Search the Community

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.

Talk about it here.

Yukari Lynch "the female Giant Baba", real name Yukari Kawamura Yukari Lynch made her debut in AJW at the young age of 14 in 1975 after being scouted by AJW for her height, (her billed height is 180cm but Weekly Asahi lists it as 185cm), and because of her unique look due to being half white. Because she was biracial, Yukari was made into a heel and would team with whichever foreigners were on tour with AJW but she was promoted in the press with Mach Fumiake and an early Beauty Pair as their villain before Black Pair formed. She didn't stick with wrestling long enough to become skilled, she was reportedly slow in the ring and relied on elbow strikes and kicks for offense, and she reportedly decided to retire early in her career because she was sick of being a villain. After retirement she became a kickboxing instructor and worked as a hostess where she would be arrested for drug possession in April 1985, the possible reason why she was thoroughly erased from AJW's official history; she's only seen or mentioned in a match clip from the 1988 AJW home video release, ZenJo Fighting Again.

Talk about it here.

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!

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

I'm going to work my way through 1980, covering as many different promotions and styles as possible. If all goes well I'm going to try and continue this on and tackle the rest of the 1980s. This project will have an eye towards the GWE project and I'll try and contribute in those threads as I build up familiarity with these workers. Often in the match reviews I won't be giving detailed breakdowns of the action, as it would probably be as interesting to read as it would be to write, but instead I'll outline my observations in regards to specific performances or general comments on my likes and dislikes from a particular match. I will give star ratings for as many matches as possible but for clarity's sake, just know that I don't get too granular with the ratings until the 4 star threshold. So everything below that is grouped into tiers. For example 3 stars means it fell within the range of 3 stars and 3 3/4 stars. The reason for this is I just find it too difficult to separate quality at that level. Anyway, without further ado let's begin! JANUARY Date: 1980-01 (Month Only) Promotion: ICW Match: Ronnie Garvin vs Bob Orton Jr. Rating: ★ This is from sometime in January 1980 and is the earliest I’ve seen from either guy. The work between the ropes was solid enough from both men but the setting just screamed low rent and the commentary (which included Lanny Poffo) gave the impression that everything was inconsequential. They maybe had 10-15 people sitting at ringside and I can’t recall a single person reacting to anything that happened, including Orton nailing Garvin with a chain and drawing blood. The finish soured an otherwise inoffensive match as Orton’s manager blatantly tripped Garvin in full view of the referee to trigger a DQ and then Orton went straight to the chain, however he inexplicably tried to conceal it from the referee despite the match already being over. Pretty forgettable all round. Date: 1980-01-04 Promotion: AJW Match: Rimi Yokota vs Chino Sato Rating: ★★★ This kicked off with a bang as both made a beeline to the outside and Yokota took a nutty bump straight over into the front row seats. After this we settled in a bit with Sato mostly working from on top. Her offense was well targeted on Yokota’s leg and Yokota was doing a hell of a job selling it. There was a real sense of desperation from her to get out of the various holds and to the ropes. When she did get an opportunity to mount an attack it was lightning quick and her agility really popped off the screen. They lost their way a bit as they got into the second half of the match as it kind of felt like they were killing time waiting for the end and there was a little rally at the end as both tried to grab the win before the time limit expired. Overall I think I preferred Sato’s offense but Yokota displayed some awesome presence, athleticism, and absolute grade A selling during the first half especially. A key thing that stood out after having not watched much women’s wrestling recently, is how the manner in which women emote in contrast to the men lends itself to such an interesting dynamic. There’s a sense of disdain and even spitefulness in their actions which I think is absent from men’s wrestling in general which I really appreciated and was definitely present here. Date: 1980-01-04 Promotion: AJW Match: Jackie Sato vs Tomi Aoyama Rating: ★★★ Champion vs champion matchup here as Jackie is the WWW Singles Champion and Aoyama holds the Pacific belt. Much like how Lucha title matches are held up as more technical and with far less brawling, this match definitely had more that feeling compared to the previous one. Aoyama’s work on the arms and legs here was great, doing a brilliant job implying torque when she wrenched on anything and it really conveyed the pain she was inflicting. Her work on the leg was particularly important as Jackie’s arsenal consisted of a series of vicious looking backbreakers that she could potentially nullify. Both took to the sky more often as the urgency of the match built culminating in Jackie hitting a backdrop suplex on Aoyama. Think the idea was for Aoyama to kick the ropes and spin out but she under-rotated and landed right on her head. This fed into a double KO finish which felt a bit off as I’m not sure how you could reasonably say Jackie was out of it at that point. Wouldn’t have surprised me if the call was an audible considering Aoyama looked completely dazed after the head drop. Bit of a dud finish considering, but both showed off some delightful offense and Aoyama’s limb work in particular was satisfyingly focused. Date: 1980-01-04 Promotion: Houston Wrestling Match: The Spoiler vs Ox Baker Rating: ★ Ox Baker has an amazing look with big bushy mutton chops that meet up with his moustache and continues to droop down into a sort of mutton chop fu-manchu. It’s a shame that his in ring skills don’t match up to his facial hair game. Generally the match was worked around Baker trying to dislodge Spoiler’s mask or gripping him in a bear hug and the Spoiler applying claw holds. I think Paul Boesch was on commentary and he spent a LOT of time explaining the moves and how they were effective. This is a red flag to me that what the guys in the ring are doing looks like shit and needs camouflaging somehow. Definitely wouldn’t call this dynamic. Ended in a time limit draw. The most exciting part was the brief back and forth blows that came after the bell. Generally a pretty dull match. Date: 1980-01-04 Promotion: Houston Wrestling Match: Jose Lothario, Kerry Von Erich & Tiger Conway Jr. vs. Gino Hernandez, Gran Markus & Killer Brooks Rating: ★★ So for this event there were two rings placed side by side and clearly this match is the reason why. A man from each team is allowed inside each ring at a time, whilst the third acts as a floater or free man (like some sort of football/soccer training drill) and they are able to tag into either ring as they see fit. A bit of an unusual stipulation that I haven’t seen before, and to be honest I wasn’t a big fan of it. The fact that basically two matches were going on simultaneously made it hard to track what was happening, but at the same time, it also felt like wasted energy, as often one of the rings just had guys doing placeholder offense like you would see in a generic battle royal. Any kind of heat that built up was blown off once they tagged out and things kind of just “started fresh” when they tagged into the opposite ring. I think Gino did the heavy lifting for the heel team as Brooks and Markus felt like the biggest dead weights of the six men. He was definitely the most dynamic seller and could dish it out when required as well. He provided a certain verve that popped compared to everyone else. The match ended with the heel team blowing up on each other after Gino accidentally nailed Markus with a top rope knee drop. Markus took umbrage with this leading Gino and Brooks taking him out and leaving him a bloody mess. Presume this will line up some Markus v Gino/Brooks singles matches in the future. Nothing too offensive here and each guy got a few moments to shine but generally pretty forgettable. Date: 1980-01-04 Promotion: Houston Wrestling Match: Dusty Rhodes vs. Superstar Billy Graham Rating: ★★ ⅔ falls match for the Brass Knuckles Championship. I would have assumed that either man would be wielding brass knuckles or it would play into the match in some way but a brief Wikipedia search implies that over time this match ended up being more akin to a No DQ match and that’s closer to what we get here. Dusty is the champion. First fall has Graham targeting the neck, initially with some straight fingered jabs to the throat and then using the top rope as leverage to drive Dusty’s throat into the lower rope which was a fantastic visual. Dusty however mounts a quick comeback and grabs a flash pin after his patented elbow. The second fall was all about the bear hug. Graham works this hold better than I’ve seen others do it (Ox Baker earlier in the night for one), but a bear hug is still a bear hug and boring offense is boring offense. Dusty nearly springs free a few times but third time’s a charm and Graham gets the pin while applying the hold. The third fall and the match ends on a double countout. Graham tried to take advantage with some rope he got from under the ring but with both men out of the ring and brawling on the floor they were called for the countout. I have to say that Graham was more mobile and moved much better than I expected based on my previous glimpses of him and the most interesting part of the match was his neck attacks in the first fall. Considering it was a No DQ match, the referee did make a somewhat pathetic attempt to prevent the choking on the ropes but I’m getting the sense that all of Houston’s referees are about 105 years old so there was no hope for him there. Dusty brought what you would expect Dusty to bring to a match but it peaked early and never really got out of second gear. Date: 1980-01-05 Promotion: PNW Match: Buddy Rose, Sam Oliver Bass, Butch Miller & Luke Williams vs Roddy Piper, Rick Martel, Stan Stasiak and Dutch Savage Rating: ★★ This match was pure bedlam for the first five minutes or so. All eight men were coming in and out of the ring and the referee was having a hell of a time keeping everything under control. The entire face team each had their moments to come in and basically tee-off on a heel member and with Martel and Piper I knew what to expect and that’s basically what I got, but the big surprise here was Stan Stasiak. I’m sure I’ve seen at least one of his matches versus Sammartino in the past, but honestly I don’t remember anything from them, I just knew that I recognised his old timey hairstyle. Having said that, the fire that he displayed during his first stretch in the ring was off the charts and truly blew me away as I wasn’t expecting it at all. The heel team to their credit also didn’t hang about when they got the opportunity to isolate one of the faces. The Sheepherder’s in particular were brutal in their approach and instead of sitting in a resthold they went straight to a reverse choke hold or other offense that targeted the windpipe and just then backed off before the ref’s five count. As the first fall reached the 10-15 minute mark the match lost its way a bit. The face team were able to get some elongated heat on the heels, as they managed a carousel of false tags behind the referee’s back which I wasn’t super into and it kind of killed the momentum of the match. Each member would come in and grab the arm and start working it. So credit for a consistent team-wide approach but the arm work never felt like it was working towards a legitimate submission or to wear down their man, but just as a tool to keep the fake tag