9/14/24 UFC: Esteban Ribovics vs. Daniel Zellhuber 3R

9/11/24 AEW: Ricochet vs. Sammy Guevara 10:54
ML: Fun flying spectacle. Both guys were trying to get over, with Ricochet being new to AEW, and Sammy making his return to Dynamite after being suspended for not following the concussion protocol in a 2/14/24 Rampage win over Jeff Hardy. They worked hard and did a lot of spectacle. This was the best Sammy has looked in ages because he wasn't doing all the goofy comedic mannerisms he inherited from being strapped to Jericho for years. Ricochet returned to his indy glory after being hamstrung for years in the EWW. This started out as a mirror match, and then they spent the rest of the time trying to top each other's flying. Sammy is one guy who is actually smooth and crazy enough to hang with Ricochet in this style. The match was obviously very choreographed, but they kept it moving outside of Sammy's endless chinlock during the commercial, and they stayed on one another. ***

9/14/24 UFC: Joshua Van vs. Edgar Chairez 3R
ML: An interesting fight with an exceptional 2nd round. Attempting to take a month off from training after getting knocked out by Charles Johnson on 7/13/24, Van wound up fighting again 2 months later. Chairez looked great in round 1, using his reach to keep Van on the outside. Van is very boxing heavy, but Chairez would keep scoring with the left jab and body kick or the right low kick. Chairez fought really confidently in the 1st, dropping Van 4 minutes in with a right straight counter to a right low kick. Van came on early in round 2, repeatedly hurting Chairez with the left hook to the body then following it up with the overhand right. This was a great round for Van, and the fans, as Van was going to town on Chairez until he seemed out on his feet. Just when you started thinking maybe they should stop the fight, Chairez landed a spinning backfist out of nowhere and followed with a jumping knee, but Van took him down. Chairez was really never the same after eating these body punches. I don't mean he didn't recover well enough, but mentally, he just had a hard time getting back to what won him the fight in the 1st round. When Van let Chairez back up, Chairez was so concerned about defending the body that Van basically had free hooks to the head. Chairez momentarily reestablished the jab, and was hurting Van following with the right hand, so Van took him down again. Chairez maintained enough forward pressure in the 3rd while fighting behind his jab that it was difficult for Van to get the body hook in during the early portion. Van tripped Chairez 2 minutes in though, and took the top. Van's conditioning held up despite not really having a training camp, and though he took an ill-advised gamble on a heel hook, he was able to take Chairez down again, and grind out the 29-28 decision. Chairez was definitely hurt a lot in the scoring by the takedowns, and definitely Van's wrestling was the difference in the 2nd half of the fight because Chairez did the better standup work in the 3rd. Good match.

