treated like equals and as a result we get a very good match where we see a lot of good stuff from both sides. I don't think it is meant to be more than a "what if?" main event draw so there's not a ton of substance. Still, it absolutely accomplished it's goal. This is kinda like the inverse of most/all Road Warriors matches...no one is their equal, they do a bunch of stuff regardless of their opponents' ranking/standing and many of the bouts are disappointing Harley Race/Jesse Barr v. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith (12/12/85): I wasn't expecting much from this match but I loved it! It told such a great little story with a one match rivalry. Kid tries to bully Harley at the get go but Race does one of the most seamless moves on Kid...like a fucking old lion who can be quick when it counts. From there Barr, who is big dude just not ultra jacked is showing of his power. Davey Boy is like hold my beer. Meanwhile you know Harley and Dynamite want to do the diving headbutts off the top etc. It's a damn shame this wasn't a program but this was great! Perhaps the best Race match of '85 because he's basically Tenryu in the 2000's ... he doesn't have to be the best athlete, he just has to provide the heat & story of the match: younger guys try to upstage him and he just needs to be surly & hit hard while the younger guys do the moves. So you're getting the best of both worlds. This is a neat little match. Really does remind me of those early 2000's NOAH under card matches or B-show main events that mixed vets with younger guys to great results. ----- Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (12/12/85): Holy cow! I wasn't expecting this to be as great as it was. But frankly it was a classic. The in-ring work was amazing. They didn't do the craziest moves of course but used what they had to take us through peaks and valleys. I think it's an excellent example of pacing and layout being more important than dazzling attacks. But don't get me wrong the offense is here as everyone takes some big bumps and in later AJPW fashion dusts some classic moves off the shelf to get the win. On top of that we have the stories of Dory being Jumbo and Tenryu's teacher, Baba being Jumbo's old partner and mentor, and the beginning (?) of something that becomes one of the best things going later in the decade Baba vs Tenryu. I wasn't expecting them to have that here but oh no...it's here and maybe starts here as by the end Baba & Tenryu are really going after each other. I don't recall seeing this in earlier matches. Anyhow, this felt like a quintessential AJPW tag match...maybe I'm crazy but if you like these guys it's at the very least a "great" match...but in my book it's a classic. Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (Real World Tag League Finals) (12/12/85 aired 12/14): jip by 14 minutes (I believe... so this is only a review of this point forward...I do believe the full match is available). This is really great stuff from the most aggressive teams in the company. I think this was a pretty bold choice for the final match but absolutely shows the confidence Baba had in his booking. It puts Riki & Yatsu (more importantly) as the native team to beat for 1986. It cements Ted DiBiase as Stan's #1 partner for the mid/late 80's (he was teaming with Ron Bass earlier in year which we didn't see any of here). What it also does is make sure there's more matches for 1986. We never get a blow off for the Riki vs Jumbo & Tenryu stuff. We don't really know if Stan & Ted can be beaten. I was close to calling this a classic because there were some absolutely great moments in this match but I only saw half. But I'm betting the first half of the bout was quality so I'm comfortable giving this a "great " rating. 12/12/85 was a great night for tag wrestling. ----- Rick Martel v. Stan Hansen (AWA Title, 12/29/85 in Meadowlands NJ): Technically an AWA match but glad to have this on DVD. Very good to great match here. What makes it special is the psychology of Hansen staying on Martel's back, Rick's selling, and Rick's attack on Hansen's arm. Honestly I'm pretty sure its one of the most psychologically strong matches of the year (not sure that's the right way to phrase that but you get what I'm saying). Only thing keeping it from a shoe-in great match is the finish. I don't 100% get what they were going for... or I think I get it but visually didn't do it for me. No way is it a match spoiler...and in fact plays off the story of the match. Maybe its one of those things that announcers would make sense of it. Watch it for yourself and see what you think! Couple the outcome this match along with Hansen & Ted being the points victors of the tag league and Stan is definitely the Man going into 1986. In summary, 1985 AJPW was excellent. It's an awesome year for tag wrestling without a doubt.I usually do a tl;dr list of my favorite matches of a long project like this. I'm going to skip that now since we're close to my end of the year Best Matches Watched list. So you're going to have to read or wait in the meantime. It's also a weird year as the first part of the year feels like an alternate history AJPW. I mean you've a sizable chunk of NJPW & British Bulldogs there. And are pushed right away. Bruiser Brody doesn't make the tapes (and then is in NJ), Hansen is working mid card and we don't see a Funk brother until late summer. Then the last 4 months, things look more like AJPW (but we (I) miss the lower ranking guys from the Riki vs Jumbo feud). As a result things don't get stale. Historically 1985 All Japan hasn't gotten much more than middle-of-the-road hype. 8 out of the 10 '85 matches on the DVDVR Best of the 80's are in the middle of the list. The top match of the year is only #23 and the 2nd best match of '85 per their list is #37 for instance. And I don't recall anything from AJPW '85 making those old Best of the 80's lists (I think AJW/Crush Gals and NJPW did). So you can't blame a guy for skipping this. But I'm really glad that I finally listened to myself and took a chance on this year. And I did take a monetary chance buying this DVD set... like this could have been lame with only 10 matches being worth my time out of 7 discs (and not a single Choshu match remember!). But honestly, damn near everything felt worthwhile and there were plenty of great matches and a few classics that I feel confident considering "lost." It did help that the "missing" Choshu matches could be easily found the 'tube. Even had I went straight off my DVDs, 1985 genuinely feels like the first year in a new era of AJPW. I highly recommend checking some of this out...especially if you've never really dug the slower 70's/early 80's style. Thanks for reading folks!