schtick going. The heels finally got ahold of Stan and went after his leg. Commentary noted that they’d injured it previously so it made sense and they wrecked it against the ring post and got the submission out of a Boston Crab. Weird decision to have Stan start the second fall (not sure if the loser of the previous one had to start the following) but he was moving very gingerly on his injured leg and tagged out immediately after Bass went for it again. I wonder why he didn’t tag out immediately or just have somebody else start the fall? It was pretty clear we were heading towards an expiry of allotted time as the countdown began from the ring announcer. Roddy played face in peril and this was the most invested I was in the match apart from the first 5-10 minutes of the match. Roddy’s selling was pretty good here and he sprinkled in a few fightback spots at the right times. I just wish that this segment had occurred earlier in the match instead of at the end when it already felt like the match had slipped away from the face team. Ultimately, with only a minute remaining, we got all eight men in the ring for a final climax before time expired giving Rose’s army the win 1-0. I loved the first 5 or so minutes then the pace dragged down and the faces just got too much control over the match and didn’t do enough interesting things with it. We all know that Rose was the key man in Portland but Piper really stood out here as the huge deal. I had my issues with the match but as a dip my toe in the water match, it’s gotten me excited to work my way through the rest of the Portland stuff. Date: 1980-01-08 Promotion: AJPW Match: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Billy Robinson & Dutch Mantell Rating: ★★ A lot of this match, especially when Robinson in there, was worked in the old-school matwork style. He definitely made a concerted effort to come across as a very “sporting adversary”, constantly moving away from his man when they were in the ropes and declining to attack Jumbo when Mantel had his arms pulled back from behind. They also played this aspect up on commentary as well. With this in mind I thought that Mantel worked as a good foil for Robinson, as he brought a much more standard US flavour, didn’t seem particularly interested in, or able to, trade holds with Baba or Jumbo, so instead when he was in the ring the pace quickened and we got a lot more strikes. Jumbo vs Robinson was a bit tired, but we got some light hearted comedy when Baba entered the fray. They ran a sequence with Robinson backed against the ropes and he was able to block Baba’s chop. Later on we got the reverse and Baba blocked Robinson’s punch. This irked Robinson and once again the tone switched with him ramping up the aggression. Jumbo managed to generate this response later on as well, giving Robinson a little slap to the face as he was backing away from the ropes triggering a rampage of strikes. In the end we all knew that Mantel was gonna be the one going down, the question was how. Ultimately he got caught by Jumbo, he and Baba double teamed the leg and we quickly transitioned into a Boston Crab with Baba running interference on Billy. Job done, let’s go home. Pissed off Robinson was easily the highlight of the match. Jumbo, when he wasn’t working on top against Mantel, I thought was a little uninspired. Date: 1980-01-09 Promotion: Joint Promotions Match: Giant Haystacks & Mighty John Quinn vs Honeyboy Zimba & Dave Bond Rating: ★★ Another first here as I hadn't seen a World of Sport match before. Giant Haystacks was billed as 6’11”, which is Charles Barkley levels of height inflation. He works a bit like a homeless man’s Andre the Giant, but I can’t argue with how over he is with the crowd. Incidentally I’m sure Giant Haystacks is one of a literal handful of wrestlers that my Mum could name off the top of her head, indicating his relative cultural impact in the UK at the time. Another note is that the team of Zimba and Bond were referred to by both the ring announcer and on commentary as the “negro team” which I found incredibly jarring. I feel like this is something that would have been completely unthinkable by the late 1980s on national television, but I guess here we were only 2 years removed from Viv Anderson being the first black man to play for England so maybe that explains it. Anyway, this was a super fun match. It never dragged at all, even if it never elevated to anything particularly substantial. Not sure if the arena/ring was mic’d up unusually well or if the crowd were really that into it but the atmosphere was incredible. Quinn, both after the first fall and after the match, grabbed the mic from the announcer and generated volcanic heat, spouted on about how he and Haystacks were going to go undefeated and that this is what he returned from North America for. I don’t know his history in the UK, but the crowd were so good at reacting to him literally opening his mouth. All I have to say is that iIf all WOS matches are like this then watching them will be a breeze. Date: 1980-01-09 Promotion: Joint Promotions Match: Catweazle vs Steve Peacock Rating: ★ I ended up going back to watch this as I couldn’t resist checking out a Catweazle match. Along with Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks and Kendo Nagasaki, Catweazle was the only World of Sport name that I’d heard of, and he does have some reputation. I like comedy in wrestling but I’m not a fan of comedy wrestling and this decidedly is that. I’ll admit I found a large portion of the act entertaining, and I’m sure most would on first watch, however I feel that it would have diminishing returns the more times one saw him wrestle. The crowd certainly were very into it for what it’s worth. If comedy is your thing then this is definitely worth checking out at least Date: 1980-01-09 Promotion: Joint Promotions Match: Jon Cortez vs Tommy Lorne Rating: N/A We only get the first 3 rounds here. Jon Cortez has the moves, but it definitely feels like he’s wrestling to get in sync with Lorne here for the most part. There’s clearly times where he tries leading Lorne into a sequence and they fumble it. Ken Walton on commentary mentions that Cortez has been away from wrestling for a while, so perhaps it’s a little bit of rust on his end, but I get the sense it was more of an ability failing on Lorne’s part. Things got a lot more interesting as Lorne’s irritation grew at being out-wrestled and his style became much scrappier. Even then, Cortez had his number, dishing out a series of nice looking strikes to prove he could mix it up as well when required. That’s as far as we got before the tape ran out. Date: 1980-01-09 Promotion: Joint Promotions Match: Mick McManus vs Jackie Turpin Rating: ★★ Jackie Turpin looks like 80s era Freddie Mercury while McManus looks like the creepy uncle who can’t quite accept that he’s getting old. You would be forgiven for thinking that his jet black hair would start to smudge off as soon as he got into a headlock. McManus seems to be one of those veteran guys who’s got his list of patented spots and way he likes to go about business and you can kind of plug his opponent into it. I found his work on top to be really compelling. He’s a nasty little shit, he’ll punch you when you least expect it, he’s constantly pushing the limits of the rules and it feels like the real match is between him and the referee to see whether he has the balls to actually disqualify him. While I liked McManus’ offense, it felt like he was on top for too long. Turpin here was the hometown boy, actually hailing from Leamington Spa, and you wouldn’t know it as the crowd were dead as a doornail for the majority of this. I got the sense that Turpin was a bit green but still there was little to no response for any of his hope spots. McManus was also less than giving when he was selling, which seemed to lessen the impact. The match ends with McManus receiving his second warning for shoving Turpin over the ropes after the bell for the second fall. So while the score was 1-1, Turpin is the victor by DQ. Date: 1980-01-11 Promotion: AJPW Match: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Billy Robinson Rating: N/A We have the majority of the first fall here clipped. Title on the screen indicates that 32 minutes have already passed and the video is 30 minutes long so here we go, 60 minute draw. This is really the first time I’ve got to see Billy Robinson really let loose with his offense so far in 1980. He has such a variety of moves, especially when viewed through this AJPW setting that it jumps off the screen. He destroys Jumbo with a series of strikes, a double arm suplex and a backbreaker for a near fall before Jumbo flips the script and comes right back to put him away for the first fall. I can’t speak on the whole fall because we don’t have most of it, but it felt a bit unearned for Jumbo to just push aside the flurry of offense he had just taken and be able to take that first fall. Billy takes a running knee to the shoulder to start the second fall and he really oversells it, and I mean this as a compliment. He immediately dives to the outside to regroup and this gives Jumbo the opportunity to target the leg for the remainder of the fall. I thought Billy’s selling throughout this fall was really good. He ramped it up to get over the severity of his shoulder injury early, then dialled it back as needed to fit in with the allotted time required for the second fall, which coincidentally he secured with another series of offensive bombs. The third fall was basically a scramble. There was just under 10 minutes remaining and Jumbo really made a dash for the win to start. Billy injured his own knee on a backbreaker attempt and we had some struggle over a figure four leading to the expiry of time. If we had the first fall I might have been able to rank this as GOOD, but Billy definitely stood out here with both his offensive execution and his great selling during the second fall. Jumbo kind of felt like a blank canvas without anything truly memorable to point to. Date: 1980-01-11 Promotion: Houston Wrestling Match: Gino Hernandez vs Kevin Von Erich Rating: N/A We don’t get the finish here as the match is clipped due to what I believe is a TV curfew. Kevin shows off his athleticism as he nails a huge dropkick and a jumping elbow drop that gets wow’s from the crowd. Gino again is a fun watch. His selling can be a bit goofy and I continue to be put off by his PS2 era pixelated hair style, but he’s an engaging worker. We didn't get the full match but they worked at a solid pace, both guys were able to show off their stuff. I will say that the transition from Kevin to Gino on offense was a bit sloppy. But Gino has been the best thing about Houston so far in 1980. Date: 1980-01-11 Promotion: Houston Wrestling Match: Mr. Hito & Mr. Sakurada vs. Jose Lothario & Tiger Conway Jr. Rating: ★ We get a classic USA vs Japan vibe here with JJ Dillon managing the heelish foreigner team. Will quickly point out here that there was a fan in the front row sporting a glorious emerald green Lucha mask. I would say that Tiger Conway Jr. jumps out as the most dynamic of the four workers overall. At least he displayed more energy and had some nice looking punches. The heel team were happy to sit in arm holds but at least they tagged frequently and displayed more overall cohesion as a team. We had two referees for this match. It’s something I’ve seen before but I can’t remember where, perhaps in a JCP match? Presumably it’s so that underhand stuff that a single referee would miss doesn’t get missed here. Speaking of referees, Houston wheeled out two veritable geriatrics here with a combined age of what must have been pushing 150. The older looking of the two got down to count the pin for the first fall and I honestly was surprised, and a little relieved, that he managed to get back up again. The Japanese team jumping the faces before the bell for the third fall was about as good as this got as once the fall got underway properly the pace slowed way down once again. Tiger looked to have the upper hand