6/24/26 AEW International Title: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Ricochet 13:47
ML: Ricochet actually turned back the clock and gave an inspired performance. This was by far the best he's looked since he challenged ZSJ at the Tokyo Dome on 1/5/25. It still lacked all of his old gymnastic counters, but he was flying all over the place to be entertaining while masking his complete lack of fundamentals. This was more what I expected from ELP vs. Ospreay, especially since it was short so I assumed they would do more of a sprint, but they just took turns standing paralized or laying dead watching the other jump at them with no real follow-up or continuation. There was very little stalling compared to what we see from just about everyone in this promotion as soon as they turn heel, and it felt like there were some stakes, with Ricochet upping his urgency to try to win the title. The start where Ricochet threw his robe at Takeshita, knocked him to the floor with a jumping knee, then did four flying moves in a row, including the space flying Tiger drop like it was the pre sucky heel Ricochet who had entertained fans around the world was the best part of the match, but it more or less continued in this vein. Ricochet didn't really take advantage of Takeshita taking a big Negro Casas sort of bump to the floor after missing the jumping knee in the corner, and when he eventually tried a shooting star press off the apron, Takeshita caught him and countered with an exploder. Takeshita got a big power move in now and then, but was largely just selling for Ricochet for 90% of the match. I think that was fine up until a certain point, it's less boring than the usual 50/50 stuff they do here the rest of the time, but that puts more burden on there being either a convincing finishing run for Takeshita or him just escaping via some sort of fluke (flash pin, cheesy interference, etc). While the finishing stretch was good, it felt like they just ran out of time, so Takeshita just hit his raging fire, and that was that. This finish would have been passable enough if that finisher was actually protected, but was truly just a means to the end in this application. ***

3/27/26 ONE Muay Thai: KrungThai Tded99 vs. Binladin Sakchatree 3R
ML: KrungThai had the length, but Binladin terrorized him with relentless pressure. KrungThai would either wait for Binladin to step forward to throw his hands or circle away and throw the kick. Binladin was chasing, but he wasn't reckless or sloppy. Binladin was more aggressive pushing forward in the second round, and due to this, he was able to throw a lot more left hooks rather than left jabs. These were powerful leads, and KrungThai wound up spending more time circling because it wasn't to his advantage to stay in the pocket and deal with that. He was thus generally a lot more focused on creating space than actually getting his own offense off. He sent Binladin back halfway up across the ring with what I'll call a John Woo front kick. It wasn't that damaging per se, but you rarely see a fighter knocked or even pushed halfway across the ring when they aren't purposely exaggerating the blow. In any case, these were just about the only steps backwards Binladin took in the whole fight. Binladin was swinging bigger and bigger as the fight progressed. Binladin was more active, and he had a lot of fury, but KrungThai was certainly more accurate. This was a close fight that was up for grabs right until the closing bell. KrungThai won a unanimous decision. I think this was a good decision, but it was a tough loss for Binladin, but it probably keeps him off Jessica Chastain's radar, for the moment. Good match.

6/20/26 UFC: Gaston Bolanos vs. Michael Aswell Jr. 3R.
ML: Aswell kept a really high pace and did a good job of forcing Bolanos to fight off his back foot. He countered Bolanos' punches well, but the middle kicks from Bolanos got through. Aswell was doing most of what he needed to, but there's just not a lot of snap on or impact from his punches, which seem more like he's just straightening his arm to touch a target then actually punching through it. His only weapon that we saw here was the uppercut, which was a fight changer, the problem is we didn't see it until the 3rd round, when he was already likely down 2-0. Bolanos was certainly out worked in the 1st round, but he landed a couple of good right hooks in the last 45 seconds to steal it. There was a big enough difference in the impact of Bolanos' punches that he didn't need to make volume with Aswell. The second round started with more intensity, as both were landing some good shots right from the get-go. Aswell wasn't able to maintain the pace he set in the first round, and was taken down, but Bolanos couldn't hold him there. Aswell stepped up the volume after this, but I was having a hard time determining what his end game was. He has the Diaz sort of pitter patter volume with his punches, but that's really all he was doing. Bolanos was giving Aswell so many more looks Bolanos' corner pretty much summed it up by saying "he ain't got no power" and "all he's doing is boxing." The impact of Bolanos' punches combined with him landing a variety of strikes, particularly low kicks, made it easy to score both rounds for him. Aswell finally showed his uppercut in third round, and this changed the fight. Aswell seemed a lot more formidable now that he had something that he was actually trying to set up, and he was back to pushing a pace closer to what we saw in the first round. Bolanos landed one good right hook in this round, but he was put on the defensive too much to really get going. This was a nice round to salvage the fight for Aswell, and while it wouldn't be completely unreasonable to give him the 1st, it was certainly a good decision scoring this 29-28 Bolanos. Good match.

