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Other Deep Dive stuff??? Entertaining but awkward encounter. Now me personally I'd like to think that these two could really have had a good to great match if this was, say, at least 1999/2000 Takayama and St. Clair was a bit younger. There's a good mix between the pair's technical backgrounds (Clair's WoS antics opposed to Takayama's UWF/Takada training) that COULD have worked. The issue is that this is a German Catch match, so effort is already not going to be particularly immense on either side. The other is Takayama; this is way too early for him to have a great match; he'd only had at this point a couple of years of fairly mediocre matches in UWF-I undercards wherein he definitely didn't feel like a finished product. He's still very gangly and a bit all over the place here quality-wise, making it hard for him to really get a groove going with how awkward he is. Clair though in seemingly uncharted waters with this being a Shoot-style match is actually fairly well equipped given his legitimate grappling background, being able to throw a couple of cool takedowns to kick things off. He's mostly working on the outside by getting kicked and hit with knees a bunch by his opponent, however. The best way I can describe Tony here is that he's basically playing the Fujiwara role; having to rely on smart takedowns and occasional cheeky antics to circumvent having zero stand-up to work with. That comparison grew ever stronger when I seen him rope Taka into trying for a knuckle lock only to pull into a Fujiwara armbar instead which is a beat for beat spot the guy would throw out. Things got more interesting on the ground as Taka tried to take control with wrestling only for Clair to take his back and try for a facelock, leading to him knocking Taka down with some goofy kicks for his own that admittedly didn't look great lol. He still sells great for some knees and roundhouses to the head, eating yet another knockdown. While recovering Taka ambushes him with a near naked choke, presumably getting a yellow card in the process. Tony throws in some more exciting offence in the last third with a cool Enzuigiri counter to a single leg attempt and a back suplex that he tells Taka to no sell while he frumps on the ground. I'm not quite sure what the thought process was with that, was he trying to sell the head work or what? Tony gets up and gets in a awesome leg-catch takedown into a toe hold to force a rope break. What happens after, however, is unfortunately one of those examples of just bad luck spoiling things. The two get tangled in the ropes and exchange knees. Tony's to Taka's chest, while his is right to the groin, getting him a red card and the DQ loss by the ref. I thought initially that this was worked, but when I seen Takayama clearly very apologetic and breaking character as the heel enforcer he'd been this entire match to help the guy up I knew otherwise. It's a unfortunate thing because this was really picking up just before that moment and probably would've carried itself to a solid enough match what with the more urgent pacing. As it stands it's more of a fascinating odd-couple pairing than anything else with a great performance by St. Clair to really get over the young (ish) big lad with huge bumps and a smart structure, never got firmly off the ground though.

Sorry for the delay! Here we are with the fall & winter of 2002 and it is a doozy! KENTA & Kenta Kobashi vs Kotaro Suzuki & Mitsuharu Misawa (09/01): We get our first appearance of KENTA in his true form Gone is the surfer hair, orange trunks & white boots. He's in his dark grey tights with kick pad boots...and he is kicking. I know that sounds weird but up until now KENTA wasn't doing his shoot style kicks. This is a good match that gives us some good Misawa vs Kobashi moments without making it all about them. This is way more about KENTA & Suzuki coming into their own. Unfortunately Suzuki is still green enough where coming into your own means taking a beating well. Therefore the middle of the match is like a store brand saltine...Nice to see Kobashi back! Kobashi, KENTA, Shiga & Kikuchi vs. Akiyama, Saito, Hashi & Kanemaru (09/05/02): This is one I wanted to see but the YouTube video was deactivated. But dummy me, I actually have the clipped version on my 10/19/02 DVD! Holy cow! I've had this for over a decade and not known it. Anyway, like I said this is a clipped version with about 30 minutes shown out of 50 so not bad but there's no clean way to clip this. So we get the start and a few minutes before each elimination and probably the last 10 minutes uninterrupted. I didn't keep track exactly. Anyhow this is Sterness vs Burning and from the get go this feels like the Sharks vs the Jets. Captain Fall elimination match so if Akiyama or Kobashi gets pinned at anytime, it's all over. But of course like I said this goes 50 minutes and other folks get eliminated. This is a blast to watch and legitimately looks like a great match. KENTA & Shiga are a focus with Shiga being the defector from Sterness and KENTA really starting to embrace his new style/gimmick. I think it's also a great showcase for Akitoshi Saito and is a excellent showcase for him. He has the best enzuigiri and spinning heel kick btw. And of course there's Kobashi and Akiyama who are as great as always. Great stuff. ----- Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (09/07): Great match! Takayama tries to annihilate Ogawa. He shouts "Hey champ! C'mon champ" at Ogawa laying on the mat like a pile of dirty laundry. Like talk about adding insult to injury. The champ does find away though and proceeds to target the giant arm like there's no tomorrow... and frankly there might not be if he can't slow the blonde behemoth down. This is all capped off by an excellent closing few minutes that cements this as a great title fight. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. El Samurai/Masayuki Naruse (9/23/02) This match has a fantastic pace and is full of action. This really is how you build a junior feud. The execution was great and the timing was even better. It left you wanting more. Bitchin’ great match. An unlikely NJ team too... Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama (09/23/02): I actually watched this after the match below. I'm funny like that but I am glad I did because I thought this match topped the main event. It was a fucking intense battle from bell to bell. Saito and Rikio were just trying to destroy each other. Morishima comes in and brings it to Saito next. I'm thinking Jun, who's not always super stiff at this time would shy away but no! He was hammering on Morishima. Yeah I loved this thing. The pacing and intensity were just right. It could have been a sprint but Wild II are showing they can hang with the big boys. Saito is really coming into his own here...and that's being more of a bad ass. Some folks didn't like this but I'm not really sure why...I got the vibe that it was a comparison thing. comparing everything to AJPW 90's is only going to set you up for disappointment. I had to learn that lesson for myself. Just try to be in the moment, not analyzing and not comparing. I think if you're not familiar with everything going on in early NOAH, you probably won't give two shits about what anyone other than Akiyama is doing... but that'd be a giant oversight. You're not