before getting smothered 2 against 1 and JJ Dillon’s team came out the victors. The final pinfall felt very flat, and really the takeaway was that the heel team was just better. No real heel shenanigans outside of some minor referee obstruction or hair pulling. Date: 1980-01-12 Promotion: WWF Match: Bob Backlund vs Bobby Duncan Rating: ★★★ Had such a blast watching this. This was a simple, meat and potatoes match. Backlund came in hot and jumped Duncum before the bell, got an extended shine before eating a quick jab to the throat for the transition, there was little bit of heat on Bob before they traded back and forth leading into the finish. The genius here is that Backlund didn’t oversell. He’s superman and it’s a question of when and not if that he’ll pull through. When he’s working on top he lays in his moves hard and fast, including a nasty looking piledriver where he even gets himself airborne and I’m surprised Duncum doesn’t legit have a broken neck. When he takes the heat his selling is subdued. Yes, he’s under the cosh but he’s still Bob Backlund, he’s still the champion, he’s not going down that easy. They go back and forth before Backlund ends up bleeding from just above the eye. Now it’s time and he begins the comeback and the crowd go ape shit. He’s up and wailing on Duncum but strangely the referee jumps in the way to break things up. Did I hear a bell? Things die down a bit and it’s announced that due to the drawing of blood Backlund loses the match but obviously retains the title. Real let down of a finish to be honest, considering how much fun the match was. I presume that this had something to do with the sporting commission in Pennsylvania, but I’m not sure. Beyond Backlund’s performance here I think it’s worth noting how the general presentation made such a positive difference. The Spectrum crowd were wild, with several horns being let off at various points, Vince was giving it all on commentary, and even little things like how the referee would count pins really fast just pushed the match along at breakneck speed. Everything just combined for a somewhat exhilarating watching experience. If it wasn’t for the bullshit finish I could be pushed to go 4 stars for this. Date: 1980-01-12 Promotion: WWF Match: Hulk Hogan vs Tito Santana Rating: ★★ This was a real quick one and got the job done. Hulk’s brawn matched up against Tito’s speed and technical skill. Early on Tito was able to get the upper hand, his arm drags forcing Hulk to take a couple breathers on the outside to collect himself. This is the first time I’ve seen Hulk challenged so far in the WWF, as his TV performances up to this point have had him destroying jobbers, often two at a time in handicap matches. As Tito continued to keep Hulk under general control Hogan went for the eye rake and from there it was good night. The finishing stretch lasted a couple minutes but once Hogan reversed the momentum there was no coming back. Tito kicked out of a few leg drops, even avoided a third before eventually falling to the Hulkster following a running collision with the turnbuckles. Date: 1980-01-12 Promotion: PNW Match: Harley Race vs Rick Martel Rating: ★★★ Race comes into the territory to put over the new kid on the block. Martel worked over Race’s arm for the majority of the first fall, keeping him grounded. I liked the fact that he was constantly working it, wrenching or yanking on it every minute or so, just to keep it interesting. Race wasn’t bringing much when he was underneath, however he did come alive when it was time to dish it out. His brief run on offense had him basically unload his entire arsenal of moves, including a running high knee that looked like it killed Martel. This just worked to emphasise the importance of Martel’s strategy of keeping him grounded at the start to avoid the danger that he posed. The second fall had Martel pushing the pace more to come back from the deficit. He went toe to toe with Race and managed to latch on the sleeper to tie things up. I know that it’s not as unusual in 1980, but I loved that a “generic” sleeper was a fall finisher here. Plus the whole deal of Martel having to wake up Race by undoing the effect of the sleeper is just something you never see any more. The sleeper made a comeback in the third fall, first as a transition to the outside to eat up some clock, then as a false finish with Martel having it locked on Race as time expired. Really strong match. There was a little clipping in the third fall and I think the first fall was perhaps a little long but Race really put over Martel, putting him in good stead for the rest of his stay in Portland. Date: 1980-01-13 Promotion: AWA Match: Lord Alfred Hayes vs Bobby Heenan Rating: ★★ No idea of the backstory to this but presume it’s a manager vs manager match. I believe Heenan was managing Bockwinkel at this time and considering Hayes’ trajectory over the next few years on WWF television, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t an active full-timer at this point. Heenan, as ever, was a heel, but Hayes wasn’t above a little bit of chicanery himself, highlighted by the fact that he used the ropes as leverage for the winning pinfall. Heenan played up being the more incompetent of the two in terms of in-ring skills while Hayes showed off a little bit of his catch moves and displayed a pretty awesome looking punch. The match didn’t last long but it was a fun watch and definitely didn’t outstay its welcome. Date: 1980-01-18 Promotion: NJPW Match: Stan Hansen vs Riki Choshu Rating: ★★ 5 minute squash match to build Hansen before his match with Inoki the following month. Hansen’s in full “tornado” mode here from start to finish. We do get a brief moment where Choshu is able to string together a couple moves and you can already see the charisma and the connection with the crowd. I’m not sure if he’s still in young lion mode or slightly more established but his hair cut would indicate he’s very early in his career here. Either way, Stan didn’t like that one bit. He flung Choshu off the ropes and the big boy nailed him with a dropkick! From then on Hansen just abused him on the outside, laying in strikes with the padded part of his arm. Choshu got some colour before he’s mercifully pinned but this was all about Hansen and the carnage that he left in his wake. Bring on Inoki! Date: 1980-01-18 Promotion: NJPW Match: Tatsumi Fujinami & Kantaro Hoshino vs Dynamite Kid & Steve Keirn Rating: ★★★★ I’ve seen some Fujinami from 78-82 before and I remember there being a bit of a disconnect for me, so I’m hoping this watchthrough brings more of his greatness to the surface. His partner Hoshino looks like an overgrown baby with tiny legs sprouting out of his stocky torso. This contrasts so starkly with Fujinami who is one of the most proportional wrestlers I’ve ever seen. Keirn, who I’m unfamiliar with, is the NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion and works more as the “heavy” to Dynamite’s speedy approach. The first fall was unsurprisingly at its best when Fujinami and Dynamite were matched up but also Fujinami did some great work on the apron, his frustration growing as the gaijin team were able to isolate Hoshino. The finish actually had Fujinami get caught up in a double team himself and falling to a Dynamite diving headbutt. A pindrop could be heard in the arena. Interestingly this was generally a very quiet crowd. I’ve read before about the differing crowd demographics at each Japanese promotion, but I can’t remember what the composition of the New Japan one was supposed to be at this time. It felt very high brow, like a theatre show rather than a wrestling show, especially compared to the AJW crowd from earlier in the month. Second fall has Fujinami flip the script and nails a brainbuster on Kid. One note I had was that Hoshino nailed Keirn with a very stiff dropkick and when Keirn and Kid worked him over while tied up in the ropes later on, I couldn’t help but feel that they were giving him a receipt for that. Just feels like something Kid would do. The finish to the third, and the match, had Fujinami using his tope to clear the ring and set up the 1v1 with Hoshino and Keirn. Hoshino went for a cross body off the top rope. Keirn catches him in mid-air and nails him with a shoulder breaker for the win. I’ve seen it multiple times before, but it’s been so long since I’ve watched a Fujinami match that I had forgotten, but his tope is surely one of the most exciting moves in wrestling, and particularly in 1980. Even as he revs up to deliver it you can sense the electricity in the crowd and the velocity he generates as he zips through the ropes, truly extraordinary. The match overall was kind of “you-get-what-you-expect” from Fujinami and Kid. Hoshino however was a nice surprise. He packs some punch and is really agile for a man with his body composition. Keirn was definitely an afterthought here. Date: 1980-01-19 Promotion: PNW Match: Buddy Rose vs Stan Stasiak Rating: ★★ Stan has really been a bit of a revelation for me in Portland so far. For somebody who looks like they could be your Grandad he really was charismatic. He’s not gonna wow anybody with moves (like at all) but generally I think his facial expressions add that extra flavour to his actions and they really get the crowd on his side. And boy does he have a good punch. Probably to be expected from somebody whose signature move is the Heart Punch but when he gets Rose into a headlock and then lets one go it really looks beautiful. Rose on the other hand does a great job of just being a smarmy little prick. He’s not subtle but he doesn’t go overboard either. It was things like after losing the first fall to the Heart Punch, complaining to the referee that the punch skidded off his chest and actually got him in the throat or nonchalantly hitting a knee drop off the ropes between falls, like a child trying to get away with something naughty behind the teacher’s back. It adds a little variety, oozes character, but without coming across like a caricature. The match itself was a great deal of fun. Stan stuck Rose in a toe hold for too long during the first fall and the footage I watched didn’t have the third fall but I had a whale of a time with what we had. Date: 1980-01-21 Promotion: WWF Match: Bob Backlund vs Ken Patera Rating: ★★ Backlund, unsurprisingly, works on top for large stretches of this match. The early portion had him working either a headlock or the arm, and his row-the-boat motion when on the arm is a great example of Bob’s trademarked goofiness. This was also a spot that he went back to three separate times, which definitely got stale. Vince on commentary is playing this up as Backlund’s wrestling acumen vs Patera’s strength. This then gets flipped as Backlund, while in a headlock, is able to hoist Patera off the ground and just plonk him on the top rope. When I was in primary school, we used to play-fight in the playground during break. There would always be that one kid that, no matter what, wouldn’t take any “damage”. Somebody punches them and nothing. A kick? Nothing. They would take move after move and just power through them until they pissed everybody off and we stopped playing. That is Backlund. He’s the goofy kid who always thinks he’s the main character, thinks he’s Superman. In regards to Bob, it’s not strictly a criticism, just an observation, but he absolutely forces his opponent to earn their time on top. Back to the match, after a somewhat pedestrian first half, things picked up on the back nine. Bob countered a headlock with an Atomic Drop that Patera sold like pure gold and was probably my match highlight. Patera actually looked like he might be able to steal it at a couple points, once from a bear hug that transitioned into a pin and the second when they collided mid-ring and Patera fell onto Backlund. Backlund rarely taking a 2 count has been beaten into the ground at this point, and it doesn’t bother me most of the time, but I feel like he could have milked one of these for a near fall, instead we got two 1 counts. The match ended as a draw after a referee