What are you watching?

[Guest DragonflyKid]

Haven't seen one of these threads here in awhile so I decided to start one.

 

 

After getting through most of what I wanted from 90's AJPW(VQ Upgrades aside) I got into Joshi and it's still my main priority. I just got 11 tapes in and my next order will consist of Joshi as well.

 

(Just received)

Dreamslam I Part 2 & 3(VQ upgrades)

AJW Soul of the Shout 1/11/91

AJW Grand Prix '92 part 1

AJW Tag League The Best '93 Part 2

GAEA Flashback Volume 2 12/96 - 2/97

GAEA Premium League 1st - Kansai edition

Arsion Carnival '99(VQ upgrade)

AJW Satellite TV 12/9/00

GAEA G-Panic #64

Joshi Compilation

 

 

Since I'm still focused on my Joshi collection and am moving in a few months I wasn't sure how much I was willing to invest on NJ juniors so I decided to get a custom comp instead of complete shows and tv blocks. I finally ordered from Lynch a few weeks back and got two custom comps, he lived up to his reputation as his turnaround time and VQ was great.

 

NJ Custom(2 hours):

Liger vs. El Samurai 4/30/92 - Great match, up there with Ohtani/U.Dragon J*Crown '96 as my favorite Juniors match.

Liger vs. Ohtani 3/17/96 (JIP) - Another great match, 16:13 of 20:27 was shown but I liked this better then their 2/9/97 match which I have complete.

Ohtani vs. El Samurai 1/21/96 (JIP) - Only 9:22 of 22:26 was shown but it was a great 9:22. Was there a complete version releashed?

Ohtani vs. Wild Pegasus 3/20/96 (JIP) - 9:23 of 18:09 was shown.

Vader vs. Inoki 1/4/96 -I was a bit underwhelmed but still liked it alot.

El Samurai vs. Kanemoto 6/5/97 (JIP) - 15:18 of 23:51 was shown. Next to 4/30/92 this was probably my favorite match on the tape.

 

AJ Custom:

Kobashi vs. Hansen 4/16/93 - I liked this almost as much as their match later in the year. After watching both comps back to back I prefered this to the Inoki/Vader match.

Misawa vs. Kawada 10/21/92 (JIP) - 19:30 shown, great match and the last match between the two that I wanted.

Kawada vs. Tsuruta 10/24/91 - I love watching Jumbo and this was a match I really wanted to see after watching a six-man where Kawada/Tsuruta was the focus and not Misawa/Tsuruta.

Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue 6/9/95 - I originally wanted their 6/93? match but Lynch couldn't find it so I got this instead. I had it in VG VQ but I figured what the hell and now I have my favorite match in EX/NP VQ.

Kawada vs. Sasaki 10/9/00 - A NJ match but I wanted to include it anyway. I love no-selling at times and this match had alot of no-selling but it was pulled off differently from what I'm used to. I've never been overly impressed with Sasaki the times I've seen him but I really enjoyed this match.

[EL DANDY~! 0]

Right now, I'm broke, so I'm just going through my Best of Japan 2001 tapes and getting to the good matches, like right now, it's Tanka/Murahama for DA BELT in a BattleArts match of EPIC proportions, man...

 

On a related note, anybody think Best of Japan 2002 would be worth a buy or not?

[Guest Black Tiger]

Lately its been all pre-split AJPW for me, I just got a few tapes from 1999 AJPW, I also watched the NJ Cross Road show which is my pick for Best Card of the year. I also watched some Hayabusa from FMW the other night.

 

Now that I've seen it, as much as I like Kanemoto, Kanemoto vs. Hashi wasn't a MOTYC, but it sure was a hell of a fight.

[Guest wolverine]

Ohtani vs. El Samurai 1/21/96 (JIP) - Only 9:22 of 22:26 was shown but it was a great 9:22. Was there a complete version releashed?

 

Yes, NJ Classics released this match in complete form last summer. I recently purchased it from Highspots and was quite pleased. Great match (of course), that was a lot better on repeated viewings (similar to what I've experienced while watching RINGS stuff). It's hard to grasp a lot of the intricacies of the matwork the first time around, but once you have a sense of where it's going, it's a beautiful thing to see.