actually invested in these guys and early NOAH really is about pushing virtual nobodies from AJPW into the lime light. So early NOAH is not about trying to be AJ without Mrs. Baba. It's trying to be something different. It helps if you know this BUT this is such a simple beat-the-shit-outta-each-other match that I'm not sure anyone wouldn't like this...I thought this was a classic. Misawa vs Takayama (09/23/02): This is probably one of most lauded singles matches for NOAH 2002. I have never seen it in full! I have a Misawa comp that has clips (for some reason) but I am really glad I saw this. It's very MMA influenced without trying to be shoot style or even Inoki Strong Style (not to be confused with Inokism which was going on in NJ at this time...shoot matches, more MMA guys in NJ...I do like Don Frye as a worker though as well as Kaz Fujita). So don't think of the match being anything like that. Takayama is more like a giant Kawada in this thing. He's hitting knees, head kicks, going for arm bars. As a result Misawa taps more into that by focusing on his elbow strikes, working holds on the mat and even throwing leg kicks. But...he still is doing his moves off the turnbuckles and dives etc. Honestly this was a near classic match... only held back from both guys being beat up (both bleeding) and I think Takayama ran out of gas at the end...so the more intricate things at the end looked sluggish. But fuck! they were going at it all match so I cannot fault anyone for being a bit sluggish after all of that. Also re-watched Frye vs Takayama which is also 2002. Man I miss Pride... back in the late 2000's on Spike they had a Best of Pride FC show (via UFC) and I had my favorites all DVR'd...I digress! ----- Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. KENTA & Takashi Sugiura (10/12/02): This was a pretty darn good match! It probably didn't need to be 23 minutes long but once they got cooking they didn't let up. Lots of creative offense and if you like stiff elbow strikes then this is a match for you! Never heard anything about this but yeah, this is recommended stuff. Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Mitsuharu Misawa (10/12): Wave vs Wave, interesting...I believe Marufuji was injured at this point otherwise he might have been in Kotaro's place. Half shown but man was this fun stuff! The Ogawa/Sano team was really good... I'll have to keep my eye out for more matches with them together. Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (10/17/02): I'm going to tell you this is the one & only match Kobashi uses his Diamond Head power bomb. It's basically a Dominator like Ron Simmons used to use. It doesn't look that cool though but what you want to see is Shiga vs Akiyama...that's great stuff...the whole match is really good. Burning vs Sterness! I was also able to locate my review for Kobashi/Shiga vs. Akiyama/Saito 10/19/02 which is a match that's gotten praise but if you're only going on hype, it seemingly happened in a vacuum. Like you would think everything else they did prior & after sucked. Matches like this are what inspires me to do these projects. They aren't deep dives but attempts to push against conventional wisdom/old ideas. Kobashi/Shiga vs. Akiyama/Saito (10/19/02): This was a match I’ve sought after for a long time. It lived up to the hype for sure. It was great in showing Shiga’s heart as well as Saito’s evilness. That dude is a beast. Great long finishing run with false finishes and great moments for sure. Epic finish too. Bad Ass! People were psyched on this one throughout! It had to build a little for me but, at the end I was shouting and making noises right along with ‘em. Classic match! Since I have taken so long to get this posted, I took the time and dug this DVD set out of storage. I'm looking for under the radar stuff so there's got to be a couple on this show. Makoto Hashi vs KENTA (10/19): Good match and maybe a very good one if you ignore KENTA blowing off all of Hashi's good leg work. Hashi would have been a great junior talent had he debuted in 1986...and for that I really dug him in this match. KENTA is now the kicky version...but not the bad ass we see in ROH for instance. ----- Donovan Morgan & Michael Modest & Scorpio vs. IZU & Maxx Justice & Richard Slinger (10/19): No doubt I skipped this match when I got the 10/19/02 DVD but not now. I'm all about a match like this. It's a lot of fun too! Scorpio and Richard Slinger do a really good chain wrestling opening and from then on there's a bunch of neat moves, some comedy and quality 6 man wrestling. Morgan and Modest added a lot to the match. Kotaro Suzuki, Mitsuharu Misawa, Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue, Daisuke Ikeda, Masashi Aoyagi & Takashi Sugiura (10/19): Oh man this was a lot of fun! The last few minutes were especially good. Not top tier but there's some really exciting sequences that had me cheering. I liked the early focus on Aoyagi and by the end everyone was going off. I really dug this one. ----- Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Gedo/Jado - (12/7/02) Oh those bastards. Team NO RESPECT!!! Jado & Gedo are some nasty looking dudes. So the match is kinda like NOAH style American wrestling. It was a ton of fun with Gedo and Jado heeling it up in all those fun US ways. This is stuff that we lost later in the 90s AJPW as the brawler was phased out because it resembled garbage wrestling. So, Jado and Gedo are a call back to that good stuff from the 70s-80s and 90-91 AJPW. And god knows Kikuchi is all for that again. Still this is 2002 wrestling so, there’s some nice moves from both teams. It’s a different match especially from this time in wrestling and it’s great! ----- Kenta Kobashi vs Bison Smith (12/07/02): Great under 10 minute match! From watching GAEA, doing these shorter all action matches with the older guys would have been a good idea. Have the younger guys go longer. I would have liked a different outcome as I think it is Misawa playing it safe. Bison could have been NOAH's Dr. Death for the 2000's. He looked like an absolute monster for 3/4th of the match. Plus the Iron Claw work was excellent...it's a low impact move that can escalated into the iron claw slam. They did this here to great effect. Bison being pushed harder was a missed opportunity but it's still a great fight. Yoshinari Ogawa vs Mitsuharu Misawa (12/07/02): I loved the beginning and middle of this match. It was actually wrestled and reminded me of early 80's AJPW. Eventually they brought this into the late 80's and early 90's. Then the final 3rd didn't set my world a fire. There was too many back drops and Tiger drivers...like do another move or even fight out of it. And they do maybe once but, it was kinda dull but then the very end got really good again. And overall the whole thing was very good but was on its way to be great. 2002 was an excellent year and maybe was the last year for the experimental stage of NOAH. Kobashi comes back full time (until 2006) and things change. Perhaps for the better? NOAH seems far less interesting as times goes on. And that is not a criticism... It's really quality stuff as we get into the Kobashi reign but it becomes more predictable than than in 2001 & 2002. Checking out 2001 & 2002 NOAH has been a project that I have been wanting to do for years. Really glad I got to do it! Hope you have enjoyed it too Thanks for reading!