bump. Patera locking the Full Nelson on Backlund with the referee down provided the impetus for a rematch as Patera can point to having the match won. Finally things descended into chaos with wrestlers coming from the back to break things up. Overall I was a bit disappointed in Patera to be honest, Atomic Drop sell aside, he didn’t offer much. But I know that these two have better stuff coming later in the year. Date: 1980-01-22 Promotion: AJPW Match: Giant Baba vs Bruiser Brody Rating: ★ It’s really interesting to see Brody and Hansen running such similar gimmicks simultaneously in Japan. Brody gives off more of a weirdo vibe than menacing. Hansen always exudes violence whereas Brody is just the guy you’d move away from on the bus. I will say that I liked Brody’s knee drops and he bleeds well. His selling however is pretty atrocious. The closest he came was kind of cradling his head while walking around real fast. I can’t say I was more impressed with Baba here either though. Because Baba works so light he kind of needs somebody who sells well opposite him and here that wasn’t the case. Also, when he was working underneath (which was a lot of the time here, especially when he was getting choked out with a chain) he was pretty static and I don’t think he did a good job of garnering the necessary sympathy or getting across any sense that he was under threat. Often I think he can get away with it because he’s Giant Baba and that means something to the fans, but it was a miss here. I can’t even remember the result. Date: 1980-01-22 Promotion: WWF Match: Bruno Sammartino vs Larry Zbyszko Rating: ★★★★ Zbyszko finally has cajoled Sammartino into participating in a scientific exhibition match. It only lasts 10-15 minutes but they pack a lot into this time frame. Every time Larry tried something Bruno had a counter. Every time Bruno got the jump on Larry, he released the hold. Bit by bit you could see the frustration in Larry growing. When Bruno opened the ropes to allow him back in after he had tumbled to the floor it was the final straw. In a fury he viciously assaults Bruno, flings the referee out the ring and lays Bruno out with three chair shots, Bruno bleeds profusely over the floor and we’re done. Such a well packaged segment that is enhanced by the pretty amazing promos each guy had delivered leading up to it. This has to be the early frontrunner for best feud of 1980 no question. Date: 1980-01-25 Promotion: Houston Wrestling Match: Tony Atlas vs Maniac Mark Lewis Rating: ★ I think this is Atlas’ debut in Houston. Lewin plays up the Maniac moniker by twitching a lot. Lewin’s offense revolves around similar style chops and finger jabs to the throat that we saw Billy Graham use on Dusty a few days earlier. And well, it all looks pretty shit. Atlas is super expressive with his body movements when he’s on offense. Not a compliment. He looks like an overgrown child “playing wrestler”. Either way, his beatdown on Lewin, and he really is allowed to beat down on him, puts him over incredibly strong with the crowd. Lewin tries to use a foreign object but Atlas turns the tables. In the struggle Lewin ends up flying over the top rope and Atlas takes a DQ loss. The match puts Atlas over super strong but a flat ending to a pretty poor match Date: 1980-01-19 Promotion: PNW Match: Roddy Piper & Rick Martel vs The Sheepherders Rating: ★★★ Portland really loves a heel in peril sequence. A large chunk of the first fall had Piper and Martel completely control Williams using a series of headlocks. Honestly, it was a little lacklustre but things started picking up when the Sheepherders gained control and Miller specifically made a strong impression. I really liked how the Sheepherders consistently integrated choking into their offense. It doesn’t need to be an extended stretch or really lead to anything in particular, as it didn’t here, but by blatantly adding in stuff like this it adds a bit of authenticity to their heel work; being a heel vs playing a heel. Specifically Miller had a nasty move where he forced Piper into the ropes and then yanked it back, pulling the ropes straight through Piper’s throat and sending him flying across the ring. In the deciding fall Williams showed a sliver of vulnerability to the lower back and Piper and Martel really jumped on it. After Martel had hit a backbreaker and PIper had hit an atomic drop, I thought it was all over but things quickly spiralled out of control with Miller sending the referee flying over the top rope, Rose interjected himself into the events and Piper got his ear worked over pretty badly. We get an interview with the referee afterwards and he’s decided to keep the belts and the championship is vacated. Martel gives one of the best promos I’ve seen from him and Piper just put the cherry on the cake as, right in the middle of a usual Piper promo, he turned to look at Martel and disturbingly said “I don’t think I can hear anything”. That subtle change of tone added a level of verisimilitude that you rarely get from a wrestling promo. Really good stuff. The match itself delivered while not quite being great but I’m pumped for the rematch. Date: 1980-01-28 Promotion: Joint Promotions Match: John Elijah vs Smith Hart Rating: ★★ John “the Bear” Elijah is from Walthamstow and his hobby is the study of evolution! Amazing stuff. The poor ring announcer seemed to be going a bit senile. For two of the three falls he got the round number incorrect and ditto for the final result. Hart is one of the Hart brothers and at first glance he seemed pretty unremarkable. In the first fall he basically got nothing and when he did try something offensive, in this case a flying crossbody, he got caught and slammed for the first fall. He seemed a bit like a fish out of water and they did play up that this was his UK debut, so perhaps that was the intention and he did grow into the bout as it went along. He was decidedly more underhand than Elijah. Getting in a punch behind the ref’s back at one point, taking advantage of Elijah’s sportsmanship at others, and generally, without going overboard, coming across a bit more like a brat after being so thoroughly handled in the early stages. Elijah finished him off with some sort of sideways bearhug variation. It was nothing to brag about but if this is the middling stuff for World of Sport then I have high hopes for the top tier stuff to come. Date: 1980-01-28 Promotion: Joint Promotions Match: Mick McMichael vs Brian Maxine Rating: ★★★ This was a middleweight matchup. Maxine was being talked up as a reformed “heel”, he clearly had a reputation for blowing his lid and they had this narrative thread simmering throughout as he didn’t resort to outbursts in situations he would have done previously. So I found out that the senile ring announcer from the previous match is John Dale, Promoter of Dale Martin promotions which is under the Joint Promotions umbrella. He makes another gaff here after the first fall as he clearly has no idea what he’s supposed to be announcing and somebody from the crowd shouts out “You should have watched the match!”. There was more comedy here than in previous matches; McMichael got caught in a splits hold that he clearly doesn’t have the flexibility for (McMichael is a husky boy to say the least). Later on he apparently steals one of Maxine’s pet moves and scouts Maxine dropping to the mat during a rope running weave sequence and plops himself down beside him to take the piss. Another had McMichael throw a headbutt, dazing himself in the process and agreeing with Maxine that they wouldn't be doing any more of that. The end was a bit of a damp squib as they collided during another rope running sequence and the collision rendered McMichael incapacitated due to a “dislocated shoulder”, giving Maxine the win. The newly reformed Maxine declines such a win and instead it’s determined a no-contest. I thought overall this was a really good match. They sprinkled in the comedy at the right times without doing too much, there wasn’t any down period at all and Maxine did a good job of straddling that line between face and heel that I thought he was successful in what he was aiming for. Date: 1980-01-28 Promotion: Joint Promotions Match: Jon Cortez vs Peter Lapaque Rating: ★★★ This is a mixed weight match, with Cortez giving up 3 stone (42lb) on Lapaque. I get the sense that in these types of matchups, the lightweight is the more skilled and they’re going up a weight to test themselves. And that is exactly how they worked this, Lapaque didn’t work how I would imagine a heavyweight to work necessarily, but the way the match developed it was clear that Cortez wouldn’t be able to get the upper hand with strikes, and any time he tried they were brushed off a lot easier than in the reverse. Cortez perhaps had the better of the match before the first fall, but any rolls or moves he got in ultimately ended up with both men in or near the ropes thus precipitating a break. Lapaque took the first with a sunset flip and from there it seemed like Cortez had the uphill battle. He tried more of the aforementioned strikes but it seemed like the match was slipping away before a nice little rollup against the run of play tied things at one apiece, then a beautiful dropkick followed by Cortez folding up Lapaque took the match entirely. Date: 1980-01-28 Promotion: Joint Promotions Match: Johnny Saint vs Steve Grey Rating: ★★★★ ¼ Saint is the World Light Heavyweight Champion and Grey is the British Lightweight Champion and apparently Grey has a recent victory over Saint so the formbook is in his favour. I’ll admit that there was just too much going on to give a blow by blow account of the action, but essentially Saint had an arm/wrist hold for the majority and no matter the intricate reversals or escapes that Grey attempted, Saint was always able to maintain that hold. They maintained a relentless pace basically from bell to bell, with counter following counter and any time they stayed in a hold it was being worked for what it was worth. Saint grabbed the first fall, he baited Grey into false security by curling up into a ball in the centre of the ring, and from then on Grey was desperately trying to make up for the lost ground. His attacks became more high risk and this got him in hot water as he missed a knee drop and Saint immediately targeted his leg. At this point I was really caught up in the match. I truly didn’t think Grey could make it back from 1-0 down, his leg was being ravaged and a 2-0 clean sweep by Saint just seemed a foregone conclusion. Grey began to look more and more worn down however miraculously he managed to sneak pinfalls of his own in consecutive rounds in the 6th and 7th. His victory now sets up a title match the next time they meet, I don’t want to go overboard seeing how little of WoS I’ve seen so far, but I can’t praise this highly enough. Saint surely had the moves, but I did find Grey a little more compelling throughout, but they both brought enough to the table no doubt. This surely is the best match of 1980 so far and WoS is really showing itself off as being a style that has an incredibly high floor. Obviously I haven't seen enough to judge the high end yet and how high that goes, but no match so far has been less than thoroughly entertaining. Date: 1980-01-29 Promotion: SWCW Match: Tully Blanchard vs Wahoo McDaniel Rating: ★★★ There’s a brief Wahoo promo beforehand that indicated some previous between these two. Tully assumes he’s competing against El Texano, but right before the bell Wahoo makes the switch and Tully is not apoplectic. This was a quick 8-10 minute sprint. It was great fun just watching both guys lay their stuff in and everything both guys dished out looked really good. I was surprised by how good Tully was this early. He had the chickenshit heel thing down pat and his bumping was insane. Perhaps he went a little overboard at times but it was no less than dynamic. Eventually he’d taken enough of a beating and he took his belt and went home to give Wahoo the countout victory. Great short match that delivered on what it was trying to do.