6/20/26 UFC: Vinicius Oliveira vs. Andre Fili R2 4:56
ML: The veteran Fili fought the wildman Oliveira more tactically, but Oliveira had a lot more raw power and unbridled aggression, and being too stationary and cautious just wasn't cutting it against him. Fili wasn't going to win the toe to toe exchanges, but he also took the fight on two weeks notice, so I'm not sure how evasive he could have been over the long haul either. Fili had his moments, but it felt like he stole defeat from the jaws of victory even though he was the fighter that was supposed to lose, especially with so little time to prepare. Oliveira was doing a good job of beating up Fili's leg with low kicks to make using his footwork that much tougher, but he needed to use his length or put the fear of takedowns into Oliveira because it wasn't long before Oliveira lost respect for Fili's head punches and halted any pretense of deception, just daring Fili to stop him. Oliveira was making this entertaining with his reckless aggression. Oliveira hurt his right foot midway through round one when Fili checked a kick. This was the equalizer, and Fili then hurt Oliveira with 2 liver kicks, and connected somewhat on 2 partially blocked high kicks. Fili was doing damage with body punches, and you thought with Oliveira having a bad foot and being stunned to the liver, Fili could find a way to put him away, but he feared what Oliveira was throwing at him a lot more than Oliveira feared what Fili had to offer. Oliveira was just coming forward and swinging recklessly, partially because the foot injury was wreaking havoc on his balance and movement so he couldn't plant like he normally would, and partially because he didn't think Fili could knock him out with a head punch. Fili won the 1st round, but Oliveira walked him down with his hands down in the second round, begging Fili to exchange with him. Oliveira was gutting this out big time. It was a great show of toughness, but he wasn't there merely to survive, but to put both of them out of their misery by going in for the kill before his own injuries took him out. Fili was just too passive. He needed to change things up, throw the low kick, use a clinch knee, or duck into a takedown attempt to make Oliveira think twice about walking through him. All of Oliveira's shots were reverberating. He wasn't slowing down now that he was fighting at 145 where he didn't have to deplete himself to the point he was almost passing out, while Fili was beginning to slow down from both the damage and the lack of a training camp. Fili's legs were getting really chewed up, but regardless, he was never going to win this fight going second in exchanges in the pocket. Fili had a nice slam, but he lost control of Oliveira on the way down, so he wasn't able to get a break on the ground. Fili wasn't doing much to get off the fence because he took two powerful leg kicks, and then Oliveira was able to overwhelm him for the stoppage because he was stationary, including some of the illegal back of the head shots the 2nd worst in the business Herb Dean is always blind to. Good match.