So I found a Japanese YouTube channel that has some more obscure/hard to find stuff for 2002. Most of it is clipped but I'm happy to see at least some of these matches. Looks like this person has a lot of Ogawa/Misawa/Wave stuff...and in turn more Wave vs Sterness so I'm pretty psyched. So we're going to kinda start back at the beginning of 2002 with these videos. Jun Akiyama, Akitoshi Saito & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Naomichi Marufuji (01/16): 7 of 17 minutes shown but man this looked great. Kanemaru was on fire! If you can see this in full, I think you're in for a good time! There's some post match fighting too. Yeah this one is recommended. Oh and I watched the pre match video and it looks like there was dissent with Ogawa & Misawa leading up to this match which plays a big part in the finish here. At first the finish looked weird but it's actually pretty cool. Elimination Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji & Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (01/20): 1/3 shown with this mainly be a highlight format as opposed to joined in progress. We get to see everyone's elimination so that was cool. Akiyama has his shoulder taped up and braced in this match as well as the previous one. I think this would be neat to see in full. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa (03/14): 9 of 17 minutes and definitely worth seeing in full. This reminded me of a Hayabusa era FMW tag in the best way possible. Lots of great action, no focus on toughness/fighting spirit, ultra stiff strikes etc. Sterness felt like the baby faces with Ogawa & Marufuji being crafty heels. Badass finish too! great stuff! Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Takao Omori & Takashi Sugiura & Yoshihiro Takayama (03/17): Oh man, only 8 of 20 minutes shown. This was looking pretty badass! Misawa and Omori were laying into each other like it was a title fight. Ogawa vs Takayama was very entertaining as Ogawa was just too quick for the giant. And Marufuji vs Sugiura was excellent as always... Marufuji's, agility works so well with Sug's suplex & slam offense. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Takuma Sano (03/25): An appetizer for the Akiyama vs Ogawa title fight and it delivers. 8 of 12 minutes shown and pretty much it only seems to cut Sano's face in peril segment. This was really really good stuff if you're not going into this expecting NOAH as AJPW. I've said this before but, early NOAH seemed much more like an indie than I think most Western wanted/saw as the 2000's went on. NOAH as AJPW happens during Kobashi's title reign. But this first quarter of '02 with Ogawa vs Akiyama being the big thing is very fresh. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie (04/07/02): Here's one I found elsewhere. Reminds me of late 80's AJPW. I started watching it but realized these guys can't do a good match for almost 30 minutes. Who gave them that much time? This should have been 15 minutes. But hey, it's out there if you're interested Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (04/07): I'm not sure this was the plan for the Spring of 2002 however Kobashi was sidelined for a few more months and I think they were going to do something with Akiyama & him. So this Akiyama vs Ogawa stuff takes its place. They tease at it in the January matches but really commit to it by March. Anyway, this is the payoff and it's a sweet one. It's only 4+ minutes and wrestled at a quick pace. Since it's short I'm going to spoil it just as a heads up. The finish works because Akiyama has Ogawa's wrist clutched for that exploder variation. So both guys are tied together in essence. So when Ogawa reverses the suplex momentum into a small package, Akiyama's tied up into the hold and it's enough for a 3...like a wrist clutch small package hold. They executed this perfectly and if fumbled a little bit it would have looked hokey and damaged the credibility of the people and the title. The fans in attendance were super pumped for the outcome... maybe just because its something different & unexpected. I can get behind that... I think we can agree that rotating the belt between the same 3-4 guys can get stale. Akira Taue & KENTA vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (05/09): Very joined in progress with only the last 4 of 14 minutes being shown. Nevertheless this was pretty good stuff. Taue and Ogawa works so well because neither are that peak NOAH wrestler. Taue is basically late 70's Baba in terms of mobility and Ogawa is an early 90's AJ junior who wrestles like a he's a mid 80's junior. But it works! And we see that here. KENTA brings the fireworks. while Misawa plays the more than competent #2 to the champ (I know!? Ogawa is champ!). Excellent lead in to their title fight. If you find this in full I'm sure it's a blast! Same with Misawa, Ogawa & Takuma Sano vs Taue, Honda & Mokoto Hashi (05/06). I didn't review it but similar vibes as this 05/09 match. Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. KENTA (05/26): The channel I've been watching for these clipped gems of course had this clipped too but I was digging and found this in full. And really glad that I did! This was great! Perhaps this is the first big KENTA match...he actually did the work the body stuff...as did Kanemaru. It didn't lead to a finish but it certainly wasn't boring. Kanemaru even did a move off the run way to the floor - pretty sick too. I think he did a good job leading this match as well. His cutoffs of KENTA's comebacks were well timed and impactful. It never looked like he was just going through the motions. So when the K-man got an opening with a vicious release German, it felt earned. Again great stuff here... Takao Omori & Mohammed Yone vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura (05/26/02): A little bit earlier there's a schism in No Fear. Akiyama calls Omori out saying Takayama is using him...during the match Takayama wants to decimate Akiyama with double team moves (they do) but Omori says enough is enough and hit his partner with the Ax Bomber and splits. That looks to be on the 05/09 show. That sets up this match BUT I have some conflicting info that just shows Omori vs Takayama on this date. So Sherlock Badger checked the crowd and sure enough its the 05/26 from the above match (note the two guys in white shirts wearing ties etc). Anyways...this was some great hateful hard hitting wrestling. It boils down to two parts 1) Takayama getting his ass kicked 2) Omori getting his ass kicked. Yone & Sugiura were very secondary in their roles. Yone was especially stiff with Takayama...I've got to see more of his NOAH work. I would have liked a little bit better of a finishing segment but, we get 20 minutes of potatoes so I can't gripe too much. If you're interested in watching this then, you should! Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue (05/26): The lead in matches are so good and before the match, they show a clip from a match the night before. Taue beat Ogawa with a small package hold! He goes down and gets the title belt and throws it on a beat Ogawa and surely says something like, "take good care of this for me. I'll be back for it tomorrow night." Well this was a great match! especially if you've seen some of the lead in. There's call backs to those finishes. I think the layout and timing is really special too. If you're looking for that "once a year Taue is great again" match, I think this might be it! Satoru Asako Retirement Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs. Akira Taue & Masao Inoue & Makoto Hashi (07/26): Asako is back in his AJ green and Kobashi is back in the orange - that's awesome! Oh shit he's even doing some of his old AJ moves too! Asako is going all out. Inoue gives no fucks and clothesline'd the man of the hour like there was no tomorrow. Taue gave the soon to retire Asako a few good slams too. Yeah this was a blast at about 10 minutes. The post match stuff is really touching too. There's no good reason to skip this one if you're an 90's AJPW fan. Now a big rant of sorts. If you're just here for match recommendations, we're all done for today If you're interested in a little shop talk about 20 year old wrestling then, read on! I am really liking 2002 NOAH and I'm glad I found a bit more than what I had originally planned. This Ogawa stuff has been excellent and unexpected. He's not what you're looking for in a GHC champ especially if you're more familiar with 2003 to 2010's NOAH. But 2001-2002 NOAH in a different animal. I was looking over 2000 AJPW's matches and man! it's really clear that Misawa had a vision with Pro Wrestling Noah. 2000 AJ's under card booking was the drizzling shits. It's the same people but in matches that looked like they were booked using a lotto ball machine. Like random as hell...and maybe those were fun/good matches but Misawa gave folks a purpose, a place, a direction in early NOAH. This didn't really happen until '01 and I think hit its stride in '02. It is very much "we're not going to be a one match company." From watching mid 80's AJPW last year, I think Misawa really wanted a company where there's something for everyone AND something for everyone to do. The popular opinion is that Misawa lacked a vision and couldn't find someone else who could be on top. I disagree. I think his vision was to lift everyone else up rather than find a top star right away. I think evidence of this was Misawa being able to convince Baba on Ogawa as his tag partner in the very late 90's. In NOAH he continues this as Kentaro Shiga, Kikuchi & Asako get a boost out of under card swamp into high profile matches again. Outside veteran talent is given a chance like Akitoshi Saito, Aoyagi, Sano & Too Cold Scorpio as are "younger" outsiders like Daisuke Ikeda & Yone. Some of these folks were in 2000 AJPW...we can see Misawa wanted to shake things up. Inter-promotional feuds which were a staple of 90's puro/joshi could finally happen in earnest. And the young AJPW talent could get pushed into the lime light...Marufuji, KENTA, Morishima are all names we know if you're a 2000's ROH fan because of Misawa's vision. If you're a NOAH fan too then Rikio, Kanemaru, and Hashi are familiar to you. And Misawa knew to give Takayama the push he needed as well... not just a All Asia tag champ but as a main player in the heavyweight title scene. Now I'm not saying it stayed as fresh and exciting until his death. He definitely went into safety mode due to the economics of running a business for the main events(not that the wrestling was poor but it's not as fresh). The under card always stayed interesting and sometimes outshined the main events. That aside, 2001 & 2002 are the years where I think we might be able to see where NOAH was supposed to be headed. And I don't think fans were comfortable with it and he gave Kobashi a 2 year long title reign.. but I don't think he gave up on the under card but conceded that the casual fan (big money arena filling crowds) wanted AJPW main events. After the Kobashi reign they never went back to this more creative main event scene (we see a nod to it in the lauded on PWO Kobashi vs Ogawa match, and in Marufuji's 2006 reign). Maybe I should have put this at the very end of my 2002 posts (there's one more!) but having seen this much '01 & '02, it's clear that Misawa wanted to redo things. He didn't want NOAH to have these one match shows like AJPW had become. Having watched a good deal of Misawa era NOAH, he succeeded... I have always thought that their shows were very good from top to bottom. They don't always have the classic match main event but definitely are a blast to watch..many times having multiple great matches per show. Thanks for reading! Planning on wrapping up 2002 next week.