The rush of great Jaguar Yokota matches continues. This was frickin AWESOME. It was kind of a preliminary to the later, bigger Sato/Yokota title match and mainly served the purpose of building up Jaguar, but for a match that is essentially typical half baked young wrestler gets first taste against the star this is really outstanding. Jaguar was absolutely ferocious. Picture Hashimoto, except lighter, faster, girlier, and replace the brutal kicks with brutal matwork. The wrestling was as tight and on point, while still keeping a graceful note, but the struggle and fighting and wild-eyed determination from Jaguar is what pushes it over the top. People talk about Jaguar having ahead-of-her-time offense, but fuck that talking point. She didn't need any of it. The basic spots, such as boston crabs, body scissors or small package holds were made into holy shit spots here. I mean seriously the technique is flawless, but the timing and defensive use of the moves is stunning. Some might argue that structurally the match was messy and had the kind of meandering spots typical of young wrestlers in big matches, but the focus of the match was Jaguar Yokota sticking it to Jackie Sato with a vengeance and that was present at all times. Sato was somewhat reserved, but a great foil for Jaguar's fury and added a few slick moves to the match. Also, there is some arm work that gets paid off nicely, and the repeated leg attack stuff from Jaguar gets played up later in the match, building to an incredible last 5 minutes.

1980-08-XX AJW Yumi Ikeshita vs. Rimi Yokota Guam ★★★ Firstly, these shows surely had one of the coolest ring mats of all time. It was dark blue with a vibrant flower design and what I think were palm tree leaves in the corner. Very striking indeed. I may be mistaken but all these matches came from their Guam tour of late August. Ikeshita is the current All-Pacific champion coming in, but I’m pretty sure that this was a non-title match. I felt that they told a really compelling story here. Yokota is improving month on month but Ikeshita is willing to stoop low and do what it takes to win, plus she had the numbers advantage with Masami roaming on the outside and willing to interfere when it mattered. Yokota brought it to Ikeshita to start but a few cheap shots gave control to Ikeshita and she started working at grinding Yokota down. Yokota had a moment where she ducked a lazy punch and countered with an Abdominal Stretch, and for a minute or so she had swung the momentum, but it was clear that unless she was willing to fight fire with fire she was going to come off worse. Ikeshita began focusing on the leg very intently, locking in a figure four and then a series of other leg holds. She benefited from Masami knocking Yokota’s hands away from the ropes and some incredibly lenient AJW refereeing, and was able to keep up the attacks on the leg for a considerable portion of the match. Sometimes the outside interference works against these AJW matches, but here the involvement of Masami worked really well. She didn’t do too much and it felt like Ikeshita was maintaining the advantage mostly on her own merit, and especially during the home stretch, it was only in the desperate moments did Masami really interfere. The turning point was actually Ikeshita introducing a foreign object into the fray. This seemed to be the catalyst Yokota needed to dig deep and something snapped within her. She fought back, got hold of the object herself and then laid waste to Ikeshita, Masami and even the referee (at least the leniency went both ways). Finally Yokota was upping the aggression and doing what she needed to overcome her opponent and things were far more 50/50 as things rolled towards the finish. Once the countdown began it was clear we were heading for a draw, but the way they worked this I thought was perfect considering the finish here. Yokota, just within this match, grew a lot and changed her approach when required and Ikeshita still came off as a badass but clearly she knew that this was a close call by the end. Sometimes it definitely goes overboard, but the weak referees and the constant numbers advantage the heels have in the promotion does stack the odds against the faces, but when they execute well and the face is able to succeed, it does deliver in a unique way, so I think that’s something to look out for in AJW’s booking approach moving forwards.