9/7/24 UFC: Natalia Silva vs. Jessica Andrade 3R
ML: Silva is potentially a future champion in this division. She's really fast, owning things at range, but also being able to get kicks to the body and head in from surprisingly close range due to her excellent lateral movement and general flexibility. Her kicks are so speedy and her taekwondo background allows her to throw with more dexterity and less convention, surprising opponent's who are just used to vanilla kicks. Andrade fought the way she had to, keeping the pressure on and doing her best to keep Silva's back near the octagon, but this was a terrible matchup for Andrade because taking away Silva's space doesn't hamper her style the way it does most. Since Silva is moving sideways to create angles, she still wasn't there for Andrade to even attempt her big overhand right, and was just moving laterally to keep opening up her kicks. As long as Andrade was in Silva's face, she could potentially time her movements and land the big hook, particularly is Silva was changing directions. In open space it was obviously a lot easier for Silva to be more dynamic with her kicks, but she was at worst outpointing Andrade even when Andrade was executing her gameplan as best as she could. Andrade's style is so dependent on overpowering the opponent, but when her opponent has a chin and can move effectively, there's not a lot she can do. Andrade still landed most of the best shots, but she just doesn't land enough to win rounds, so if she can't get a KO then she's out of luck. Relying on big punches and clinch work is better suited for when Andrade is at 115 lb because she's so short at 5 ft 2 in that it's obviously more difficult to just brute force at higher weights, but she's also been fighting a lot more offen since her financial troubles from her former coach supposedly embezzling money combined with getting divorced, so with 7 fights since January 2023, it might be harder to stay at strawweight? Andrade arguably won round 1 because she landed 2 big hooks and a superman punch, but Silva had more volume, outlanding her 33-24. It wasn't really even competitive after that though. Silva used her jab a lot more in round 2, and beyond helping her maintain a little more distance, this was key because it was that much more difficult for Andrade, who lacks reach to begin with, to win hook vs. straight exchanges. Despite Dominick Cruz being the only UFC announcer worth listening to, I didn't like his idea of Silva clinching to stop Andrade from throwing haymakers on the inside, as I don't think she did productive things in the clinch, and would rather her just keep outlanding Andrade by moving laterally. I would have preferred she use her speed to fully circle out to the center though the way Adesanya was doing against DDP, as in the center she had a massive advantage. When Silva had that little extra space, her kicks and jab were too long and fast for Andrade to really even get into range. Silva's side kick, hook kick, and spinning heel kick were super fast. Silva hurt Andrade with a left hook 3 minutes into round 2. Andrade had moments, but is too predictable and limited in what she does to be consistent. Of course, we've seen her just need 1 big shot or even slam many times in the past, so she was certainly in it enough that her arguably being down 2 rounds wasn't necessarily meaningful. Andrade's nose was bloodied, but she managed to avoid big shots for the most part. Silva outlanded her big in rounds 2 and 3, by 26 and 32 respectively. Silva won a unanimous decision 30-27. Good match.

9/6/24 AEW Continental Contenders Challenge: Konosuke Takeshita vs. The Beast Mortos 12:00
ML: Really physical, hard-hitting match. This aggressive sprint wasn't without issues, but was much more interesting than the slow motion staring contests Takeshita was perpetually immersed in during the G1. He remembered how to wrestle here, and kept things moving. Unlike the contrive New Japan striking exchanges, these two actually looked like they meant it when they were hitting each other, and didn't just wait for the opponent to hit them back. Their strikes actually looked painful, but this shouldn't have been the most successful portion of the match. It was a little sloppy at times, with Mortos' avalanche press slam being a disaster, as it took forever to set up, and he still was never really able to press Takeshita, and just kind of dropped him, which may have hurt Takeshita. Overall, this was a bit clunky and wasn't nearly the match they are capable of, but it was way better than anything on All Out other than Ospreay vs. PAC. ***

9/7/24 AEW International Title: Will Ospreay vs. PAC 20:36

Mark Rocco, First Black Tiger Hall Of Talent

8/31/24 AEW: Kyle Fletcher vs. Tomohiro Ishii 12:43
ML: Ishii has been running out of gas the last few years, but they kept this to a length he could still fire up for, and he gave what he had. The start and finish were very energetic, but the middle still meandered, partly due to the picture in picture break. Fletcher has improved quite a bit in the last two years despite virtually never winning a match in AEW against anyone I could pick out of the lineup. He did an excellent job of following the Ishii formula of aggressive strike exchanges and big bombs, while adding a bit of excitement with his athleticism. This was still Ishii for the most part, but Fletcher was a better opponent for this style than I expected, and they didn't spend 75% of the match staring at each other, as they would have if it took place in New Japan. The urgency did wane considerably after the match started with an energetic rehash of the classic Ishii vs. Shibata showdown due to the usual uninspired control segment where Fletcher mostly walked around Ishii laid around. While the match was hard hitting throughout, they didn't really get bogged down in striking exchanges. When it picked up, it was mostly with high impact moves. Fletcher slammed Ishii face first into the bottom turnbuckle, but Ishii came back with a rare avalanche Frankensteiner. Fletcher scored the upset with something of a tombstone then a regular piledriver. ***