5/4/01 UFC Heavyweight Title: Randy Couture vs. Pedro Rizzo 5R
ML: Rizzo, an early master of the low kick and of sprawl and brawl, is one of the great what could have been stories of early MMA. He started his career hot with wins over Tank Abbott, Mark Coleman, & Tsuyoshi Kosaka. This set Rizzo up for a title shot at UFC 24, but the main event was canceled when Kevin Randleman slipped backstage during his warmup, KO'ing himself. Rescheduled for UFC 26, Rizzo now had the bad luck, as accidental headbutt early in the third round left Rizzo with a badly swollen eye, bloody nose, and likely a concussion as he has no memory of the final 2 1/2 rounds. After defeating Dan Severn and Josh Barnett, Rizzo earned this shot against Couture, who had taken the title from Randleman on 11/17/20. Rizzo wound up with the reputation of not being able to win the big one, but he performed well here, and definitely had the best round of the fight. This was definitely his best performance in a title fight, and he was very close here. Scoring it as a whole, you could give it to him, but he just lacked a consistent way to score in stand up, and that along with his inability to get off his back, was really his demise because rounds 3 and 4 could easily have gone to Rizzo if he had some volume before getting taken down. Rizzo didn't use a jab at all, so it was more difficult for him to punish Couture while he was waiting to shoot, and the power punches carried a much bigger risk of getting taken down, though ultimately, it was more his lack of activity because he was just throwing naked power shots or countering Couture's aggression. Couture got to take down midway through the first round, and spent the rest of the round battering Rizzo against the cage, cutting him on the head and the nose. Jeff Blatnick sounded a little silly asking how much energy Couture was losing by punching, punching, punching when this match was probably close to being stopped. I think the match would have been stopped today because Rizzo wasn't intelligently defending himself, but Rizzo was really tough, and it was Couture that was basically done after this round because he went all out for the finish. Rizzo turned the fight early in the second countering Couture's right hand with a middle kick, and Couture was sucking wind from here. Couture kept trying to shoot, but these were slow and telegraphed, and Rizzo was just picking him apart. Rizzo got the middle kick going midway through the second round, and this was only going to make Couture's takedown attempts that much more hopeless. Rizzo busted Couture's nose open with a high kick that Couture partially blocked with his hand. Rizzo put Couture down with the right hook in the final 10 seconds, and Couture was arguably saved by the bell. This would be a 10-8 round by modern scoring criteria, but so would round 1. I agree with Rizzo's narrative that he was the fighter with the energy after round 1, but the problem is he didn't do anything with it. He just kept waiting on a gassed Couture to counter him, so he wasn't scoring either, and in these days, if you got taken down, you probably lost the round even if you did good things in standup, which unfortunately, Rizzo didn't. Couture ducked into a single leg 1:45 into the 3rd. Couture didn't do big damage this time, but he won the round because Rizzo couldn't get off his back. Dan Henderson did a good job of stalling when they checked Couture's cut to give Randy more time to recover. Round 4 was even more uneventful than round 3 was. Neither did anything in standup, but Couture won it again because he got the takedown and had ground control for the rest of the round. Granted, Couture was just on top of Rizzo gassed in round 3 & 4, but this was considered a lot more important then than it is now, and even now, Rizzo still just can't go in there thinking he's going to get a decision over the champion by letting the clock run while he's lying on his back. Rizzo was more urgent in the fifth, finally stepping forward and moving his hands some to distract Randy. Rizzo was able to defend the takedown in this round, but staying on his knees throwing little punches while holding Couture wasn't going to get him the finish. Again Rizzo countered the right hand with the right kick, this time to the quad, in the final seconds of the fight, but this was more Rizzo pushing him down than a really damaging shot. Still, this was definitely a Rizzo round. Couture's thigh had a massive bruise, and he was hobbling around after the fight, which only got worse as he was soon temporarily in a wheel chair. Couture claimed Rizzo's low kicks forever changed the composition of his calf, and from this standpoint, one can see why people thought Rizzo won the fight. Rizzo survived a terrible 1st round, and then if we take the next 4 rounds as a whole, it was all Rizzo because Couture blew his wad trying to finish. The problem is we have to score this under the rule set the fight was fought under, and Couture won 3 rounds here, even if two of them were unimpressive. The judges in these days were going to score wrestling over damage, and honestly, even judging by modern standards, Rizzo just lets Couture off the hook and fails to provide the good strikes early in rounds 3 or 4 that would allow us to make a good argument for him getting the round even though he got dry humped. While you could make the argument that round two was a 10-8 round for Rizzo so it should be a draw, I don't think you could score round 2 10-8 without also scoring round 1 10-8 for Couture, so that's a wash. We don't know how the judges scored it, just that they all had it for Couture. Frank Shamrock, who called the match and did the post match interview in better days before the dimwit Joe Rogan had the job, said to Rizzo, "I don't know what fight those judges saw, but I picked you as the winner." Rizzo said he thought he won 3 rounds. He got an immediate rematch on 11/2/01, but this time Couture paced himself much better and punched Rizzo out in the third. The first 2 rounds here were obviously considerably better than the last 3, although the 5th was pretty decent. This was ultimately one of the most entertaining matches of Couture's career, as Rizzo was too good at defending the takedown for Couture to just grind out the way he did to Maurice Smith. Good match.