Here we are just a couple days past due but, finally November 1985 is ready to go. A couple of the matches were longer this week and therefore made my list a little slower to get through. It was worth it as you'll see. Let's dive in! Riki Choshu vs Jumbo Tsuruta (11/04 aired 11/09) Long time limit draw match...in my younger days I would have watched this. Anymore, I just don't want to devote this much time to one match especially knowing that it's a draw. But I did jump around (as does the TV episode...it actually jumps to the 23 minute mark after the first commercial break). I watched the last 10 minutes all the way through and this looked pretty great. So from what I saw here and the other bits I'd have to say this is pretty good to great stuff. I hesitate to go higher of course but it does have the potential to rate even higher. This just so physical throughout and a real testament to the high level of skill it takes to do do these long matches... not just the physical endurance but the presence of mind to tell a story. Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith (11/23/85): The Bulldogs' muscles are nearly bursting out of their skin...holy cow boys...it's difficult to see how hard they were hitting the juice especially given the results down the road. That's all in the past now... so let's talk about the match. And what a match this was! Fast paced, all action wrestling right here. Hansen and Ted wrestle a Bulldogs match...and don't steam roll 'em either. It ends sooner than we'd all like but damn this was great. DiBiase was especially good with the lads. But Hansen going beast mode on Dynamite is noteworthy as well. Definitely put this on your watch-list Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Nick Bockwinkle/Curt Hennig (11/23/85): Fuck yes, mid 80's AWA Curt Hennig. Bockwinkel back in AJPW... and versus Jumbo & Tenryu. This was great stuff for sure. All the little touches from Bock made this really special in my eyes. Things got a little loose at the finish but its an early Real World Tag match so really no gripes. This delivers. Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr. v. Harley Race/Jesse Barr (11/27/85): Long match but a really good one. This was probably more paced & worked like it was 1975 at times but, after a few minutes I was digging it. You just have to get in that head space. Once you're there then, there's a lot to like here - Dory hitting hard, Baba doing big moves taking big bumps, Harley giving it his all and Jesse Barr does not look out of place either. It has been a minute since the last Baba match but this was a fine one to come back to. Now that's a fucking fancy ring jacket! The Bob Newhart of pro wrestling is going to kick some ass. ----- Tiger Mask v. Dynamite Kid (11/27/85): I started out watching this and comparing it to Sayama Tiger vs Dynamite based off the first little bit. It was not a fair or warranted comparison so, I waited an hour or so and started this again. I was glad that I did. This is very much young Misawa vs Dynamite Kid. And it's a really good match! And in fact its a near great match. Unfortunately this ended just as things were really starting to cook. In fact, I think this had the potential to be better overall than many of the original TM vs DK (and I'm not a hater, go back and read my Tiger Mask blogs from a couple years ago). I just think Dynamite was a little smarter now, Misawa has a different style, etc. My guess is this was perhaps the beginning of a program between the two and it was in the middle of the RWTL so Baba didn't want to risk their injury (but you wouldn't know that from this!). Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Rusher Kimura/Goro Tsurumi (11/27/85): Good match with a really good final third. I'm going to put some little spoilers in here so you check it out.. at least skim through it... because they do a top rope back drop (back suplex is what I think its called in the States) and Tenryu finishes things up with a power bomb (it's not super smooth like we come to see but shit doesn't it look like it hurts... aka head bouncing off the mat potential). Anyhow both moves are super high end for '85. ----- Stan Hansen v. Ashura Hara (11/27/85): Shorter than I would have liked but hot damn! this is good shit. They are just beating the crap out of each other. They are laying in all of their shots. It's hard to tell but I think Hansen's eye is closing up on the way back to the locker room. If you're like me and disappointed from their match in the 70's from Hansen's AJPW Classics special (which many folks probably own or have seen) then THIS is the Ashura Hara vs Stan Hansen bout you were hoping for. Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Harley Race/Jesse Barr (11/30/85): Fast paced and surprisingly move heavy. We open up with Race & Hansen potato-ing each other in the best way. Then DiBiase & Barr are young and want to show the crowd what they can do. Stan and Harley get in on the action and we get a really, really good match. Had the thing gone on longer, I think it would have been a great one. Jesse Barr is Art Barr's older brother and Jimmy Jack Funk in the WWF...Terry and Dory Jr.'s kayfabe brother btw. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith v. Tiger Mask/Mighty Inoue (11/30/85): Great all action match that would be quality stuff in 1995, 2005 etc. I got serious 1988-92 AJPW all Asia tag title match vibes here. If you dig those Can Am/Footloose, Kobashi era matches, check this out this one. Again, 1985 Misawa doesn't get a lot of talk but as Tiger Mask he was pretty awesome. He's settled down from trying to do an homage to Sayama Tiger and really wrestles like you'd expect a young Mitsuharu Misawa to wrestle ----- Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (11/30): This is from the 1985 TV episode and is joined in progress by like a minute. That makes no difference really. This is an amazing RWTL match...I was totally geeking out by the end! Maybe it's that we haven't seen a Riki & co. tag vs Jumbo & Tenryu in awhile but this near, if not at, the top of the list. Everything seemed right here. A precursor to the 01/28/86 match perhaps? More proof that Yoshiaki Yatsu is under rated for his AJPW work...excellent evidence for the Jumbo/Tenryu tag chemistry greatness, Riki Choshu is THE MAN for a hot tag-in. Yeah classic match in my book. An excellent week of wrestling. It did make me miss guys from earlier in 1985 that we haven't seen in awhile like: Animal Hamaguchi, Kuniaki Kobayashi & Takashi Ishikawa most notably. So we're almost done with 1985 All Japan. There's just one more post (Dec. '85) and then I'm thinking of using the rest of the year to tie up some loose blog ends...GAEA '99, a couple high end matches I skipped over earlier in the year, etc. Thank you very much for reading!