8/4/13 NJPW G1 Climax 2013 Block A Match: Tomohiro Ishii [4] vs. Katsuyori Shibata [4] 12:17
ML: In a decade of New Japan that would increasingly become notable for an unskilled marionette being posed for 30 minutes then winning with the same few unimpressively performed basic rookie level maneuvers, this incredibly violent, all out 12 minute war stood out amongst the child's play as perhaps the greatest example of what could have been had talent, credibility, and urgency actually been rewarded by Gedo. This wasn't about what they did or how much time they were standing around in front of the crowd for, it's brief and direct, accomplishing all it needed to before the point of diminishing returns was reached through a combination of intensity, urgency, and stiffness that made the fight seem real. They didn't have to do all the tropes of Strong Style because they were actually able to make the audience believe they were killing each other, so the selling, as well as the "early" finish were actually believable. This had a fierceness and savagery that simply can't come across when the primary motifs are to stand around watching one another and lay around doing nothing. It was just an early card match, but had this been the main event it deserved to be, I'm quite sure nobody would have felt robbed of the "final 20 minutes". In fact, because a lot of the usual nonsense was removed, this felt like something you've never seen before, even though it was actually a rather basic and straightforward contest that could have taken place in any era. This wasn't a shoot-style match, but basically everything done in the match fit into the 1980s mode of shoot wrestling, except perhaps Shibata's corner dropkick. These were the two roughest, toughest guys in the league, and they just launched an unbridled, frenzied assault on one another. This is arguably the greatest striking oriented pro wrestling match ever, a no frills, aggressive, believable fight. The opening was incredible, as both were jacked up, charging at the bell and leaping into one another to start. There was an entirely different vibe from start to finish, propelled by the insane opening flurry that followed where both threw non-stop elbows. This was an amazing exchange because they were going all out trying to incapacitate one another. This is the portion that made the match, and that should have been copied. There was some parity striking after the opening assault, with each man trying to show he could outdo the other with a similar blow. This unfortunately was the portion that was copied. This second exchange was by far the worst, more toward the usual bad Kobashi vs. Sasaki dick measuring contest, but at least they would flurry when the opponent couldn't answer. This portion also worked much better here than it does in the typical slow, uninspired, no defense striking exchanges that we've got in every match for the past decade plus because they already did their best to actually win the opening exchange, and failed, so now the display of total disregard for defense made a little bit of sense in that they earned their right to just further display their "toughness". Things got back on track after this, with Shibata doing an insane series of elbows in the corner where the ref had to step in to save Ishii from getting murdered. This kind of thing is almost always done wrong in pro wrestling because they pretend the guy has "snapped", with corny over the top mannerisms ala Mr. Bob Backlund or Hangman Page, which just turns the segment into a brand of comedy. This was instead simply Shibata going all out to press his advantage and win the match. Ishii's selling was credible because Shibata was just murdering him. Since it was nonetheless thriving on realism, I would have preferred Shibata use an armbar instead of the Boston crab and STF, as these moves didn't really add anything to the proceedings, and were really just their way of taking a break without the usual laying around helpless while the opponent does a lap rather than capitalize. Their third exchange was better than the second because they went back to the idea of trying to land elbows in combination rather than simply waiting around. As the match progressed, they continued to try to fight as hard as they could, but they did a great job of showing that they were slowing down from the damage while continuing to defend themselves. Shibata seemed to have the match won with a standing choke, as Ishii was frothing at the mouth, but his typical unwillingness to actually control the body cost him here, and he was soon defeated. Without even considering the brutal headbutts, this match gave new meaning to two men going head on. The best match of both performers careers. ****3/4

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling TV 4/14/71 Leicester, England: Jon Cortez vs. Zoltan Boscik
DC: Zoltan Boscik was a Hungarian wrestler. This was a good technical match. It was not very exciting, though. It certainly lacked speed and urgency. Good match. ***¼ 

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling TV 2/9/72 Leicester, England: Jon Cortez & Al Miquet vs. Jeff Kaye & Ian Gilmour
DC: The Jet Set vs. The Barons. This was a fun tag match. There were some cool sequences. However, this feels like a lesser version of the 12/2/72 tag match involving The Barons vs. Johnny Saint & Steve Best. The finish of the falls were spectacular, but it feels like this match never reached its full potential. Good match. ***¼ 