 

As far as what I'm watching, nothing new to speak of at this point. However, what I find myself going back to and rewatching more than anything else, is the matches that feature the top flight matwork. I could watch Tamura, Han and Yoshida all day....

[Guest Jubuki]

I'm watching the description of this forum and thinking, "What's so revolutionary about Toryumon?"

 

Also, the full versions of Liger/Ohtani and Benoit/Ohtani are now available on NJ Classics along with Samurai/Ohtani. Although neither match is as good as the Samurai match (and people thought Liger & Benoit were reaching their peaks!), they're both still must-see for Ohtani fans. His match against Liger is maybe not quite as amazing as it might seem at first glance, but it's a pretty critical mark for him in terms of taking on a top guy. The Benoit match is also less impressive than the clipped version (not so much because the work is bad but because one sees how they don't lead up as well as is done on the 1/21 match), but the finish is fantastic, as is Ohtani's way of bouncing everywhere for Benoit's offense without killing or diminishing his own determination in the least. Ohtani wasn't even The Man, but he came off as The Man better than maybe I've ever seen Flair against non-enhancement talent.

 

I'ma watch some All Japan (Classics too) right this minute, though.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

I'm re-watching AJW's Midsummer Typhoon and I'm on the Tag finals with Yamada/Hokuto vs. Bull/Aja, which is a really neat match. I can't get enough of this early ninties Joshi.

 

I'm also going to pop in LCO Cage match from '97 and then the one from 2000 to decide which one I like better.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

I'm watching All Japan Champion Carnival 1995. It took me a while to get past that 60 minute draw 6-man draw though.......

[Guest wolverine]

Ah, the All Japan tour that saw Akira Taue become the Motherfucking Man and pass Kenta Kobashi for the #3 spot in the company for in-ring. The Kawada-Taue and Misawa-Taue league matches are the epitome of underrated brilliance. Then we saw Misawa and Taue take it up another level entirely in the final, which was just incredible. Great, great tourney.

[Guest Jubuki]

Funny, that's the very thing I'm working on reviewing.

[Guest wolverine]

Cool, man. But the question remains: Where is Big Egg Universe?!? Har har.

[Guest Jubuki]

I'm going through that Joshi in chronological order. Plenty of big shows in between Legacy of Queens and BEU (and plenty of grad school type things that make wrestling insignificant), so you do the math.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

So....does this mean that we don't get that long-waited Summerslam review? Surly you can put aside those studies and Hokuto luvin' long enough to watch some WWE goodness, right?

[Guest Jubuki]

If you want to give my 50-minute seminar on small interfering antisense RNAs and their role in human pathways for RNA interference, I'll jump right on it!

[Guest DragonflyKid]

Dreamslam I Part 2 & 3(VQ upgrades) –I don’t have to say much about this card as it has already been pimped to death. With the exception of the Power/Nomata VS Tsuchiya/Maedomori and kickboxing match everything is at least good with the Kandori/Hokuto match being essential viewing.

 

AJW Soul of the Shout 1/11/91 –The last three matches are all recommended. The Toyota/Hokuto match was good, not on the level of their 8/21/93 but nice to see them have a good match before hitting their peaks. The Nakano/Kong confrontations which they highlighted before the ME were intense, the Nakano/K. Inoue VS Kong/Kimura(Hair VS hair) match was around ****. Not an essential match unless your interested in the Kong/Nakano feud which at this point I very much am.

 

AJW Grand Prix '92 part 1 –A highly recommended card, the last four matches were all at least good. I didn’t see a classic in the Toyota/Yamada match but it was still great. Not on the level of 8/15/92 but close and better than 1/4/92.

 

AJW Tag League The Best '93 Part 2 –The two Hokuto/Toyota VS K. Inoue/Yamada matches are worth getting, not only were they great but seeing Hokuto and Toyota tag was fun. Toyota's emotion after the 2nd match was greater than after her 8/15/92 hair VS hair match which was worked and I'm not sure this display was. The Mita/Shimoda VS Ito/Watanabe match was a solid undercard match.

 

GAEA Flashback Volume 2 12/96 - 2/97 –No **** matches but a few solid ones and more importantly one can see the potential in GAEA’s young stars. The veteran VS younger wrestler matches were fun with the exception of the handicapped match. Recommended if one is interested in the evolution of Satomura, Nagashima, etc.