3/6/26 ONE Kickboxing: Padejsuk Sor Sommai vs. Daodaeng Annymuaythai 3R
ML: Padejsuk disguised his strikes by kind of hopping and then coming back up with something. Daodaeng tried to maintain forward pressure in the last 2 rounds to keep Padejsuk from being able to utilize this bouncy offense. Padejsuk did a good job of countering Daodaeng's kicks with punches, but more in round 1 when Daodaeng was more passive. The intensity increased considerably in the second round, and neither wanted to give an inch, with a lengthy clinch exchange to close the round. The third round is really where it's at here, with both guys just constantly swinging for the fences early because the fight was up for grabs. Both fighters were emptying the tank here. Daodaeng was looking fresher and more accurate, and he took over in the final 2 minutes. Excellent round. Padejsuk was ahead coming into the round, but I thought Daodaeng did enough in round two that he should have got the decision with his strong showing in round three. They gave it to Padejsuk though. Good match.

1/27/19 STARDOM World Of Stardom Title: Kagetsu vs. Hazuki 20:32
ML: Kagetsu did a good job of carrying this hard hitting match with some of her chaos. This meeting of Oedo Tai members didn't feel like a friendly match, but rather an important match, and the pace and intensity only increased. Hazuki fought hard, and was aggressive in taking it to her. Hazuki isn't as good, but her passion and the lengths Kagetsu went to to put her over made up for it, and it usually seemed a battle of equals rather than a senpai-kohai class. It's a very athletic match, but it almost doesn't seem like it because Kagetsu is so fluid and her work isn't contrived looking even when it's flashy. They did a good job of making you believe Hazuki could win this, but Kagetsu tripping the ref into the corner when Hazuki was ascending the ropes then spewing mist in her face was the beginning of the end. ***1/2

NJPW 1/4/92 Tokyo Dome: Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA & Masashi Aoyagi vs. Norio Honaga & Hiro Saito & Super Strong Machine 15:12
DC: Akira Nogami was working under his AKIRA gimmick, which is kinda like a mixture between The Great Muta and the lucha martial artist gimmicks. It's a shame seeing Jushin Thunder Liger buried in a trios match in the undercard, because he was arguably the best (male) Japanese wrestler in the world at the time. He was wearing his blue costume here, which he saved for special events. Masashi Aoyagi added very little. His style didn't suit the Dome. It probably would have been more interesting if Liger & Nogami faced the Blond Outlaws in a regular tag match. Norio Honaga & Hiro Saito wore matching gear and had blond mullets. Saito understood how to work a Tokyo Dome match, and he played his role well. Honaga, who had the usual dirty look on his face, was in some of the best sequences of the match. Super Strong Machine was just kinda there, further proving my point that this should have been a tag match instead of a trios one. The Blond Outlaws worked extremely well together. The final minutes had plenty of exciting action. The match served its purpose as an action-packed "juniors" match quite well. Good match. ***¼

NJPW 1/4/92 Tokyo Dome: Hiroshi Hase vs. Antonio Inoki 10:09
DC: Prior to this match, they showed clips of the Antonio Inoki vs. Masa Saito Ganryujima Island Death Match and the Hiroshi Hase vs. Tiger Jeet Singh Ganryujima Island Death Match. The crowd went nuts for the legendary Inoki. Hase understood what type of match Inoki wanted to work and practically upgraded the Inoki match by keeping the workrate high. While Hase was able to challenge Inoki quite a bit, at times he was perhaps (understandably) a bit too respectful. Either way, this worked. Hase showed his greatness, and Inoki was about as good as he could be for a 48-year old legend. Good match. ***

WWF 1/19/92 Albany, NY: Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart vs. Pat Tanaka & Kato 17:18
DC: The New Foundation vs. The Orient Express. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Royal Rumble PPVs was the fact that almost the entire roster would be booked in the 30-man Royal Rumble-style battle royal. That meant that the few workers that were going to be in the few matches prior to the battle royal were usually given more time than usual to do their thing. That was certainly the case here. Owen Hart’s performance showed that he was the smoothest worker in the WWF, and he pretty much stole the show. Owen did some moves nobody else was doing in WWF at the time. And with the extra time, Owen was allowed to tell more of a story than he normally had been allowed prior. Especially with Jim Neidhart just there to tag in once in a while, due to his limitations as a worker, as he was more of a powerhouse character who was useful in small doses, this was pretty much the Owen Hart show. Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond were a solid and reliable midcard tag team. They were clearly thought of as a reliable opening match heel team, as they also had opened the PPV that happened exactly one year earlier. This bout opening the ‘92 Royal Rumble event moved along at a moderately slow tempo, and at 17 minutes, this was a relatively long match. But the quality of the work in general and the excitement factor of the highspots made things memorable. The way the ebb and flow was spread out nicely over the duration of the match aided the illusion there was more happening than there actually was. All things considered, especially the fact this was the opening match featuring arguably the best worker in the league, this was an interesting match to watch. That being said, this wasn’t quite on the level of the opening match of Royal Rumble ‘91, which was more heated and more dramatic. Either way, this was a nice start for the afternoon. WWF ran out of ideas for Pat Tanaka around that time, so he would soon leave for USWA to feud with Eric Embry. Jim Neidhart would get fired less than a month after this match due to unprofessional behavior backstage. Good match. *** 