Here we are back in Pro Wrestling NOAH! It's 2002 and the matches this year is known for are the NJ vs NOAH Jr tags. I did some digging and found the reviews - yay! I'll mix those in with this week's new stuff. Per the 2001 posts, this is mainly going to be stuff that is a little under the radar. The exceptions are Akiyama, Yuji Nagata vs Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa (02/17/02) & Misawa vs Takayama rematch from 09/02. I only ever saw highlights and dammit this is the time to finally see the whole matches! Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jushin Liger/Wataru Inoue (2/17/02) This is full of stiff shots and heat. It’s getting hot in here! Like Nelly! Remember him? The guy with the bandages on his cheek and gold fronts. Yeah, now you remember…unfortunately. Where was I? Oh! Wrestling!! This was a fun fire building match especially when you pick a side. I picked NOAH. I like Liger but, most of the NJPW roster at this point in time is unremarkable. Inoue is a good example of that. Anywho…It was great seeing Kikuchi of yore. I mean this dude stood toe-to-toe with the likes of Jumbo and Kawada in the early 90s. He brings what remains to this match. Kanemaru is fun but certainly needs that surly old goat to help him out against the likes of Liger and Watery Inoue. ----- Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori (02/17): Wild Two vs No Fear! A heavyweight super battle. This is the match I knew that they could have. No quarter given and none expected. The strikes were hard enough to crack concrete. Then some if the big moves were so sick looking because the guys are so big...they can't roll through with the momentum like a smaller guy. Rikio's Germans were especially nasty looking. A classic match for sure! Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata vs Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (02/17/02): Here's one that I have wanted to see for a long while. This is a great match and probably what I'd consider a near classic. This had a lot going for it. I really dug Akiyama as champ not backing down or tagging out too soon. The rest was very good but not exceptional. And maybe that's an expectation thing...It definitely had some really sick moments. As a part of the NJ vs NOAH feud thing, this definitely is very good stuff and feels like the start of something rather than an awesome endgame encounter. I wish there was more to it than this...I think Nagata's NOAH stuff in '03 goes really well with this and probably was supposed to take place in '02. This definitely feels like it in a few ways however I believe Kobashi gets hurt during this or isn't quite 100% recovered (this is his return match from knee surgeries/rehab) and is off until the middle of '02. I've seen a **** rating and I'll agree with that. Akitoshi Saito vs Kentaro Shiga (04/07/02): Oh man the Shiga indie hero dream lives on This is really fun stuff as Shiga looks to have left Sterness and is squaring off against Akiyama's enforcer Saito. He doesn't stand a chance or does he? It's under 10 minutes and is a blast. Shiga has the worst chops ever but makes up for it by throwing stiff ass elbows... Saito is a bull and incapable of not hitting somewhat stiff so yeah this was really good. Jushin Liger/Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Yoshinobu Kanemaru (04/07/02): Liger is he such a jerk-ass heel! Man does he punk the hell out of old Kikuchi and fancy pants Kanemaru. This was pretty good but, the NOAH team was out classed and outmatched. That doesn’t stop them from laying in some shots. I’m a bit of a Minoru fan so, this was a fun one. He was such a dick here! This isn’t so much a puro-style match as a fun American heel-babyface type tag match. ----- Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kodo Fuyuki (04/07/02): Very good match that I appreciated more than many of the fans. I think many of them were like "who's this fat guy making noises?" And that raises a good point, AJPW and NOAH can be pretty dry sometimes. When watching Fuyuki in other promotions, his noises aren't out of place at all. In a NOAH ring, I was taken a back. So this definitely is one I'm glad I got to see as a Fuyuki fan. It's got a little "garbage wrestling " which again fans didn't know what the fuck to do with Like do you people ONLY watch NOAH? You've seen a table get broken, right? It's 2002! Kenta Kobashi & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Masao Inoue & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (07/05/02): A fun match but it looks like a few minutes were chopped out (pun intended). No bother, you're watching this for Kobashi to hit people hard! Kotaro is super young here and looks to occupy the same ecological niche that KENTA did in 2001. Kobashi gets a 2nd comeback match. This one is way less taxing and he thankfully is back for awhile. KENTA & Takuma Sano vs Jun Akiyama & Kotaro Suzuki (07/26): KENTA #1 vs KENTA #2 to start things off and nice junior offense to open up with! I don't know if this is the first instance of surly KENTA vs veterans but it's a damn good one. Akiyama is so good in knowing when to no sell and when to sell here...he's probably the best of the big guys from AJPW in working with younger guys. Sano doesn't make a giant impression here because he knows that's not what the match is about. He does his job well in neutralizing Akiyama and,putting the hurt on he & Suzuki when he needs to. This is a great tag match. We really get to see the KENTA we come to know here both in attitude and move set. Suzuki really shined here as well. These 08/29 matches are in NJPW but I'm including them here: KENTA vs. Wataru Inoue (8/29/02) – This is wrestled like you typical early 2000s junior match. There’s a lot of stiff elbows to no real effect, there’s fun spots but, the match isn’t awesome or anything. It’s a quick small show match with two youngsters. I love me some KENTA and if you’re a fan then you’ll like this one. He bleeds from his mouth…and he wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s pretty good for two rookies. Solid but, unremarkable. By the way the cross-arm bar and the mounted elbows are really big in 2002 it seems. Koji Kanemoto vs. Makoto Hashi (8/29/02)- Hashi goes up against king prick Koji! The thing is that Koji thinks he’s tough shit but, Hashi is from NOAH- the hardest hitting, biggest bomb dropping-est (what?) promotion in the world. That’s good for Hashi since Koji figures he’ll practice his kicks on young Makoto’s lumpy head. Makoto remembers he eats kicks for breakfast…Kid tested mother approved…and chops and head butts the piss out of Kanemoto. I mean Hashi brings his ‘A game’ to take out the then IWGP Jr. champ. I’m always rooting against that smirking bastard! I love to hate him. The Noah Doughboy does me proud. Now that I think about it this match reminds me of the early 90s NJ vs. WAR feud. It’s very good stuff. Fuckin' love Koji... ----- Jushin Liger/Minoru Tanaka vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi - (8/29/02) – Seiji Sakaguchi’s out there. Hey! Why don’t you whisper into the mic some more? I kid! Liger comes out in some red long johns like he’s my grandpa. The costume change must be meaningful because he’s full of the piss and vinegar I keep hearing about. He didn’t count on Kikuchi and Kanemaru drinking jugs & jugs of old apple cider though! They bring the business to the NJ Jr. belt holders. Who’s tough now Liger? Hahaha! It doesn’t stop Minoru from being smug…and I love it. But, the story of this match stems from the man with the Rising Sun on his pants. To address this, I present a series of questions. What words does Kikuchi croak out of that cigarette and sake scarred gullet? Is it ‘Kill me?’ I ask this because if this is his wish, Liger is the genie of the lamp! Your wish is my command! Oh, tag out Kikuchi! We get it! You’re tough!! I love it though. These men deserve a round of applause; this is the match you wanted all along. Near Classic stuff! 2002 is definitely a year that gets overlooked in NOAH history but so far it's pretty darn great stuff! The junior stuff is fantastic as many people have said but what I like about it is that NOAH feels like WAR for the 2000's. It's not getting by on these amazing classic singles matches alone. The company is striving to have more complete cards with the junior matches being as interesting as the heavyweight stuff. I know I have read that Misawa was a big proponent of this and you see that here. I also really dig the evolution of Wild Two Rikio & Morishima. Their match vs Omori & Takayama is a fine example of how they have grown since their 07/2001 bout vs No Fear. More good stuff is on the way for next time as we conclude 2002. Thanks for reading!!