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling TV 6/6/73 Southend, England: Alan Sarjeant vs. Clayton Thomson
DC: Alan Sarjeant’s last name is sometimes spelled ‘Sargeant’ or ‘Sergeant’ or ‘Serjeant.’ Clay Thomson was a Scottish wrestler who was sometimes nicknamed the ‘Houdini of the mat’ for his technical wrestling skills. At the time of this match, he hadn’t been pinned for nearly 3 years. Both men showed excellent wrestling skills. They worked everything like it mattered, as they tried to avoid, counter and escape when needed in a sincere-looking manner. They were very focused on what they were doing, which helped draw the viewer’s attention towards what they were doing. Great match. ****½  

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling TV 12/13/73 Gravesend, England: Alan Sarjeant vs. Eddie Capelli
DC: The wrestling was very good, but it wasn’t very exciting. Especially as the match went on, it became gradually more boring to watch. Good match. ***

Joint Promotions 2/13/75 Gravesend, England: Ken Joyce vs. Dick Conlan
DC: This was a wonderful old school grappling bout. As commentator Kent Walton mentioned, Dick Conlan fared better than expected against the technical master Ken Joyce. This was a fascinating World of Sports Wrestling match from 1975 that featured plenty of excellent technique and counters. There was great anticipation as to what would happen, as they would wrestle in a manner that felt like it all really mattered, which made it interesting to see what would happen in each round. The first near fall only came in round three when Joyce almost scored a pinfall. They really spent working the limbs on the mat, constantly trying to get the opponent in a compromised position and wearing the opponent out. At the end of the bout, Joyce hit Conlan with a tombstone piledriver for the win. The piledriver was a huge deal, and Conlan stayed down for a while. Conlan gave a respectable effort, but in the end, it was the master who scored the win. Excellent match. ****    

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling TV 2/21/77 Wembley, England: Alan Sarjeant vs. Clive Myers
DC: Kent Walton referred to this as a freestyle wrestling session. Alan Sarjeant’s technical wrestling approach forced Clive Myers to focus on technical wrestling details. The main issue with the match was the lack of speed, but one could argue that this meant there was a lot of focus on not trying to make a mistake while occasionally trying to surprise the opponent whenever there was a brief increase of speed. It kinda had this old school human chess-like approach. Good match. ***  

Joint Promotions 1/31/79 Reading, England, British Welterweight Tournament Quarter Final: Ken Joyce vs. Jeff Kaye
DC: The title was left vacant by the Dynamite Kid, who had gone to Canada. This was a match featuring lots of really good technical wrestling in this bout that had old school British counters and escapes. It was a bout between two veterans. Jeff Kaye had been wrestling since 1962, and Ken Joyce had been wrestling since 1948. One of Kaye’s specialties was his ability to do plenty of cartwheel-laiden escapes. One of Joyce’s coolest tricks is sitting down on the canvas as soon as the opponent tries to irish-whip him. Kaye managed to score the first fall in round 3. In the fifth round, Joyce scored the second and equalizing fall. In the end, it was Joyce who scored the win. Very good match. ***¾  

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling TV 3/5/80 Walton-on-Thames, England: Jon Cortez vs. Jeff Kaye
DC: They did a good job of putting over the struggle. Nothing seemed to come easily. It was intriguing to watch them to try to escape and counter what appeared to be relatively simple holds. It was the way they did things that made this interesting. Both men were very experienced. Jeff Kaye had a slight size advantage over Jon Cortez, but Cortez showed that he was willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. It was really a battle between two experienced wrestlers trying to outdo the other. At times, they were trying to surprise each other with a sudden and unexpected move, but their experience would sometimes prevent them from being tricked. This was a wonderful display of high-quality technical wrestling. Excellent match. **** 

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling TV 8/5/80 Bedworth, England: Keith Haward vs. Tim Fitzmaurice
DC: Good grappling contest. Keith Haward was definitely the superior grappler, though. Good match. ***