6/5/26 T-HEARTS: Chihiro Hashimoto & MIRAI vs. Miku Kanae & Rina 20:28
ML: A much stiffer, more credible and intense style of fighting than we normally see. This was a good main event for a Yumiko Hotta Anniversary Show because it exemplified some of her best traits. The first half was merely solid, but it picked up considerably, and turned into something notable. Hashimoto is much better than MIRAI, and she was involved during the second half as they built up to her portion, which was one of the big reasons things improved. Kanae was the outlier here. She's the fastest and most energetic, but also the smallest, and the one whose style is most different from what the others were doing. She was definitely a good change of pace though, and that pace was faster. The best portion by far was when Hashimoto & Kanae were in together. Rina has good impact on her kicks, but isn't an exceptional athlete. She was probably the worst of the 4, but she was still worthwhile. Hashimoto pinned Kanae with her last ride. ***1/4

6/14/26 UFC Lightweight Title: Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje 4R
ML: No one expected Gaethje to win this fight after how much older and slower the 37-year-old seemed during his last win over Paddy the bad fighter. Gaethje won his first 17, mostly as the top star and Lightweight Champion of the WSOF (PFL), but it still took him 3 1/2 years to get a title shot in the UFC. He ended the good era of Tony Ferguson winning the interim title on 5/9/20, but then lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov on 10/24/20. He lost to Charles Oliveira in a match for the vacant title on 5/7/22, so while he did have a BMF Title run, it didn't look like he was ever going to actually win a real UFC title, but that desire is basically what's kept him around. He did his best to force UFC's hand, and many were expecting him to lose and retire. Topuria isn't an easy opponent like Paddy, he's an undefeated champion with genuine skill who is 9 years younger than Justin. Gaethje didn't reinvent the wheel here, but he was a lot more focused than Topuria, who had his big celebration party the night before the fight rather than the night after (granted he beat Oliveira partying beforehand). Gaethje wasn't trying to do a lot of different things, but he was locked in and executing well. Topuria was incredibly accurate, but he wasn't fighting with much strategy or deception. I'm having a hard time describing his game plan to be honest. He wanted to come forward, but he wasn't really using deception or trying to throw combinations, and he wasn't really trying to get this to the ground. He's the better athlete, but he wasn't really using it to get in and get out, he was kind of just standing in front of Gaethje and worrying about his own offense without worrying about deception or any of Gaethje's offense. It felt like he bought into his own hype and was taking this for granted. Gaethje just targeted the head, trying to win with the overhand right. He's bigger, stronger, and hits harder. Very few have been able to beat him in a firefight, but that's essentially what Topuria was trying to do, I guess. Topuria just walked into a lot of right hands because he wasn't trying to be evasive or set his offense up. Topuria had the best round in the fight in the 2nd, but Gaethje is known for being arguably the hardest puncher in the division, and his body withstood Topuria's best shots, while Topuria's face was bleeding, swelling, and generally falling apart. He wound up with fractures in both orbital bones. Since Topuria wasn't disguising his entries, Gaethje was just waiting for him to step forward to pop the jab. Topuria either didn't respect Gaethje's power or was just fighting lazy here because he was fighting like he could just walk through Gaethje's punches, which didn't make much sense given he had the speed and movement advantages. Gaethje is normally a lot more interested in pressing the pace and being the aggressor, but here he was content to counter Topuria's forward movement, and pick his spots to step in with a right hand. He'd grab