Here's more 2001 NOAH! Along with the Sterness post and my Zero One vs NOAH post, https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/blogs/entry/862-spotlight-noah-vs-zero-one-2001/ , I feel like I've got a pretty good sense of the company in '01. There's a lot to like with the fresh match ups, up and coming wrestlers and new twists on old rivalries. With the benefit of hindsight we know that NOAH hadn't quite hit its stride yet. Of the big 3 puroresu companies in '01, I think it was the most consistently good. NJ & AJ had some quality but most of it seemed dependent on Kawada, Tenryu and Muto (his '01 stuff is quality stuff). One big match I'm leaving off my watch list is Misawa vs Takayama 04/15/01 which was the deciding match for the inaugural GHC championship. That's a classic match. Below are some others you might have skipped over for one reason or another (hell I even ended up skipping a couple too!). Let's take a look! Takao Omori vs. Jun Akiyama (April 1, 2001): A really good...almost great match. I really like the Omori-Akiyama story. This period is one that I'm not as familiar with so I'm glad to have found this match. There's a strong focus on working a body part here and I think that's what makes it special. Akiyama mercilessly targets his former partner's Ax Bomber Lariat arm where Omori goes after the neck. Jun's attack is more defense minded. Takao is more offense oriented as his big moves also focus on the head and neck - piledriver, powerbomb, dragon suplex, Ax Guillotine driver and the lariat. I think what keeps this from being firmly "great" is the finish felt very uninspired. And I don't mean the final part of the match...no just the last couple moves. Like they didn't play off of the body of match...and they don't have to BUT it probably needed another back and forth sequence THEN the last couple moves to be a great finish and a "great" match. What a picky bastard I am sometimes This is still a very good encounter with the bulk of the match being excellent. And if I'm being fair both moves at the very end were super over at the time so I'm comfortable saying this is like ***3/4 stuff. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Akira Taue (05/18/01): Great 15 minute title fight. This is the GAEA version fast paced and they hit a load of big moves without emptying the tank completely. That said there's no intra-match story but it definitely plays off their previous encounters. I guess if anything the story is that Taue has to keep the pressure on and keep hitting Misawa with head kicks, slams etc. He can't give Misawa any room to recover. If you've never seen Misawa vs Taue then this is a good way to get your feet wet. ----- Jun Akiyama vs. Takeshi Morishima (05/25/01): Morishima brings the goods early on, clearly besting Akiyama in the strength/power department. Jun uses technique to get the upper hand and stretches the fuck outta Morishima. His work from the head scissors is fantastic. It's sad that people just blow past this move in the tired headlock takeover to head scissor to escape sequence. It's a great move if you know what you can do with it. Anyhow, Morishima finds an opportunity and takes it. Then a match that seems like its going to a "veteran punishing up-and-comer" match goes Budokan. We get a big move off the apron to the floor. This isn't a lost classic or anything but it is great match for sure. Morishima even this early brings the intensity and confidence. I really like the finish as well as it plays off of that early psychology. I was going to watch Juventud Guerrera vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (06/24) but I just couldn't get into it after the beginning. I skipped ahead because there were some neat spots. From what I saw, it was a little stiff/rough around the edges due to being unfamiliar with one another. If you're interested, seek it out...maybe I'm missing something. Mitsuharu Misawa, Naomichi Marufuji, Takeshi Rikio & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Michael Modest, Scorpio, Superstar Steve & Vader (07/16): Whoa, this is a nice little under the radar 8 man. It's rough around the edges on a spot or two but as the main event of a B-show that's alright. The veteran talent covers for any mistake quite well to where you don't even really care. The reason is that this is a super entertaining match. There's a little comedy, and although things are simple, it is done very well. You don't need to go crazy in order to have a good match. There's good pacing/rhythm, good chemistry, some gaga that keeps you engaged, and good action. I thought this was very good stuff as a result. Scorpio & Superstar Steve vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji (07/27): Wanna see KENTA get a concussion? Too Cold hits him with a standard spin kick but clearly KENTA wasn't ready for and is on dream street. Scorp does a good job taking care of him, stalls for time and gets Marufuji in the ring without too much harm or showing that the K man is seeing stars. Marufuji then proceeds to go off with Scorp and Superstar. Eventually KENTA comes back in and is slightly better and actually hits some high flying offense. Really good finish to boot. Kentaro Shiga & Makoto Hashi vs. Satoru Asako & Takashi Sugiura (07/27): This seemed like a neat matchup. And dang! I was right! Asako & Shiga bring that AJPW trained goodness that really gets the match going. From their the NOAH newbs follow their energy and we get a really fun 6+ minute match. Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Donovan Morgan (07/27): Pretty good match in the end. They confused the audience in the middle and they kinda switched face & heel roles. Part of it is Morgan is part of the Americans and is therefore sorta heel but certainly is when he spits in Kanemaru's face. Sterness is a tweener stable but Kanemaru should firmly be a face if only in this match does some heel shit like ball kicks & choke with his wrist tape (which he does on the regular). Then Morgan asks for the crowd support to break out of the sleeper. At first he gets laughs, which maybe what he wanted but then the fans were actually behind him. Like Kanemaru decided wasn't going to be the baby face dammit It was weird but they went with it. They got me & the crowd back, did some great stuff at the end and had a pretty good match overall. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. NO FEAR (Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama) (07/27): Badass 13 minute fight...really just beating each other for most of it. We got some really sick moves later but it ended sooner than I wished. Wild Two are still you but damn they brought it to Takayama & Omori. Near **** match. Takeshi Morishima vs. KENTA (08/15/01): Super young KENTA looks like he's got a surfer gimmick. One little flub early on (that damn Tiger Mask corner back flip off the guy) but this was surprisingly good. Morishima was a great base for KENTA's more generic junior offense (remember early Kawada in Footloose for instance?). It funny because he would still keep some of this in his offense like a top rope rana and definitely the springboard dropkick. Morishima and he are just great opponents and that's no difference even here in 2001. Daisuke Ikeda vs. Tamon Honda (09/01/01): A great example of what I was talking about last time. Early NOAH seemed more interested in doing different matches than what we'd see in the mid-late 2000s. This was a 12 minute BattlARTS match essentially: Lots of really good mat wrestling and fighting over holds, striking from Ikeda, some shoot-style suplexes from Honda (ala UWF). This was for a title shot and is something a few years later, I could see them booking a macho strike/bomb fest instead of this. Financially it probably is what people wanted in the end but 2001 NOAH gives us little treats like this very good match. Daisuke Ikeda & Takashi Sugiura vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (09/09/01): The NTV matches such as this one are clipped in half. This one is 5 min of 10 minutes. Really wish we got all of it. I'm not sure we even see Omori as the legal man??? Anyway what is shown was great! I can't give this a proper rating but if you come across this in full somewhere, check it out! Helluva opening! Shinjiro Otani vs. Kentaro Shiga (October 17, 2001): A few more Zero One vs NOAH matches that missed the cut a year ago in my post. Glad to add them here! Otani was great here making Shiga look like a real threat. He stooged for him and took most of the moves during the match. Still Otani hit some big stuff and also came out looking strong as well. A real pro...good fun match right here! KENTA & Masao Inoue vs. Richard Slinger & Superstar Steve (10/19): Hey