And we're back with AJPW 1985. We're looking at October. Riki Choshu vs Ashura Hara (10/04 aired 10/12): I noticed I had no Riki Choshu this post. The booking has separated Riki/partner from Jumbo & Tenryu for a little bit. Presumably to build to another encounter for RWTL drama. Anyway this was blazing right out of the gate. Full speed ahead ass kicking. Unfortunately it didn't get too far in before a DQ was called but Damn! this was a blast while it lasted. Dory and Terry Funk v. Road Warriors (10/19/85): Not to be a bummer but, looking at these guys in 1985, it's a shock Dory Jr. is the only one still alive. Not the two muscle bound giants or the crazy bearded brawler but the guy who looks like an old Charlie Brown. I don't consider Road Warriors matches more than novelty outings at this point. ------ Ric Flair v. Jumbo Tsuruta (Non-Title, 10/19/85): These two always have a great encounter and this was no different. Technical and hard hitting so I can't complain. Seeing as this is a non title fight it added a bit of drama (that we don't get in hindsight with big title matches). ----- Shoehi Baba/Takashi Ishikawa/Mighty Inoue v. Ashura Hara/Rusher Kimura/Goro Tsurumi (10/21/85): A really fun match. Although Baba is regularly an excellent 6-manner, it was best when he was out. Ishikawa & Inoue had a really fast paced match going on with the heel team. Kabuki v. Killer Khan (10/21/85): Good brawl but over before it had a chance to be better. Ref saw Kabuki spit the mist in Khan's eyes. Dory and Terry Funk/Tiger Mask v. Billy Robinson/Terry Gordy/Chavo Guerrero (10/21/85): This is a fun match and something you'd dream up for a video game or fantasy booking. I've seen it a few times so I won't review it here. One of the more memorable times was watching this the night before my last day at work before getting laid off. I remember getting drunk that night and after I ran out of beer, I started drinking gin & Gatorade. Threw up. Big surprise! Was super hung over and late to work the next day... what were they going to do? Fire me? Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Road Warriors (10/21/85): Probably the best Warriors match thus far. Not a novelty as this was pretty damn good! They actually sold and wanted to do good wrestling with Tenryu and Jumbo. This was a heavyweight fireworks match for '85. If I'm going to recommend a RW in AJPW '85, it's this one. Holy Shit an actual wrestling hold from Animal! ----- Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (NWA Title v. AWA Title, 10/21/85): Fuck yes! This was awesome! This is the match that I was hoping it would be. The pacing and flow were perfect and I felt like I could have watched this go on all evening. Excellent teases, near falls (even though you probably know the outcome)/..but you really don't know how they are going to get there 38 years later. Classic match for me. Dory and Terry Funk v. Terry Gordy/Art Crews (10/22/85): Good little match here. Art Crews was a good hand it would seem. Everything he did looked crisp but without trying to upstage the stars. Don't think I'll see him again in '85 but this match is a good example of some of non-stars working AJPW at the time. Mil Mascaras v. Norio Honaga (10/22/85): Quick fun match. Cool to see Mascaras. This was a nice exhibition showing. He did a bunch of cool holds and although Honaga never had a chance, he got a 2 count Ric Flair/Rick Martel v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (10/22/85): Dream match? Yeah absolutely... no idea this happened but glad it did! And its a great one. It's a terrific match for a Sunday night. Four hall of fame wrestlers in AJPW 1985...it's hard to go wrong here. ----- This was an excellent week of wrestling. Lotsa Rick Martel and I even skipped one, Martel vs Riki Choshu from 10/19/85. It's out there on the Roy 1985 tapes, take a look. We're going onto November '85. Thanks for reading!