1980-07-XX AJW Jackie Sato vs Mami Kumano Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match ★★ This was an excellent performance from Jackie Sato. Easily the best she’s looked all year. Kumano as well gave a fine heel performance, however this match overall was dragged down by everything surrounding it. The ring was surrounded by a number of other wrestlers, including Monster Ripper, Kumano’s partner Ikeshita and Tomi Aoyama, a key babyface in the company. The heel wrestlers seemed to have carte blanche to do basically whatever they liked at any time. The second fall finished with Monster Ripper hauling Jackie into a Fireman’s Carry and then lugging her around the outside of the ring while the referee counted her out. Kumano had a long stretch where she was using a small screwdriver as a weapon. There was an attempt to conceal this weapon for the most part but in the end the referee got a bit too nosey for his own good and ended up getting a swift jab in the throat from it. How is a referee supposed to work under these conditions? Is he just supposed to continue like that never happened? He should have called his union. Anyway, if he’s got no authority to enforce any of the rules then what’s the point of having them, or having a referee for that matter? Why should I care about a rope break during a submission if there’s really no reason for anybody to release the hold? Why should we even have the match if a group of wrestlers can just haul one competitor outside the ring and contain them there to be counted out. Just feels a bit wishy-washy to me and it denigrates the whole match. Ultimately if this booking strategy was to make Jackie look like a superhero, overcoming insurmountable odds, then to a certain extent it was a success. The non-heel wrestlers on the outside were next to useless in preventing her from getting gang attacked and she managed to pull out the victory anyway. The stretches she had on offense were intense and impactful and she pulled out a wide variety of throws that just looked great. Kumano spent a great deal of time annihilating her with the screwdriver and she sold the shit out of it, especially when she got hit in the hand. Later on when they targeted her bandaged leg she sold the shit out of that as well. There were men in the crowd who were so incensed with the heel antics that they actually tried to get involved and there were small girls crying, so clearly the crowd were having a strong visceral reaction to the action in and around the ring, but for me as a viewer, I wish that they could establish the boundaries a bit more and then heels doing heel things would feel a bit more meaningful.

1980-04-XX AJW Lucy Kayama vs. Mami Kumano ★★★★ Now this was a great match. This was a fucking war. The first few minutes had them running through some holds, Kayama was chucked to the outside and we got the usual interference from the other women at ringside, they did the running spot where they disappeared into the back rows and rammed her into the wall and I was like great, here we go again. Then we finally got back into the ring for the restart and suddenly everything just jumped up a couple levels and it never dropped for a second. First things first, Kumano might easily be the best heel in AJW at this point. I thought her partner Ikeshita’s singles match against Kayama was a dud but here Kumano proved that not only could she be great in a tag setting but she could deliver in singles as well. As a point of comparison, I think at this point in time, a contemporary like Masami is playing being a heel, while Kumano embodies it. She has the casual arrogance and that air of superiority that is important for the character that she’s portraying. The Masami vs Yokota match had an example of a middle of the road version of the hide-the-foreign-object routine, here they did an amazing rendition of it. For a good solid 8-10 minutes she teased it and I actually don’t think there was an object at all. In fact I wasn’t sure they were doing the routine at all. But there were murmurings from the crowd and the punch motion from Kumano was too strange to be a normal punch. I kept looking for her to pull it out or conceal it between strikes but I saw nothing. Then after a brief foray to the outside for a little brawling, she suddenly was wielding a very clear and visible miniature spanner, which she certainly wasn’t using before. I don’t know about other people but I thought the fake object into a real object worked a charm and she pulled it off expertly. For Kayama, this was definitely her breakout performance for me. She made a simple hair-pull toss, that all the women in AJW do, look like absolute death. That moment when they returned to the ring early on and the levels suddenly jumped, it was these bumps she took that were the trigger. The audience immediately responded and they knew that they were gonna see something good. Secondly, boy does she have some moves. She had a version of the Bubba Bomb that looked great and she might have one of the best looking neckbreakers ever? How have I not seen her pull this out up to this point? I thought this was an excellent babyface performance from her as she was amazing selling; amazing bumping; when she got the upper hand she brought the intensity, the hatred, and she had those killer moves. Really displayed the whole package. I was incredibly down on her before but now I’m keen to catch her again asap. Finally, this is the first match where I thought the outside interference actually did add a layer to the match. It was the most even between the heels and the faces. Both got involved, had their moments, worked to support their girl and it didn’t spill over into being overkill but instead was merely a little additional seasoning.

1980-04-XX AJW Rimi Yokota vs. Tenjin Masami Junior Heavyweight Title Match ★★ This was a Junior Heavyweight Title match. Yokota ended up outside early and the Black Pair, supporting Masami at ringside, were all over her. Yokota managed to scramble back into the ring and the referee actually paused the action so the other seconds at ringside could wrangle the two ne'er-do-wellers and escort them back to the locker room. Once the match was back underway Masami channelled her inner Jerry Lawler (with a citrus twist) as she played hide-the-lemon with the referee, rubbing it right in Yokota’s eyes when he got the chance. I can usually take it or leave it with the hide-the-foreign object routine, as I’ve seen it done poorly more times than well. Here, other than the unusual fact that she was using a lemon, I didn't really enjoy it. By the time we actually got the two women going at it properly and we’d dispensed of all fruits, more than half of the match time had been eaten up. Both women seemed physically exhausted by the time we got to the final five minutes and it felt like they were spinning their wheels a bit. It wasn’t bad, just very directionless. It was clear we were heading to a draw, and even then the final minute was basically Masami slowly trying to get into the ring, so we missed out on any high level tension at the end to see if anybody could grab a late victory. Not bad, but instead disappointing. It had more bells and whistles than it should have and each one I thought was an unnecessary distraction that actually made the match worse.