I watched this for Richard Slinger and he didn't disappoint. Now I have to back and watch a bunch of his AJPW under card matches that I skipped This was fun...probably could have been 10-12 minutes instead of 15 but I liked it. Simple stuff but best when Slinger was in. Masashi Aoyagi & Takashi Sugiura vs. Kentaro Shiga & Makoto Hashi (10/19): Sterness' C-team again taking on Sugiura and this time karate expert and indie favorite Masashi Aoyagi (although it looks like he was with NOAH for 14 years). This is another fun match and a good one overall as its given almost 15 minutes. If you're into 90's Indie puro like me then it's real easy to pretend this is an upper mid card match in between some death match with the Headhunters and the main event featuring someone who was trained at the AJPW dojo in the 80's But yeah, going with that notion, you'll really dig this. I'm on a Kentaro Shiga kick I guess... his lanky physique, silver shorts and technical skills scream baby face. It's a lot of fun day dreaming he's the star of this pretend Indie Daisuke Ikeda & Shinjiro Otani vs. Satoru Asako & Takao Omori (10/19): No Fear B-team vs Ikeda & Otani!? This is too weird for me to pass up! But I tell you what I thought it was kinda dull. It just seemed like they were told to eat up some time. I gave up on this Akira Taue & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (11/20): Only 5 minutes shown on a 10 minute match but shoot this was fun. Kikuchi and Takaiwa are trying to kill each other. Taue vs Hoshikawa is a lot of since Taue takes a ton of offense and Hoshikawa is a junior bumps beautifully for Taue's power moves. Mitsuharu Misawa, Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Richard Slinger, Scorpio & Vader (11/20/01): Want to say this before I forget: Richard Slinger & Marufuji's opening sequence is awesome! And we're off to the races from there...7 minute finishing stretch match. This was a blast!! Fun post match too! An NTV match shown in full ~ yay! Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (11/25): 1/2 shown and maybe that's a good thing. The parts where they were hitting each other was great. The parts where they were slamming each other was great. There's some leg work but that just was just kinda there because they needed something to make this 20 minutes long. Maybe it was clipped in such a way but nothing seemed to follow a logical pattern. So yeah at 10 minutes this was good but I can't think this was any better in full. Scorpio & Vader vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (11/30/01): This is one I actually own. It's been over a decade since I watched this. And yeah, this is really good stuff! It's a good mix of guys since Vader is all power, Misawa & Scorpio are all arounders who can bring anything given the situation and Ogawa is quick & sneaky. There's really sick spots here and let's be honest the spots are what make this match - Vader especially. His mobility is pretty limited here. Still he gets the job done. I dig the Scorp/Vader team. ----- All in all 2001 NOAH is a pretty darn good year. The under card always seems to have a couple good matches per show and the main events deliver. I wouldn't say they delivered in the way AJPW in the '90s did...but in all honesty they were already that way in 99-2000 which I've seen a good deal of (but not reviewed much of on this blog). It's definitely a transitional period but definitely makes it more interesting to go back and see what's been overlooked or underrated. As you can tell I really have a new appreciation for Kentaro Shiga but also appreciate how ready to go Marufuji and Morishima were. NOAH trainees Rikio and Sugiura weren't far behind since they're more one dimensional power wrestlers. Richard Slinger and Scorpio were always fun to watch and dammit even Superstar Steve. KENTA reminds me of Kawada in that he was good early in doing the junior high risk offense but it took a couple years to find himself and be awesome. And I'm not even counting the Zero One stuff or the Sterness stuff...yeah 2001 NOAH was pretty darn good indeed! I am planning on looking at 2002 in a little bit. I probably won't watch as many under the radar matches but heck! its '02 NOAH so anything more than a handful of matches and we're going to be under the radar But I've missed out on two of the bigger matches of 2002 so those are going to be reviewed hopefully! Also I went back to last week's post and the NOAH vs Zero One post and added some pictures in case you want to check those out. Turns out I had some clips of those matches on a Misawa comp. and thought a couple pics would make things more interesting. Thanks for reading!

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Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction Through Takayama's wrestling years are pretty well documented by now, not a ton is really focused around the first 5 years of his career which was almost completely dedicated to being a shoot-style wrestler in the likes of the UWFI as well as showing up for most of the very short-lived successor-promotion known as Kingdom. This has been a curiosity for a while as I'm a big fan of Takayama in general, so the idea of seeing him in a completely different environment was a very interesting proposition. I've reviewed and documented almost all of his matches from those five years to go over here, through this will only be focusing on mainly his actual shoot-style matches, so I won't be including his more comedic Golden Cups work in NJPW and the like; I will be throwing in some inter-promotional work regardless as it is practically impossible to avoid once we go into 1995/1996 when Choshu starts to get involved with the UWFI and whatnot. I'll also probably skip over the REALLY short stuff, namely the matches under a minute as they really don't do anything mindblowing for the most part. I'll also be throwing in some bonus matches for the occasional indie date afterwards when Taka got to wrestle shoot-style again, though mostly for UWF reunion cards. I'll be ranking the matches the same as the Tiger Mask thread, reminder of that below: 1. Great 2. Good 3. Decent 4. Forgettable This is more of a formality so anyone who's skimming these can get a quick synopsis of what to watch and not to watch without having to read through paragraphs. =========== Vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (UWF-I Sekai Gannen: Hakata Live 26.06.1992) This is Takayama's first ever recorded match ever, and it's quite noticeable from his shaved buzz-cut, a signature of most wrestling rookies starting off, as well as his considerably skinnier body: seeing him so lean and thin is a shock given most people are used to his larger frame. Taka and Kanehara will have endless matches over the years but this is their first meeting together. The lads are still pretty green, with Takayama just flat-out stumbling over in the first 30 seconds and Kanehara having to cover for him by going to the mat. His selling is still very good through; he sells a Achilles Lock by just outright screaming and hugging the ropes, which is weird to see given his later "tough guy" status. The match itself is very frantic, with Takayama having the advantage on stand-up with his knees and slaps while Kanehara is the more competent on the mat, so we get a lot of interaction between the pair as they push their respective strengths. Takayama's strikes need a LOT of work and don't look very good at all (seriously, he does like some tap-kicks in the middle-half of this that look dreadful) but I at least appreciated the attempt. That said, the crowd still get into this when he's having to escape from Kanehara's submissions due to his natural underdog stauts. He uses the ropes a lot to this effect and can't really do much about it: even his counter-submissions are countered fairly effectively and turned against him. There's a weird thing in the middle where they both seem to hit low blows on the other (Takayama's seemed accidental while Kanehara just outright palm strikes it as a receipt) which looked a bit awkward and didn't really do anything. Eventually Kanehara gets one too many holds in and manages to win with a single-leg Boston Crab before transitioning to a kneebar for the win. Some good moments but both lads are naturally a bit clumsy and there's not really a narrative or story beyond Takayama escaping submissions and trying to survive. As for the big lad himself, he's nowhere near his best yet but shows potential, especially in his knee strikes (which will become a signature of his wrestling style) but at the moment he's still very green and struggled in making the mat-work look convincing when on the offensive, with a lot of contrived