 

GAEA Premium League 1st - Kansai edition –Another recommendation if one wants to see Satomura, Nagashima, Sato, etc in their earlier stages. Solid work for the most part with some execution flaws.

 

Arsion Carnival '99(COOP, VQ upgrade) –The Hamada/AKINO VS LCO match was great but the rest of the card is forgettable.

 

AJW Satellite TV 12/9/00 – The T. Inoue/Sawai VS Watanabe/Noumi match was solid but the rest of the undercard was poor(Even the Toyota match). The six-woman cage match was great, it’s my favorite cage match as I prefer it to Rage in the Cage. Definitely worth tracking down.

 

GAEA G-Panic #64 –I was interested in this due to Toyota’s debut, it was done well as far as I can tell with my limited Japanese. The Toyota/Kong VS Yamada/Kansai match wasn’t bad but wasn’t anything special either especially compared to what it would have been 5-10 years ago. The Satomura/Kato Flashback match was good but overall I'd only recommended this tape for Toyota fanboys.

 

Joshi Compilation – I wasn’t really interested in getting full JWP cards but decided to get this tape since it had some matches I had heard good things about.

Fukuoka vs. Bolshoi Kid 9/27/97 –A very good Bolshoi Kid match? I liked this as the flow of the match was very good, not a blow-away match but fun and well worked.

Yokota vs. Yagi 9/8/96 -Good match, this reminds me to get more Yokota from the 80’s.

Fukuoka vs. Kansai 4/8/97 –Very good match.

Nakanishi vs. Wakizawa 8/5/99 –Fun match and solid for what it was.

Toyota vs. YuYu 5/12/00 –Good match.

NanaMomo vs. Sakai/Yabushita 8/23/98 –I’m a NanaMomo mark but this was only mediocre.

Asuka vs. Kong 9/17/00 (JIP) Didn’t look good from what was shown.

 

GAEA Megaride ’02- The Toyota/Nagashima is the only match worth going out your way to see. It was very good although Toyota’s emotion hurt the match, her facial expression didn’t express the importance of the match or Nagashima’s threat until Chikayo semi-no-sold two Japanese Ocean Queen Bee Bombs but by that time the match was nearly over. The undercard ranged from okay to bad, the opening match between Amano and YuYu was the 2nd best match on the card which says something about the quality of the other matches. The Crush Girls/LCO match was boring and the tag title match was highly disappointing. Instead of having a good, hard-fought, memorable title change the focus of the match was D-Fix’s attempt at using the chain, their use of the chain and Police’s interference. A bad match made worse by the fact the title switch happened in a match that wasn’t taken seriously. D-Fix < Hirota.

 

GAEA High spirit 600 Tourney ‘02

 

Goddess Nakano/Goddess Hokuto

 

Goddess Kong/Goddess Toyota

 

Dream rush part 1(COOP)

 

Dream rush part 2(COOP)

 

AJW LLPW VS ZENJO 1/24/93 part 2 + Bonus matches

 

GAEA Flashback Vol 10

[Guest Black Tiger]

Since my last post I've watched:

 

AJPW CC 1995: part 4. I'm in the midst of blackmailing every major tape dealer I know of for trades with this tape.

 

BattlArts TV 10/27/99 Total pass here.

 

AJPW: Summer Action Series 1999 (both parts): Some good stuff out of the usual suspects (Akiyama, Kawada, Vader, Kobashi)

 

NJPW 2/18/01 PPV: Good stuff out of the junior six man, Kensuke vs. Ohtani, and a damn fine AJ vs. NJ tag match.

 

AJPW Oct. Giant Series 1999: Misawa and Vader go midevil on each other in an awesome 12 minute match, good stuff out of The Burning as well.

 

Plus, just for the hell of it I dug out CC 1995 pt1 and watched Kawada vs. Akiyama. Awesome match, makes me wish they had a singles match outside of tournaments and stuff towards the end of Akiayama's stay in AJPW.

[Guest wolverine]

Again, Kawada wrestled Akiyama in February 1993 and July 1993. Neither were tournaments, and they obviously took place far before the end of Akiyama's stay in AJPW.