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling TV 12/15/82 Haslingden, England: Keith Haward vs. Clive Myers
DC: ‘Hurricane’ Keith Haward, born 6/28/51, turned pro in January 1980 after having been an excellent amateur wrestler. He represented Great Britain at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Quebec. He represented England and won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games of 1978 in Edmonton, Alberta. He worked an incredibly realistic 5-star match against Jon Cortez on 11/5/80 in his rookie year. He was certainly one of the most compelling grapplers on World of Sport TV during the early 1980s. This bout against Clive Myers was a very interesting grappling bout. Myers was an inconsistent worker who had the tools to be a good worker, but needed someone to show and remind him how to use the tools. Mark Rocco once carried Myers to an excellent match on 6/5/78. The good thing about Haward as a worker was that he always forced his opponents to work more sincerely. Him being a former amateur champion was beneficial, as he brought the ethics and discipline from his amateur career into his professional career. And that’s why we got to see one of Myers’ best performances here, as Haward forced Myers to dig deeply and use his imagination and instincts. Haward wasn’t spelling it all out for Myers, but he laid the foundation and pushed Myers to make a contribution to the construction process. Haward allowed Myers to do Myers things, but only those that made sense within the context of what they had been building up. Very good match. ***¾

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling 6/13/83 Derby, England: Keith Haward vs. Pete Roberts
DC: Pete Roberts is a competent grappler, but he’s also quite a dull one. He wrestled as if there was no audience at all, having zero compassion for any potential viewers that have to watch his dull work. Good match. ***

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling TV 12/7/83 Macclesfield, England, World Mid-Heavyweight Title: Fit Finlay vs. Chic Cullen.
DC: Joined in progress in round 3. Northern Irish wrestler Dave ‘Fit’ Finlay defended the title against Scottish wrestler Frank ‘Chic’ Cullen. English wrestler Marty Jones was at ringside studying Finlay, because he wanted Finlay’s belt. Chic Cullen certainly had a chance of winning the belt here, though. During Finlay’s younger years, while certainly a brawler, he was somewhat of a mat grappler before turning into a full-fledged generic brawler in the late 1980s then turning into a stiff no-nonsense brawler in the late 1990s. Finlay definitely slowed down the match, giving it more of a strategized type title match instead of a hard-fought and fast-paced contest that Cullen was trying to make it. Finlay also acted more and more like a heel as the match went on, as he seemed more interested in playing rough and working the crowd than having an actual high-quality wrestling contest. Referee Jeff Kaye had to give Finlay a public warning for his behavior. In the end, in spite of Cullen’s effort, Finlay retained the title. Good match. ***

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling 1/21/84 Guildford, England: Keith Haward vs. Jon Cortez
DC: This was their third televised meeting. Their first one on 11/5/80 was a tremendous 5-star match. Their second one on 11/26/80 is currently not available for viewing. In this third match, they once again really were able to make the other struggle and come up with effective ways to escape or counter. This wasn’t quite the shoot-style match like they had on 11/5/80, but it was definitely nothing like the cooperative style that we’re used to seeing most of the time in pro wrestling. One of the reasons this was so compelling was that they were both really into what they were doing and weren’t going through the motions. They worked this like every move mattered, and they were constantly very focused on what was going on. Interestingly enough, this was such a competitive grappling bout contested in such a fair manner, that the referee didn’t need to give a warning at all. Also, when Jon Cortez was near the ropes, he didn’t want to take the cheap way out and grab the ropes, but instead, he tried to counter the hold he was stuck in. Excellent match. ****