moments. Kanehara was a lot better in general, through he didn't really bring much intensity to this at all and his strikes were also kinda eh in places. A decent start but a LONG way to go for both men. RANK: Decent Vs. Kanehara II (UWF-I The Root of Wrestling 28.08.1992) Takayama has already lost to Kanehara three times over (two of which are unrecorded) things have to change now, right? Not exactly. Taka takes the early advantage after a scrappy start, hitting a side kick that does clear damage by how Kanehara backs off suddenly in pain, but Taka's messy strikes means he can't capitalise, allowing Kanehara to grab on a side-takedown and drag this down to the mat. They have a decent exchange there as Kanehara slaps on a cross armbreaker and struggles for it, with Taka having to reach for the ropes when his defence is finally ripped away. The lads build up a good narrative in which Taka is able to knock around Kanehara in stand-up but can't make any definitive breakthroughs while Kanehara opts for mat-work and vicious takedowns but Taka is able to keep safe through rope breaks and defensive work. There's a awesome spot in the middle section where Taka hurls himself for a reckless leaping kick while Kanehara is backing up in the corner which hits the guy, but also allows his opponent to take over when he hits the mat. The action isn't super amazing, but the pair manage to get some great heat here as they both get closer and closer to their endgame goals. Taka gets some sensational falls (involving some stiff wide slaps and a huge German suplex in the second half that the crowd explodes for) but can't get a definitive win. At one point Kanehara just goes "fuck it" and forgoes the takedowns for spinning Savate kicks and slaps, which catches his opponent very much off guard and allows for a knockdown of his own, which was a great reversal to surprise everyone with. I just like how messy this gets around about the end: both guys just start throwing out dropkicks and big bombs in a attempt to finish the other off, and there's a big sense of uncertainty here as Taka looks the most confident he's ever looked thus far. Eventually Taka starts to gas out, allowing for Kanehara to clinch multiple submission false finishes until he can get in for the kill, stunning Taka with slaps before rolling him onto the mat and into side-mount. A quick Americana taps him out for the fourth loss in a row. This isn't incredible in terms of technique but the heat and pure chaotic energy this produces more than makes up for that. The duo have a natural chemistry that allows Kanehara to get the best out of the (still green and clumsy) Taka in the best ways involving furious strike exchanges, slaps, knees, all the stuff you'd expect, even if Taka still can't strike very good and still looks very awkward given his size and whatnot. The brawls that Taka will have later on his career are almost influenced completely by matches like this where he's off the chain and throwing for the fences. Taka sells really good with how he can crumble sell for one minute and explode in violence the next, managing to once again get the crowd heated up for his win over his rival. Mat work is mostly basic but competent on Kanehara's half but is more of a side-attraction to everything else going on here so it's excused in my mind. Not a "good" shoot style match by any means but it's pure fun and definitely a good addition to the Takayama/Kanehara endless feud. Arguably stole the night in terms of quality (especially given the main event is a 3 minute Albright squash). RANK: Good Vs. Tom Burton (UWF-I World Heavyweight Title Match 21.09.1992) Takayama is facing up against Thomas Burton, well known for.... being a jobber in the WWF? In all seriousness, Burton had a pretty respectful career for himself both here and elsewhere, being a useful guy who could do odd jobs anywhere but his UWF work is where he was given the most room to wiggle around in. Burton actually gets a good bit of work against Takayama, catching him off guard with some grounded work and a heel hook at one point. He's no Albright by at least a few miles but he can at least have some sort of convincing style here as he continually keeps Taka down and away from his height advantage. He tries to sell Taka as being too much to handle in terms of stand-up.... Taka's striking stuff at this point is still pretty dreadful through, so you have Burton running from his dude landing limp slaps and slow kicks for the most part like he's some scary prospect, which is really funny, but I doubt that was what they were going for. My other issue is that Burton just kinda holds on to Taka's body here for dear life during these mat-sequences: he doesn't try for submissions or really anything, he just sorta gets to the body in a half-comfortable position, holds on and waits. As you can imagine, this is fairly boring to watch and not going to lie, the early sequences are just all this with the odd point where Taka either gets some control or reaches for the ropes. I would appreciate it more if it was apart of a longer gameplan to maybe force Taka to lose via points or just wearing him out for bigger stuff but nothing of sorts is really communicated here. Burton tries to inject some fire into this by hitting Taka with a few loose shots after a rope break out of frustration, but Taka just goes into the same stuff he'd been doing the whole match for about nine minutes until he decides to use his knees to nail Burton enough for a big German suplex, which was pretty cool but then the match just drifts back into the same pattern again of Taka getting taken down, going to the ropes and then resetting. Eventually Taka starts actually throwing stuff and the crowd pick up for it because the first half was so boring. Burton doesn't change his gameplan at all and keeps just holding Taka's midsection endlessly until the finish has Taka hit him with a slap and a kick to the face, which knocks him out of the ring. I get why this exists as a device to get the young Taka over as a act with resiliency, but man, this is just not very good namely because it's maybe too realistic: Burton is a wrestler and basically just wrestles Taka to the ground for the entire match with no real gameplan beyond getting Taka on the mat: he shows no agency, and that fucks the pacing of this badly. Not very good, and it's not really Taka's fault here: he's still a noobie and can't direct a match like this. Burton is not the man to be pushing so much when there's not a lot to go against at all. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Mark Sliver (UWF-I Combat Sport: Takada Vs. Kitao 23.10.1992) Really feeling like I'm cheating here given this match only lasts for about a minute and a half and it's not the good kind of short match either for reasons I'll get into. Sliver runs in and pushes Taka onto the floor early, but ends up eating a submission after his leg gets caught by Taka and his Sayama-lite Enzuigiri counter is ducked under. Sliver gets caught and screams a ton while in the hold, which is unusual for such a early bit like this. This carries on as even with the rope break and the ref calls a break for a bit until resuming. Sliver tries going business as usual with some wild swings but his leg once again gives out and the match is quickly called off with Taka declared the winner. Apparently this was a legitimate injury as Mark Sliver will be gone from UWF-I for a while (he'll try to come back a few times but his leg will keep giving out) said injury will somewhat plague him despite his fairly decent work (he has a bonkers match with Kakihara that I'd absolutely suggest watching when you can). Obviously this is a non-match given the length and lack of action; it can't really be considered by any standard whatsoever which is usually why I don't like doing matches this short. RANK: ???? Vs. Kanehara III (UWF-I Final '92 The Root Of Wrestling 20.12.1992) Kanehara has beaten Takayama numerous times at this point, and this time the stakes are higher as the latter has gotten to the finals of the Jr League over two opponents only to be met with the same man again. He proves that he isn't going to be so easily beaten this time by taking the initiative by getting a Achilles Hold on early after blocking a roundhouse, needing Kanehara to reach for the ropes for the first time. Takayama's strikes still aren't perfect (his slaps even by this point don't look good at all despite all of the experience) but his knee shots are already looking quite smooth and hard-hitting. There's a awesome spot early where Kanehara just picks up Taka and hits a amazing rolling backdrop to get a takedown proper on the guy, which even with him assisting is no easy feat. Taka