[Guest Rob Edwards]

I'm currently going through a Joshi obsession period and I've been mainly watching anything from the 92/95 cross promotional period

[Guest wolverine]

After being left with a horrible taste in my mouth after rewatching the ridiculous Kawada/Sasaki 10/9/00 match, I thought I'd briefly write about some matches I love instead. I'm not 100% sure about the order of these, but I am comfortable about including them all. I should note that I chose not to include my overall Top 5 matches (Tamura/Kohsaka, 12/6/96, Dream Rush main, Misawa/Kawada, and Hokuto/Kandori), even though I could've put them all on without a problem.

 

1. Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue, AJPW, 12/3/93

 

Kawada's greatest performance, perhaps only trailing Akira Hokuto's Dreamslam I effort for tops in history. Unbelievably surreal selling and storytelling. Simply one for the ages.

 

2. Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota, AJW Big Egg Universe, 11/20/94

 

The match that got me addicted to Joshi. The brutality here is quite mind blowing, with an incredibly heated and exciting stretch run. One of the very few matches to elicit a jaw dropping reaction upon my first viewing.

 

3. Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura, RINGS, 1/22/97

 

Best under 15 minute match ever. Fluid, crisp and flat out AWESOME matwork from the two masters. This would be a superb introduction to shootstyle, partially due to its short length, but also because of the flashy moves Tamura uses, which would probably make this far more accessible than most stuff you'll find within the genre.

 

4. Kaoru Ito vs. Momoe Nakanishi, AJW, 9/16/01

 

Ito and Momoe have great chemistry when they work with each other - Ito as the anchor; Momoe as the bump machine. The end result here was a fantastic Veteran vs. Youngster encounter, with them playing off each other's strengths excellently. An extremely engaging match where you can't help but pull for young Momoe, who displayed such a spirited will to win. My top match of the decade so far.

 

5. Mariko Yoshida vs. AKINO, Arsion, 1/17/99

 

Yoshida at her peak, carrying the 6-month rookie AKINO to the promotion's best match ever. Great, smooth technique, with the highspots mixed in tremendously well. Yoshida's Air Raid Crash to end this thing is one of the most brutal moves I've witnessed in a match.

 

6. Misawa/Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue/Ogawa, AJPW, 7/2/93

 

Best 6-man tag I've ever seen. Probably the fastest paced match in AJPW's history, with everyone playing their part extremely well - in particular, Kawada and Kobashi, who were off-the-charts.

 

7. Jushin Liger vs. El Samurai, NJPW TOSJ '92 Final, 4/30/92

 

Liger's famous One Man Show--this is my favorite Juniors match of all-time. Intense as hell, great heat, highflying and choice submissions. A must-see for all Liger fans.

 

8. Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi, AJPW, 7/29/93

 

Kobashi was just a ton of fun in 1993, and this was his best match, thanks in large part to Hansen, who turned in a performance of a lifetime in terms of selling. He made everything count, putting over Kenta huge while still coming out looking strong. An all-time classic.

 

9. El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Ohtani, NJPW, 1/21/96

 

Probably the 2nd best Juniors match I've ever seen. Extremely complex and deep, with a seamless incorporation of the early limb attacks into the stretch run. I continue to marvel at Ohtani's 1996 year, in which he really started coming of age - having great matches with a wide variety of opponents. This one, though, stands out from the pack, largely due to them excelling at a style that was unique compared to typical Jrs. work at the time.

 

10. Akira Hokuto vs. Manami Toyota, AJW JGP 93 Semis, 8/21/93

 

Absolutely mind blowing heat towards finish, where they bust out a ton of great moves and counters. Hokuto was working with a blown out knee, yet she still managed to carry Toyota to her best singles match up to that point in time, which was amazing. Hokuto was simply a blast to watch back then. Which is no surprise, because at this stage, she was as good a worker as there has ever been.

[Guest Rob Edwards]

Yeah I love the BEWU match, I do have a slight problem with Manami bridging out of pins after taking huge piledrivers mind so I couldn't go the full ***** on it

 

I've watched the NJPW dome show in the last week and I wish I hadn't bothered, what a dissapointment the TenKoji reunion was

[Guest wolverine]

If Aja/Toyota isn't *****, it's really close. That match and Hokuto/Kandori really stand out from the rest of the Joshi singles match by a good margin, in my view.