Joint Promotions WOS Wrestling 3/5/84 Derby, England: Keith Haward vs. Chic Cullen
DC: All-time great wrestler Ken Joyce was the referee. This was an excellent technical wrestling bout. The first round was essentially one continuous grappling sequence. It was quite a fairly contested bout, and both men even shook hands after the second round, showing the great respect they had for each other. Both wrestlers clearly were into what they were doing, and this helped make it intriguing. In the third round, Scottish wrestler Frank ‘Chic’ Cullen (a.k.a. Robbie Stewart) consistently focused on attacking Haward’s left leg to the point that it must have been driving Haward crazy. In the fourth round, Cullen tried to pick up where he left off in the third round. However, this time, Haward realized what Cullen was up to and surprised Cullen by quickly outmaneuvering him and scoring a pinfall. In the fifth round, Cullen went back to attacking Haward’s left leg. They were still respectful in a competitive manner, but things definitely got more intense as the bout progressed, as both men were now trying to outdo and out-strategize each other. At the end of fifth round, they shook hands again to emphasize that the intensity shown wasn’t personal and purely done out of their competitive nature. Kent Walton noticed that Cullen had improved ever since his trips to Calgary. In the sixth round, Cullen’s persistence enabled him to score the equalizing fall. In the seventh round, Haward German suplexed Cullen over the top rope, and the impact caused him to fall over the top to the floor as well. Referee Ken Joyce stopped the contest as he noticed both men were injured. This was a super fascinating match from start to finish. There was never a dull moment, and both men showed why they are two of the most memorable wrestlers of the World of Sports-era of British wrestling. Great match. ****½    

All Star Wrestling 1/13/87 Croydon, England: Keith Haward vs. Jon Cortez
DC: Not quite as excellent as their previous bouts. The work was really good, but they didn’t stay on each other as much as they did in the past. Also, this resembled regular pro wrestling more than what we’re used to from them, as they used to show less cooperation. Looking back on Keith Haward’s relatively short but very interesting career, it’s almost like someone told him during the mid 1980s to maybe start actually working the matches a bit more and doing a bit less of the realistic stuff. I guess, from that worked pro wrestling perspective, technically speaking they were having a better worked match than ever before here, but their matches from the past that felt less like a work were way more interesting with more struggling going on (since Haward initially seemed to enter the sport of pro wrestling with the right mindset, the mindset that it’s supposed to be a fight). Either way, these two can’t have a bad match together and this was well worth watching. Very good match. ***¾ 

Joint Promotions 10/28/87 Shrewsbury, England: Richie Brooks vs. Steve Speed
DC: Richie Brooks once again showed he was one of the more interesting wrestlers of the post-WOS era of British pro wrestling on ITV. Both workers were muscular men who focused on grappling. Steve Speed wasn’t very speedy, but he was a good opponent for Brooks, because this opponent allowed Brooks to show some more fancy stuff than the more standard stuff that was appropriate against some of the more generic brawlers Brooks had faced in the past. Good match. ***

Joint Promotions 12/16/87 West Bromwich, England: Richie Brooks vs. Kid McCoy
DC: The referee for this bout was Mr. Ken Joyce, one of the all-time greats of British pro wrestling. It wasn’t often that ‘Golden Apollon’ Richie Brooks, still in his early twenties here, faced someone who could outspeed and outmaneuver him, but here against Kid McCoy, he was certainly facing a very skilled young wrestler. McCoy used his speed and agility to keep things going and to keep giving Brooks a tough time to try to stay in control. McCoy clearly was a true student of the game, as he was quite the advanced pro wrestler for an 18-year old young man. He was really pushing the pace and always looking to hit the next move and/or anticipate a move from his opponent. This was a really good wrestling bout between two of the most memorable workers of the post-WOS era of British wrestling. While initially seemingly somewhat overwhelmed, Brooks managed to keep his cool and score the first submission in round four. McCoy wasn’t happy with this, but knew he had been dominating most of the match, and this gave him the confidence to quickly score the equalizing pinfall. In the sixth and final round, they were doing some more high flying and some more high-impact stuff. This clearly was the round that saw them go all out in order to score that win in a bout that could really go either way. Excellent match. ****¼ 

