New
Year Golden Series 1980
(1980/2/5)
WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship:
Dynamite Kid vs. Tatsumi Fujinami ©
Very
rough, very physically demanding match, absolutely flawless in execution, shit
was tight and technically sound. Fujinami entered the match with a cut on his
forehead and DK took advantage of it every time when on verge of losing the mat
game. These two were so damn physically prepared and fit here, it felt like
they could’ve wrestled for three hours straight. Great finish too.
****1/4
Champion
Series 1985
(1985/6/11)
WWF Championship: Tatsumi
Fujinami vs. Hulk Hogan ©
Oh
look, it’s Vinnie Mac inside the ring, announcing this sports entertainment
match! Sheeeeit, Hulk is much bigger than Fujinami (a former Junior after all),
but the size and power advantage alone are not enough to defeat the tough No. 2
of New Japan, hence Hogan bringing it down to the mat and trying to hang with
Fujinami in his own game. So cool seeing the Hulkster busting out various
armbars and other pace-controlling holds. Fujinami was, naturally, working from
beneath and his comebacks fired up the fans every time, but really, they were
chanting for Hogan too, and quite loudly and heavily I must say. Too bad they
kinda botched the lariat finish, but still, this was a great match overall and
should serve as a rock solid counter argument against all the “Hogan shit
wrestler” (whatever the fuck that means) cocksuckers.
****1/4
IWGP
Champion Series 1987
(1987/5/18)
IWGP League 1987 – Block B: Masa
Saito vs. Akira Maeda
Five
minutes of crazy awesomeness. The key part of success was actually Super Strong
Machine laying a horrific beatdown on Maeda just when he was about to enter the
ring, shoving him into the ringpost few times and busting him wide open. It
looked like a legit cut, not a bladejob. That turn of events suddenly gave Masa
Saito a significant advantage, and he sure as hell took the chance, Maeda got
his ass kicked properly here, I’ve never seen something like this before. One
helluva brawl, short and sweet.
****
Fighting
Spirit Series 1988
(1988/10/27)
Antonio
Inoki vs. Crusher “Bam Bam” Bigelow
Most
of this was messy as fuck.
**
G1
Climax 2008
(2008/8/15)
Masahiro
Chono & Kurt Angle vs. Shinjiro Otani & AJ Styles
I
have never bothered to check this one before, silly me because this was tons of
fun. Everyone delivered, even Angle, even the veteran Chono, but the undisputed
MVP was Shinjiro F’N Otani, my god, he owned everyone out there, especially the
crowd. Angle and AJ had a fun rivalry that year, their match-up here was damn
good, also Chono’s charisma and badassery were just all over the match, great
stuff, super enjoyable.
****
G1
Climax 2008
(2008/8/16)
Hiroshi
Tanahashi & AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Kurt Angle
Fun,
vivid tag, but the one from the night before had Otani in it, and this one
didn’t, that’s the key difference. Nakamura was painfully average here, Angle
and AJ worked another round of their beef, and Tana and Angle were building
towards their eventual one-on-one match. And holy shit, Angle actually beat a
wrestler by using Olympic Slam, go figure!
***1/2
Resolution
2009
(2009/4/5)
IWGP Heavyweight Championship:
Kurt Angle vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi ©
I
have never actually seen this match before, despite it sleeping on my disk for
three years now. Eh, waddaya gonna do… Good match, the opening stage with them
rolling on the mat trying to outcatch each other and with two strong headlock
sequences was the best, it was nice. The rest was good enough, simply a mixture
of regular Angle & Tana matches, with obligatory signature spots such as
suplexes, ankle lock reversals, HFFs, etc. Nothing out of order, just stuff
good enough. What really made the whole thing for me was Tana’s fantastic
post-match selling of the ankle lock damage, I fucking love when wrestlers do that.
***1/2
Masahiro
Chono 25th Anniversary
(2009/10/12)
IWGP Heavyweight Championship:
Shinjiro Otani vs. Shinsuke Nakamura ©
Excellent
title match and forgotten gem of modern New Japan, the veteran and Junior
Heavyweight legend of the company comes back to fight the representative of
some other, modern era, and he’s going all in. Superb work by Otani here,
incredible crowd control by using his retro signature spots and also reminding
everyone of the great late Shinya Hashimoto, he drew massive sympathies throughout
the match, and the crowd bought into a chance of him winning the strap.
Nakamura was good too, but damn, the challenger was just on a whole other level
of swag.
****1/4
Best
of the Super Jr. XIX
(2012/6/10)
BOSJ XIX - FINALE: Low-Ki
vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
The
opening phase with Low-Ki setting up his pace was awesome, as he was just
chopping and kicking the shit out of Taguchi, stretching him on the mat, etc.
Felt like a rookie punishment match. Eventually, Taguchi finds few ways to stay
alive, mostly via smart reversals. However, Low-Ki is a vicious beast and we got
an awesome ringside sequence that culminated in a great table spot reversal
that fucked up Low-Ki’s midsection. He sold it great, favoring it all the way
until the end. That proved to be the key for Taguchi’s victory, in the
finishing run Low-Ki missed the phoenix splash and Taguchi was free to wrap it
up with a series of moves, with the last two of them targeting Low-Ki’s hurt
midsection. Excellent, tight match with a smart layout and simple structure.
****1/4