This is for the vacated All Pacific title match and a hell of a fight. Wait, it's Yumi Ikeshita - surely there's gonna be a ton of cheating? Well, believe it or not, but Ikeshita actually left her foreign object aside for a few minutes and went at it with Lucy on the mat. And bah gawd Yumi Ikeshita was quite the skilled grappler! She had some swank arm locks and takedowns including a really rocking flying armscissor and was just as good at dominating on the ground as she as at dominating with cheating. Eventually Lucy gets the better of her leg and Yumi actually resorts to foreign object shenanigans while hobbling one one foot and making a comeback. They go back to the wrestling though and work some pretty spectacular spots including both of them crashing and burning on dives (Lucy Kayama surely was not afraid to die) and lots of nearfalls. If this had blood and maybe a bit more ideas from Lucy this would be a slam dunk MOTYC. Still you completists will want to note it down because it's Yumi Ikeshita grappling baby!

1980-02-05 AJW Yumi Ikeshita & Mami Kumano vs. Nancy Kumi & Lucy Kayama ★★★ Ikeshita and Kumano are “The Black Pair” and are the current tag champions. Their name just hits the nail on the head. The best way I can describe them is a couple of jackals. They did an awesome job patrolling the apron when an opponent was on the outside, waiting to attack when they attempted to climb back in. Honestly at points in this match I felt that there were more than just the two of them based on how they kept swarming. If you’ve seen baby spiders hatch and consume their mother, that was the closest comparison. Kayama was the poor soul here getting destroyed and she barely had a chance. When Nancy Kumi was able to get in on the action I was really impressed with her. Her offense had serious weight and it looked really crisp. I would definitely be intrigued to see her in a singles setting. The Black Pair dominated the first fall and, after their hellacious beating on Kayama, she couldn’t hold out any longer and was out for the count. The second fall carried on where the first left off until Kumi couldn’t take it any longer and rules be damned she was coming in to save her teammate. The ferocity of her attacks were able to disperse the Black Pair long enough to get one isolated, nail as many bombs as possible and steal the pin before the other could recover. Pissed at losing the second fall the two women just stalked the opposite corner the entire break between falls. Kayama looked shaken up from the beating she had endured up to this point and as soon as the bell rang the BP employed their pack attack mentality with vicious intensity, pouncing on their weakened prey. The chaos spilled to the outside and I was sure we were heading towards a double countout, but lo and behold, the unlikely one Kayama was able to slip into the ring just before the count and sneak the victory. We have new champions! The brawling during the third fall devolved into random chair shots and these really were feather light. I’m all for working safely, but if they are going to be so light with the chairs I’d rather they skip them entirely. I don’t think I would go as far as saying this was a great match, but I am very comfortable saying that this was a great performance from the Black Pair. Just an excellent display of bully tag team wrestling. Their look combined with their style perfectly and they just seemed so at ease in the ring and in what they were doing. Really impressive.

Talk about it here.

A great match! Feels like something that should be a staple for the "joshi for people who don't like joshi" pile. It has the legwork/tease the Figure 4-story that so many wrestling fans can understand, plus a classic story with Aoyama having a go at the ace. It also has that "Wow!" factor with state of the art flying moves and big time bumps used for great drama. Aoyama is pretty overzealous, but Sato is pretty much her ideal matchup and Sato has such a tremendous connection to the crowd that anything she's in automatically becomes above average. The matwork is all freaked out and luchariffic with a ton of indian deathlock work and a bunch of twisting around to escape the Figure 4. I imagine this is how they mostly worked big matches at big shows. Notice how easily they fill the time while still ending the match early enough to leave plenty on the table for the future. Just a great main event that would work anywhere in the world.

Talk about it here.