NJPW 1/31/90 Osaka Prefectural Gym, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Naoki Sano vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 20:00
DC: Jushin Liger had recently upgraded to Jushin Thunder Liger. These two had been involved in a groundbreaking feud, and here they presented a match in yet another style. While this featured once again some of their more typical fast-paced high-flying moves, this 4th match was more of a grudge match, as this featured quite the relentless beating. Naoki Sano partially ripped Liger’s mask and started beating up Liger on the floor. Sano viciously rammed Liger’s head into every object around him. Sano seemed more interested in destroying Liger than beating him in a fairly contested wrestling match. This gave the feeling that this feud had become personal. Liger juiced, and his blood was soon all over the place. Sano had a sadistic grin on his face and was clearly enjoying the vicious beating he was giving the masked superhero. Liger, was not very masked anymore (as his ripped mask started falling apart), but he was still every bit the superhero, as he fought back and hit a somersault plancha over the top rope that saw him land over the guardrail while hitting Sano with the move. Sano continued his beatdown of Liger with a sign of pleasure on his face. Liger was hanging on for dear life. Sano tried to pin Liger with a dragon suplex, but Liger kicked out. Sano, who had been quite pleased for most of the duration of the bout, was now slowly getting a bit more frustrated, since his plan of destroying and beating Liger didn’t seem to work as well as he’d imagined. Sano hit a somersault off the top and landed on his feet. Sano tried to avoid Liger’s koppo kick, which only partially worked. Sano hit a plancha off the top to the floor. Liger’s mask had fallen off so much that his face was now visible, and the commentators were remarking that it was Keiichi Yamada, one of the junior heavyweight greats of the second half of the 1980s, who was the man under the mask. In the end, it was Liger who scored the pinfall after hitting a beautiful shooting star press. ****¾ 

AJPW 6/7/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, World Tag Team Title: Steve Williams & Johnny Ace vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama 22:44 of 30:09
DC: Steve Williams did a good job of making Jun Akiyama struggle, reminding the youngster to put over the fact that it’s supposed to be a fight. For Mitsuharu Misawa, Williams had a different way of reminding him, as he dropped Misawa on his head via a tiger suplex. This was a great excuse for Misawa to spend some time standing on the apron, while still selling Williams vicious attack. It was a fun and action-packed match that kept moving along nicely, mostly due to the tag champs Williams & Johnny Ace being quite motivated to perform and keep things going. This seemed to inspire Misawa to give a strong big tag match performance. Williams, Ace and Misawa did a great job of building things up in a dramatic fashion. Akiyama was the least impressive performer in the match, but he actually contributed well enough. There never was a dull moment in this match (unless it happened during the seven minutes that were cut). In somewhat of an upset, Akiyama pinned Ace to win the title for his team. Great match. ****½ 

NJPW 2/9/97 Sapporo, J-Crown Junior Heavyweight 8 Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani 27:14
DC: Inspired by the all-time great AJPW heavyweight bout of 1/20/97 between Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa, these two top junior heavyweights decided to present their rendition of said classic. Of course, it’s not so much about comparing the two matches, but what was missing in this junior heavyweight rendition was consistency and the ability to keep things interesting at all times. That being said, what they borrowed well here was turning up the aggression a bit, especially when striking. They wanted to show that things they did early in the match could also have meaning. Jushin Thunder Liger, arguably the greatest Japanese junior heavyweight of all time, was fittingly the holder of eight major junior heavyweight titles, collectively known as the J-Crown. Liger was quite aggressive in his approach and wanted to dominate. Shinjiro Otani tried to resist and didn’t just let Liger walk all over him. Otani even countered when he saw an opening to counter. Just like Liger, Otani showed quite a bit of aggression and refused to release holds when Liger, being the ring general that he is, had intuited he was near the ropes. After a slight bit of meandering, Liger slapped Otani just to make sure he was awake, and followed it up with a koppo kick. Liger hit a plancha off the top rope to the floor and a powerbomb on the floor. Otani went for his swandive dropkick, but Liger saw it coming. Otani hit a German suplex for a near fall. The near falls continued. For instance, Otani almost pinned Liger via a Wild Pegasus-like dragon suplex into a bridge. The match continued at a deliberate pace. Sometimes it felt a bit too nonchalant, because they were doing a heavyweight-style match inspired by AJPW heavyweights, which is different from what they would do if they were doing their own thing. Still, I applaud them for trying something different, and they certainly did a great job in presenting a memorable MOTYC. Great match. ****½ 