the leg and throw an uppercut, throw a low kick when Topuria wasn't expecting it, but mostly he was relying on his right hand and trying to get hit flush even though he was getting hit. Topuria's right eye was injured within 2 minutes from an uppercut. The best action came at the end of the round, where Topuria was much more keen to exchange against the cage. He was getting Gaethje out of his comfort zone for what he wanted to do for this fight, but Gaethje is certainly at home trading blows. This was a Gaethje round, but the numbers were close. Topuria put a lot more effort into feinting in the second round, and now you were sometimes seeing Gaethje jab air because he thought Topuria might be coming. Again, there was a big difference between when Topuria was the aggressor but Gaethje had room to move, and when Topuria succeeded in backing him to the cage. Topuria hurt Gaethje when he started working the body against the octagon. Gaethje was trying to answer with the right uppercut, but Topuria was ready. Topuria dropped Gaethje with the hook to the liver, and followed him to the ground. It didn't work in terms of finishing, but this is what fighters are trained to do. Topuria is a submission specialist who can strike, so it made sense for him to follow up with grappling. It guaranteed him the round at the very least, and if Gaethje was really that bad off, he wouldn't have been able to resist the submission attempts. It's important to consider that UFC is an indoor air conditioned sport, but this was their 2nd outdoor event, and it was in the 90s with really high humidity, which was part of the reason almost every other fight on the card ended in the first round. Topuria was tired himself, and he was theoretically going to recover quicker on top than Justin would on bottom. Topuria looked for a mounted triangle and an armbar, but didn't do any real damage. Gaethje somehow looked much fresher to start the third round. Ilia was really just standing around now after being more locked into his movement and entries in the 2nd. Gaethje rocked Topuria with an overhand right following a jab early in the third and dragged him down looking for a D'arce choke. Topuria was just standing in front of Justin trying to outpower him now, and he kept getting nailed with big rights. Topuria had too much swelling around the eyes, the cuts were bad, but the left orbital looked serious. Topuria's cornerman said he couldn't see out of the right eye, and called for the doctor. The doctor wanted to stop the fight, but Mark Goddard wanted it to continue. An extra minute passed, but Topuria didn't recover all that much, although he looked better than at the start of the 3rd energy wise. I figured this was likely the last round one way or another. Daniel Cormier was going on about what a good 4th round Topuria was fighting, but mostly what I saw was Topuria eating clean power shots and his left eye socket swelling to the point it looked like it was ready to pop. I'm not sure how many of these shots Topuria could really see, but he wasn't really reacting to a lot of what Justin was doing. He did have Gaethje down briefly. Justin stuffed a takedown late in the round that a gassed Topuria bailed on, and Gaethje landed a punishing knee to the body just before the end of the round. Topuria's nose was all swollen now too. His face was barely recognizable, but his brother was still trying to assert that he they would finish the fight. Topuria quit on his stool before the doctor or ref could stop it for him. Gaethje was up 39-37 at the time, but this fight never seemed about the numbers or the scoring, the story was always that Gaethje was doing damage that was very obviously adding up, while showing the durability and conditioning to recover from what Topuria threw at him. It was a big action fight with a lot of time spent in the pocket even though Gaethje wasn't the one forcing the action the way he's known for. Topuria finishing him in the 2nd was what everyone expected, but Gaethje had other ideas, and one of his best traits is he never gives up on himself. Very good match.