returns the favour with a big Capture Suplex into cross armbreaker not to be outdone. What I love in particular about this match is the HEAT: the crowd are really into this and little bits and pieces by the duo really highlight how this is more than just a regular match: the sneaky kicks on the ground by Kanehara, Taka just rampaging around and refusing to give his opponent any space, even when a loose slap may have potentially caught Kanehara's eye for a illegal move. Taka doesn't give a shit, he just runs at him full force with a jumping knee to get that knockdown, and any chance he gets to inflict more damage is taken in a heartbeat. We also get a vicious kick to the head after Kanehara catches one from Taka, which looked pretty stiff. Taka also hits a German as per standard, and it's also equally as good. They do tease Taka getting the big win a few times here, namely in the middle; Taka gets him down for a sleeper for a rope break, before following it up with some flush knee shots for a knockdown. However, Kanehara is way too stubborn and manages to get Taka for a second takedown and a jumping heel kick, which evens the score. The second half is built around Taka withstanding a ton of abuse from Kanehara on the mat, namely to his legs to immobilise him. Taka is dangerously low on points, so every break is a step closer to failure; something the crowd pick out and keep thunderously cheering for the tables to turn. Taka is positioned as competent but ultimately outmatched on that front: outside of some reversals and a accidental elbow in the eye when he's escaping a hold, he has no real luck handling Kanehara's submissions. Near the end he's spent and needs to use his legs to merely push Kanehara away, especially after some stiff slaps knock him down again. One too many result in yet another mat exchange: Takayama's flaw is giving his back up to escape side mount, which allows his opponent to grab on a rear naked choke for the win. Really awesome bout that's by far the best out of their series thus far. The crowd is really up and roaring for every close shave strike and hold and the duo really exploit this with some great stagger-selling and fatigue building throughout. Kanehara is solid and Taka, while still pretty iffy, gets really good here when he's unloading with strikes despite getting gassed in the latter half. It's not a scientific match by any means of the imagination but these two have a grove together that just boosts the pair up: Taka has this natural intensity to everything he does even if he's sloppy at points and Kanehara who's mechanically solid but typically a bit dry gets to feed off that to give his stuff a lot more pro-style drama behind it. Strong stuff. RANK: Great =========== I'll be going through these year by year as not to bloat this up too much so next post will cover his 1993 tenure.

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Back with Part 2 of FMW in 1999. Got some cool pics (too many actually...maybe I'll post those later). All grainy & shit like we watched our Japanese wrestling back in the day son! This time it is all tag and 6 man wrestling. Fans of this stuff, you are going to find out about some good stuff. Let's go! Gannosuke/Kanemura/Oya/Hosaka/Hido vs. Ishikawa/Ikeda/Yone/Usuda/Hijikata (05/05/99): Big cross promotion elimination match for the anniversary show! BattlArts vs Team No Respect/Gannosuke Outlaws. This was a very good elimination match and had some good stuff but personally I'd love to see a tag or even 6 man match instead. We get tastes Oya vs Ishikawa or Gannosuke vs Ikeda but I wish there was more. Really exciting stuff though. BAHU has it in the top 20 matches of FMW and I think folks like elimination matches more than me so, check it out if you're interested! Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (05/05/99): This is the tag team match-up you want to see for 1999. It is a fantastic match too! Shinzaki is electric here. I'm not sure why but everything he was doing seemed to be really on point and !are things special. Otherwise they seemed to use the amazing 03/19 match as their outline. I think I would have thought this was a near classic had I'd seen this 2 months later rather than 2 days. All that said, this was a great match! This had all the stuff any wrestling fan would like in 1999 - tag team moves, big moves off the top and over the top, great near falls. I read on BAHU's site that this was not the main event (there actually a few more) and the winner of the match would fight again that night so that makes sense why this wasn't an classic. That said, this is absolutely a blast and worth your time. The bird man flying off into oblivion ----- Hayabusa & Tetsuhiro Kuroda v Mohammed Yone & Alexander Otsuka (BattlArts 05/14/99): Saw this about 10 years ago and my opinion of it has improved. This is a great match! We get really good mat wrestling, way more than we get in FMW usually but, maybe not enough to be a BattlArts match. Instead we get a really sweet hybrid (which is kinda what Batt-batt and early FMW was about) and this is awesome. I thought this was just a blast seeing these guys gel so well! (oh Hayabusa has aligned with Kuroda, Tanaka and since Gannosuke Outlaws has disbanded and Hosaka and It's are now back with FMW. Fuyuki and all of the heels are under one umbrella). ----- Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki v Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori (All Japan 06/04/99): Hells yeah! What a great match! They bring so much variety to the table. This was so cool because they needed to use a ton of aerial stuff and their quickness to combat the beast Takayama. Omori is pretty frigging big too so they had their work cut out for them. Tons of excitement and surprises in this one. I think calling this a near classic especially in regards to the Hayabusa/Shinzaki team is appropriate. Their 1999 stuff is awesome! A well paced and nicely laid out fight. Definitely wish we got more Hayabusa and Jinsei in AJPW. Perhaps the best flying knee drop off the top I've seen ----- Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda v Mr. Gannosuke & Yukihiro Kanemura & Hido (06/15/99): Back in FMW, we get a 6 man match where the loser has to eat dog food. That part isn't important but there's some stakes here with FMW vs No Respect. And from the amazing opening sequences, this match does not stop. Bell to bell action. We get a little bit more hard core wrestling than we're seen in awhile as a ladder is in play as well. Tons of great interactions and spots. Tons of fun & a great match. The cream of the crop for FMW 1999 has been excellent. Enjoyed the AJ and BattlArts stuff as well. This was a real treat for me as I'm such a tag fan. If everything goes according to plan, I should wrap up 1999 FMW next week. Find something you like and enjoy! Thanks for reading folks

Full version is here bar a minute (don't ask how I found this, I genuinely don't remember outside of I think a random AJPW compilation tape on YT) so given this was essentially a sprint, which was pretty interesting given who was involved. Takayama has to run around Vader (which is a funny sight to see) and throws out some great strikes and slams in the process with a ton of urgency. Vader bumps his ass off for the 33 year old as he lands a ton of offence including even a sensational Taue-lite top rope big boot, which looked pretty well done given Taka's size and whatnot. There's some shoot-style stuff as Taka goes for a few leg and arm submissions, all of which Vader has to reach for the ropes for given his lack of experience in that regard. Eventually he gets swatted like a fly with a big body check before Vader lands two hard splashes for a near fall. Taka does his best Kobashi impression with a silly face afterwards as he tries to push though: Vader has no time for dramatics as he quickly lands a Vader Bomb for another near fall before just splashing the guy again regularly for the conclusive finish. This could've easily been a dream match had Taka been older and Vader younger, but this'll do for a fun little change of pace. Lots of moves done with virtually no downtime and despite Vader's inconsistent and rather shaky workrate at this point he delivers with the bombs and stiff shit you'd expect, with a younger and leaner Taka really embracing his role as the agile underdog with some tricks up his sleeve. Their 2001 match is a lot better in terms of conventional workrate that's expected out of the two, but there's a quality to this that I do find charming given how fast Taka was when he was leaner; it's like seeing early WCW Giant do stuff like dropkicks and the like, bit bonkers.

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