ZERO-ONE 3/2/01 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Naomichi Marufuji vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa 16:00
DC: The camera and editing crew members had ADHD and/or were drunk, so don’t let them get you seasick (it kinda reminds me of the shaky production quality of ACW from Austin, TX). There’s a lot of high-quality action, but it’s hard to follow, because the camera’s keep going sideways like the cameraman is on a ship, and the editing crew keeps changing to the weirdest camera angles at a sports-entertainment-esque ratio. It’s all quite distracting, to say the least. It’s a shame, because other than the poor production quality, this was quite an excellent match. ****¼  

BattlARTS 7/26/08 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING, Elimination Match: Yuki Ishikawa & Munenori Sawa & Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Super Tiger II & Katsumi Usuda
DC: They did a really good job of making it seem like they really wanted to fight each other, and they weren’t just out there playing or pretending to wrestle, like we so often see in modern pro wrestling. This was a fun quasi-shoot-style match that had a lot of intensity to it. The length of the match wasn’t ideal, but they made the most out of it, and took advantage of there being six different guys in this match. And they made great use of the elimination match stipulation, as this kept things interesting and kept the anticipation level higher, with people gradually getting eliminated along the way. Excellent match. ****

NJPW 7/20/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Super J-Cup ~6th Stage~ Round 1: KUSHIDA vs. Taiji Ishimori 16:25
DC: The days of a climactic Super J-Cup are long gone. Here in this 2016 edition, the best match of the tournament took place in the first round. What stood out most in this match was the amazing high flying. It was executed with well-timed precision, and it was done in a manner that felt like both combatants were trying to be as competitive with each other as possible while still respecting the rules. This didn’t feel like an exhibition. This felt like two workers who knew they had similar styles trying to outdo each other until one man was clearly the victor. This is one of the greatest high-flying athletic spectacles in the history of pro wrestling. This wasn’t just another modern match, this was an exceptionally great match for the era. There was no dead time, yet they were able to tell a story at a fast pace without any over dramatic behavior. It is because of the intense and urgent way they execute everything that this match will stand the test of time as a great competitive display of pro wrestling, no matter how many years will pass. Yes, there’s a lot of flying in this match, but why not use it to your advantage if you can (especially if it enhances the match)? This match was so great that the commentators even were thinking of and name dropped Dynamite Kid. KUSHIDA deserves a lot of credit for working two completely different all-time great matches within the time span of a two-month period, as the 5/21/16 match vs. Kyle O’Reilly was more of a quasi-shoot-style match, and this 7/20/16 match vs. Taiji Ishimori was an all-out high-flying spectacle. ****¾  

RevPro 8/24/24 London, England Copperbox Arena: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hechicero 22:51
DC: Zack Sabre Jr. got a tremendously warm welcome back home, as he returned to his home country of England after recently winning the NJPW G1 tournament in Japan. This match against Mexican luchador Hechicero was a rematch of their match in CMLL earlier this year. Their CMLL match was quite good, but rather underwhelming overall. This match at the Revolution Pro Wrestling 12th anniversary show was way better. Hechicero wasn’t helpless like he was in the CMLL match. In fact, Hechicero never looked better than he did in this match at the Copperbox Arena. I was fortunate enough to have been live in attendance for this match, as I had made the trip for this show and AEW’s All In the next day. The live experience was tremendous, and I would be lying if I would claim that the live experience didn’t taint my view of this match in a positive way. However, as a spectator for this match, I was totally into this match more than any match that weekend. And this match was arguably even better than the 8/26/23 Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi match, which means this 8/24/24 ZSJ vs. Hechicero match is probably the best match I’ve ever witnessed live in person. What made this match so excellent was the way that everything they did seemed to have importance. Of course, it helped that the crowd was really into it, but they were given the opportunity to react as wildly as they did because of the way Zack orchestrated everything so perfectly. Hechicero also deserves a lot of credit for stepping up his game and really understanding his role so well. This wonderful wrestling contest was definitely a breath of fresh air and stood out a lot in today’s wrestling environment. This match combined some old school grappling with several ingredients from modern-day wrestling and tossed it all up in a wonderfully well-mixed and consistent salad. This match is a strong candidate for 2024 MOTY, even though 2/11/24 Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Bryan Danielson and 6/22/24 Starlight Kid vs. Mei Seira are also strong candidates. Great match. ****½

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