[Guest Rob Edwards]

Oh no question it's close, I go ****3/4, i just knock 1/4* off for Manami's iffy neck selling on the bridgeouts, I'm being a bit petty there but I do try to be consistant

[Guest RickyChosyu]

I thought Manami's scream and bridge act worked perfectly in that match. Despite Aja mauling her all over the ring, Toyota refused to give up and the bridges drove him her determination. I can see your complain, I just don't share your views since Toyota was consistent in her selling and, to her credit, sold the effects of the match well.

[Guest permagrinning]

I'm watching the description of this forum and thinking, "What's so revolutionary about Toryumon?"

 

 

Sorry Chris, don't mean to be dense but what do you mean by this? Not having a real in-depth puro education I've got to ask the stupid questions to catch up.

[Guest Rob Edwards]

I thought Manami's scream and bridge act worked perfectly in that match. Despite Aja mauling her all over the ring, Toyota refused to give up and the bridges drove him her determination. I can see your complain, I just don't share your views since Toyota was consistent in her selling and, to her credit, sold the effects of the match well.

yeah other than that I thought the match was nigh on perfect and Manami's selling outside the bridges was awe inspiring. I liked the screaming bridges earlier on but once she'd taken the three huge piledrivers I'd have preferred her wriggling out of later pins (to her credit she only bridged out either once or twice post piledrivers) I've read people sharing both views on it though, if it's not a problem for you then great, you'll enjoy the match slightly more than I do. Wait a minute...

[Guest RickyChosyu]

I thought Manami's scream and bridge act worked perfectly in that match. Despite Aja mauling her all over the ring, Toyota refused to give up and the bridges drove him her determination. I can see your complain, I just don't share your views since Toyota was consistent in her selling and, to her credit, sold the effects of the match well.

yeah other than that I thought the match was nigh on perfect and Manami's selling outside the bridges was awe inspiring. I liked the screaming bridges earlier on but once she'd taken the three huge piledrivers I'd have preferred her wriggling out of later pins (to her credit she only bridged out either once or twice post piledrivers) I've read people sharing both views on it though, if it's not a problem for you then great, you'll enjoy the match slightly more than I do. Wait a minute...

Yep, it seemed that she did the bridges early on, stopped, and then did them again as sort of a Manami-Up. In that case I thought it worked perfectly, as every time she tried on attack, Aja caught her, broke her down, and abused her some more. The general feeling that Toyota was fighting back by sheer will-power alone really came together very well, which is what made the match work.

 

I'll echo Wolverine's statement that if Aja/Toyota isn't five stars, it's damn close.

[Guest Jubuki]

MPro predated Toryumon by 6 years. Hamada's UWF predated it by nearly 10. Lucharesu was not only not new, but it had been done far better by the time Toryumon came into being.

[Guest permagrinning]

I agree that it's not earth shattering wrestling. What I come away from it with is a mutt syndrome. They do a little of everything to try and appeal to as much as possible. They have elements of WWE with storylines and interferance but tend not to get too carried away. A lot of what you mentioned though I had no awareness of until I started watching it and digging back further into it's roots. Remember, there's hardly an original idea out there anymore, they all come from somewhere or some influence. Helping to bring out those origins and maybe giving your opinion of what's good to check out and what's a waste of time would be awesome for someone like me just trying to get into more than what's fed to us on TV in the states.

[Guest Jubuki]

Hamada's UWF is some interesting stuff. It's actually got many of the same cast of characters, only with different names (Gedo & Jado), different masks (Delfin and Sasuke) or no mask at all (Ultimo Dragon). Plus there are more Lucha guys, and you can see that Brazo de Plata wasn't always a big lumbering fatass. The MPro is more native vs. native stuff like what was going on in every other promotion at the time, but it's a little higher quality in that everyone has their stuff down. 96 & 97 (until the WWF cooperation) is what you want.

[Guest permagrinning]

what years for Hamada's UWF? Is this a current league or a older now defunct one?

[Guest Jubuki]

Very old. He was part of Sayama's original UWF in 84/85, but he wanted to go in a Lucha direction rather than the shoot direction Maeda took with his company. Hamada was running shows from 89-91, if I remember correctly. Maybe '92. Santo popped up on a few tapes.