All Japan Women's Wrestling in 1997 is something I've been interested in from a far. It features many matches that have been favorably reviewed but there's something very different than '92-'96 AJW. The roster is pretty similar but they're finally pushing some of their younger wrestlers to the top. Mima Shimoda and Etsuko Mita (Las Cachorras Orientales) go full heel and become the chair swinging baddies. Kaoru Ito and Tokoko Watanabe were always great in mid card tags and 6 mans are elevated as the baby faces along with the youngster Kumiko Maekawa...under the leadership of Yumiko Hotta who goes from sometime main eventer to champion. AJW needed some invigorating and this was how they did it. Aja Kong was retiring, Kyoko leaving and both starting their own promotions (Arsion & NEO). Their departures were the catalyst for a mini exodus (most notably Mariko Yoshida) and others including LCO would opt to become freelancers. Zenjo gives a great summary on the [1997-09-21-AJW-Wrestlemarinepiad IX] Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (Cage) entry in the Match Discussion Archive/Yearbook. So there's a little background and really the reason I was so hesitant to get into 1997 AJW. That's to say, hesitant to make the financial commitment to buy (and wait for) DVDs at the height of my Joshi interest. Unlike '92-'96 AJW, there weren't those blockbuster events with multiple great or classic matches. The last solid good-old-days chunk of AJW shows appeared to be the summer of 1997. With the magic of the internet and couple of the DVDs I did buy, I finally want to take a look. The first few matches are from the 06/17/97 show. In some ways I'm not sure why I bought this DVD based on the above. I think I confused it for a commercial DVD that featured 06/17 & 06/18... CMLL World Women's Title: Mariko Yoshida vs. Rie Tamada: Good match where the excitement really came from the near falls. It wasn't a long match or anything but they packed a good bit in. Aja Kong & Takako Inoue & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Yumiko Hotta & Tokoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa: Pretty good match but the quality took a little drop when Takako was in there. Aja and Momoe was a pretty cool team.Tokoko Watanabe is pretty darn underrated and this match is a good example of that. She put in a ton of effort and put on the best performance overall. ----- Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada: A violent chaotic match. It started and stayed in top gear all match. This was good because it felt like a real fight with actual stakes. As a con this didn't maximize the drama. I believe this was a decision match to challenge for the tag titles so in that regard they needed to hold back a little and not empty their tanks like you know they can. Nevertheless this was a really good match between two of the best tag teams in AJW history. Their '95 match (iirc) is a classic and features less of the weapons/brawling that LCO are known for. ----- Kyoko Inoue vs. Kaoru Ito: This is for the vacant red belt. And they definitely bring it for the big title. Ito is coming into her own and is not to be taken lightly which Kyoko does early on. Once Ito starts with her stomps Inoue is in real trouble. Her selling of the pain has got to be legitimate. This is what makes this great as the former champion is in danger wherever she goes. She has got to find a way to stop the upstart Ito. I'm not always high on Kyoko but this is a strong performance from her. As a Kaoru Ito fan, I dug this Toyota & Yoshida vs. Hotta & Ito (06/18/97): Whew doggy! This was a great tag match. They just had such a good pace going. They kept building and building with great action. I felt Toyota vs Hotta was the very best stuff though. They were just so nasty with each other! Ito certainly tried her best to match her mentor. Mariko got better as the match went on as she didn't seem to gel with Ito this evening. Things eventually meshed and they were doing great stuff at the end. Las Cachorras Orientales vs. Watanabe & Maekawa (06/18/97): What a first fall! 9 minutes of joshi perfection..just telling a brutal story. Everything was on the beat so to speak. 2nd and third falls keep it up. It looks like bedlam. The bottom rope is broken, the one corner padding is off, sections of the guardrail are missing, 3 of the 4 women are bleeding. It is just so competitive & intense. It is absolutely captivating. This Joshi tag title fight is classic that hasn't gotten the praise it deserves. Seeing 06/18, I'm pretty sure I thought both nights were on the DVD. That would have been one of awesome no-doubt DVD purchases. I think my disappointment that 06/18 wasn't on there is what motivated me to pack the 06/17 DVD away for 7 years. I'm not going to re-watch and review the following but, I highly recommend both as they are classics. The tag match is an all time classic to me. The singles match might be the best singles match of AJW '97. This was one of those must buy DVDs... Kaoru Ito vs Manami Toyota (08/09/97) Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue (08/09/97) Aja Kong vs Manami Toyota (08/20/97): This starts out as a very good match that in some ways is a bit light hearted and nostalgic. Don't get me wrong. They are still going at it but there's moments of humor and it's just fun to see two great rivals in the ring. They aren't trying to top their 11/94 classic. However, shit kicks into high gear and this isn't Aja & Toyota phoning it in. It's a great match with a super strong final 3rd. That final portion really kicks this into that near classic territory. We get some down right "Holy Shit!" moments. This looks like Aja's final match in AJW, it's a worthy swan song. LCO vs Maekawa & Watanabe (08/20/97): Super quick first fall. Fall #2 is the real start of the match. It's very good action. A good mix of LCO brawling/chair shots but mainly traditional joshi tag wrestling. Maekawa is off the hook with her kicks. And fall #3 has a similar vibe with some allusions to their awesome 06/18 bout. I've seen this rated in the classic ****1/2 range but it was a more tame version of the June match. I thought it was very good and if you've not seen 06/18 then I could see having a higher rating. Or maybe this is more your preference. Kyoko Inoue vs Yumiko Hotta (08/20/97): This was a great match! They told an excellent story. Kyoko has her usual power & high energy moves where Hotta is all about her kicks and submissions. You' ve seen this match up but Kyoko really sells the hell outta everything. It may be her best sell job that I can remember. She is selling everything that hurts- arm, legs, back. And Hotta is just vicious but not in a sadistic way. Now she is focused and measured in her strikes. It reminded me of Hashimoto to an extent. Clocking in around 15 minutes, this was the perfect amount of time for Kyoko & Hotta. There's no filler - this is all quality wrestling. And all that put together, this is a great title fight. Shoot, it's probably a near classic. Maybe it was just a different style than the typical AJW title bout but I just really appreciated the storytelling and excellent action that went along with it. 08/20 was one DVD on my "maybe buy one day" list. 03/26/95 Aja vs Toyota was such a letdown for me, I think I was very wary of assuming it was a sure thing. And then you have Maekawa & Watanabe vs LCO which was an untested/unproven match up and finally Kyoko vs Hotta which on paper could be all wrong. I'm pretty darn happy that I finally saw these and my expectations were exceeded. Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue vs Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita (08/22/1997): So from what I can tell this is Kyoko's final match as an AJW wrestler. And its a great one! Mima & Etsuko have their work cut out for them facing two former Red belt champions. They hold their own pretty damn well (those chairs seem to help!). As this is only one fall things do not get as crazy as it could (or its a non title match). It's a bit more of a match that Toyota would have... so no scissors or too much fighting in the crowd...but LCO still do their thing...I mean they have to try and put either Kyoko or Toyota down with something, right? The wrestlers don't go for broke and Toyota does kinda brush some stuff off a little too quickly, otherwise it could have been another classic. As it is though, it is a great match. 1997 Kyoko may renewed my good opinion of her. Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta (09/21/97): This is a great title fight that demands your patience and attention. It is slower paced, there are actual wrestling holds, and this is not just a long sprint or a few holds in the beginning then we run into fireworks. This reminded me almost of a shorter version of Inoki vs Fujinami 08/88..or maybe Inoki Strong Style. I think that's Hotta's style as champ. I can see not being down for that back in the late 90's when we all wanted the envelope to get pushed in terms of moves, stunts etc. But it's been 20+ years of that. Maybe because I am getting older but I appreciate these slower burning matches more. Here we have two with a history but not necessarily rivals fighting for the Red belt. It is sorta showing that the heart of AJW is still beating. ----- The culmination of the summer (of LCO) is the cage match vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (09/21/97). This is one you definitely need to check out if only the last 5 minutes. I have like 70% of the match on DVD which I watched but was super bummed when the video from the VHS just runs out...not that I didn't know how it ends. To be honest,I am not a fan of this match as a whole however I think it's a fantastic way to blow off the feud plus the last 5 minutes are absolutely wild and worth you seeing. Some folks consider it an all time classic and you may too so don't just listen to me I can't end it there though so we're going to dip into October '97. I believe this is the final LCO as AJW roster members. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs Kumiko Maekawa & Momoe Nakanishi (WWWA Tag Titles) 10/18/1997: You've got a great story baked into this match. Momoe is an underdog just based on her size but in '97 she's not made any big waves just yet. But never ever count her out. Momoe's speed and body control adds a whole new dimension to the LCO match formula. Maekawa on the other hand is very familiar with LCO and she's got a pin on one of 'em. She doesn't offer a ton of variety in her attacks but her kicks are absolutely dangerous. Someone in the YouTube comments said that they're no match for Mita & Shimoda but I disagree. And this match is the fucking' proof. This 2/3 falls match is a sneak peek of the awesome stuff they would do in 2000 & '01. Near classic match. Here are my quick thoughts on some the wrestlers for the summer of 1997. Aja Kong: Awesome as ever. 3 matches, 2 are must see. Kaoru Ito: Absolutely agree with her getting pushed. Kumiko Maekawa: Very surprised how good she was in 97. Maybe better in 97 than later? Kyoko Inoue: Redeemed herself w/ these matches. The excesses of '96 tag matches are gone. Momoe Nakanishi: Is already very exciting to watch. Surprisingly not squashed this early. Tomoko Watanabe: Sort of a poor man's Kyoko yet no ego as a result. Just a ton of fight. Yumiko Hotta: Perhaps Aja and Yamada had to leave to have the aura/match style she needed? Definitely feels like a champ. In terms of big match quality, AJW could still deliver. The under card I can't speak much about. That in mind, a big thanks to the folks that have posted these online for everyone to enjoy. It has been really fun to finally be able to watch this stuff I've been wanting to see for well over a decade. If you're like "WTF dude!? It's not that hard to come by." Then I say "Screw Off buddy! I got my own way of doing things. " Maybe you're the same if you're reading about 26 year old Japanese women's wrestling Thanks for reading!

Talk about it here.

This had a slow beginning and Team FMW simply wasn't very interesting, and outside of her big fat plancha Toyoda still isn't. Other than that she contributes very little to this. I should be a fan of a team slowing the pace of a joshi match down, as they did here, but it didn't really work. This turns into a good to very good match, but it strikes me as a Toyota/Yamada carryjob--it's amazing how Toyota has been carrying herself as a grizzled veteran in these bouts, having a real knack for timing and building up to the big spots. The whole layout really seems to be dictated by the AJW team. On top of that Toyota decides she's going to murder herself getting the FMW ladies over, most notably including a HOLY SHIT backflip off a Combat lariat. Just an array of one sick bump after the other before she starts her comeback, leading to a fun stretch run with Kudo finally deciding to pull her weight. We get an incredibly clever finish--Combat saves Kudo from one Japanese ocean cyclone suplex, so Yamada stands in front when Toyota goes for a second attempt and then ducks away when Combat tries for a second save, suckering her into clobbering her partner. Toyota then hits the JOCS cleanly for the win. Even in a match with probably one too many miscommunication spots down the stretch, that stood out. The result of this, despite the loss, was sort of a coming-out party for the FMW ladies. But it came off more like a selfless performance from the AJW team to get them over, rather than Combat & Kudo doing a ton to get themselves over. This was a good match but an overall fantastic performance from Toyota & Yamada, saving this from a dull start.

Talk about it here.

Here we are in June and it is time for the Best Matches Watched of 2023 so far. 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 as well. 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. 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 ----- 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) + 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 Masato Tanaka vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 02/27/99) Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 03/19/99) +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 +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) Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori (AJPW 07/18/04) HM Kaz Hayashi vs Shuji Kondo (AJPW 08/30/09) 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. I'm looking forward to the next few months of wrestling. Thanks for reading! Stay cool!

This was a stupidly effective and smartly worked skill vs. Power match. Sato is a wrestling machine, but Ripper can power out of anything she tries. Ripper even lies down for Sato to pin her and just pushs her off to demonstrate that. Ripper is so self confident here it's lovely. Ripper takes control by grabbing Sato's hand and crushing it with her grip. Ripper throws Sato around and a second has to re-locate Sato's leg at one point. The schoolgirls are in tears at this point. Sato really puts on a tremedous selling performance here and has to use stalling tactics and last ditch takedowns, making this look like Monster Ripper is the challenge of her life and not even she knows how she is supposed to win. The finish and the build to it feel suitably great, everyone freaks out and they continue to brawls afterward with all the seconds getting thrown around. This was a great piece of TV.

Talk about it here.