NWA 5/10/63 Buffalo, NY Memorial Auditorium, NWA World Heavyweight Title: Lou Thesz vs. Antonino Rocca 29:47.
DC: While Argentina has been one of the greatest soccer nations in the world ever since the 1920s (especially from 1978 onwards), it has never been known as a nation to produce great pro wrestlers. However, there was one pro wrestler from Argentina who was a huge star in New York back in the 1950s and 1960s, and his name was “Argentina” Antonino Rocca (not to be confused with Mexican luchador Javier “Americo” Rocca). Antonino Rocca was an Italian immigrant who moved from Northern Italy to Argentina in the mid 1930s. He started wrestling in the mid 1940s. After having started his pro wrestling career in Argentina, he would start wrestling in the United States from the late 1940s and became a big star in the New York area. The barefoot Rocca was very over with the crowd, and was considered a high flyer for the American wrestling standards of the time. His opponent in this bout was the great Lou Thesz, arguably the greatest pro wrestler of the 1950s, who was still one of the best wrestlers in the world by 1963. This was Thesz’ third reign as The NWA Heavyweight Champion of the World. Of course, the big story going into this match was that Thesz had defeated “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers in Toronto on 1/24/63 to win the title for a third time. However, controversially, promoters in the Northeast of the States refused to acknowledge this loss of Rogers’ and decided to break away from the NWA, which would result in Rogers becoming the very first champion of the WWWF. In the meantime, the NWA would continue to acknowledge Thesz as their champion while the WWWF started their own journey, which would subsequently lead them to become one of the most successful wrestling organizations in the world (albeit also one of the most controversial and arguably most overrated). Now, if you’ve never seen French catch and aren’t familiar with Petit Prince (who was easily the most graceful and fast-paced high flyer of the 1950s and 1960s), then I can understand why you’d think that Rocca was a pioneering high flyer, as Rocca certainly was spectacular for New York pro wrestling standards, and his popularity can’t be denied. Rocca was extremely popular, especially with the Italian and Hispanic portions of the crowds. Rocca was a huge star (especially in the Northeast), and he occasionally teamed with Puerto Rican wrestler Miguel Perez (Sr.), who was also a major fixture in the area around that time. However, I’d like to suggest that Rocca’s status as a high flying pioneer was mainly due to the fact that people weren’t able to watch wrestling from virtually all areas and eras as easily as we are able to nowadays. Rocca’s big high flying moves, which were all executed in quite a rough-looking manner, were the dropkick (which wrestlers had been doing since the 1930s), the victory roll (which luchadores had been doing since the 1930s) and the handstand headscissors (which later became Trish Stratus’ “Stratusphere” in the 2000s). He may have been one of the very first wrestlers to do cartwheels in his matches, though, which is a really cool thing, of course. By the way, Rocca would team with Edouard Carpentier (a former gymnast from France) from time to time back in those days (the 1950s and 1960s), and both were known to be two of the more spectacular wrestlers of the era. That being said, regardless of whether or not you want to call Rocca an actual high flying pioneer or not, and whether or not he should be classified as a high flyer at all, Rocca was more of an off-the-ground type of wrestler than most at the time. Most importantly, Rocca is widely considered a very much respected and famous ‘50s and ‘60s pro wrestler, and he definitely gave a very good performance in this title bout against Thesz. Rocca’s strikes looked a bit unconvincing at times, but Thesz would be able to cover it up well by selling for them more in an annoyed way than in an actual damaged way. While the striking wasn’t that great, the grappling and overall display of struggle was what made this two-out-of-three falls championship bout a really good example of what some of the better American pro wrestling from that time looked like. Both men deserve credit for that, and one could say that this was probably somewhat of a spectacle for the standards of the day. Even though Thesz respected Rocca’s athleticism, popularity and overall success in the business, his philosophy of pro wrestling was very different, as Thesz was the old school legitimate grappler type, and Rocca’s unconventional style was considered a substance-lacking showy style meant for the entertainment of the crowd. This shows that pro wrestling has been evolving constantly ever since the earlier days and that there have always been wrestlers who were more traditional and wrestlers who were more progressive. That being said, Thesz had no problem with making this match work and figuring out how to have his match while allowing Rocca to do his flashy stuff to get optimal crowd approval. Thesz specifically did a good job of acting heelish, while Rocca was being the sympathetic face who showed spurts of energy and really managed to take it to his opponent in an inspired albeit unconventional way. This match definitely looks dated (as it possibly comes across as a bit dull and somewhat uneventful when looked through contemporary eyes), but overall certainly didn’t age terribly. And when you put your proverbial ‘60s goggles on while watching this bout, it’s arguably one of the better matches of the 1960s that’s currently available to us. Unfortunately, the versions available of this match are either clipped and/or have the third fall completely missing, which makes it harder to judge this match (although, since the third fall was apparently only four minutes long, it feels like we can still give this match a somewhat proper rating). Very good match. ***¾

4/11/26 UFC: Josh Hokit vs. Curtis Blaydes 3R
ML: This fight is kind of hard to rate because it's a lot of fun as a barroom brawl, but it's really bad technically. It's the sort of fight where you could say both men survived, but most of the scare was their own poor defense and conditioning. Still, they showed a lot of heart and guts to hang in there. In the end, this was nowhere near a match of the year, but it's the best heavyweight fight we've seen in quite a while. It's a wild brawl that was in some sense totally predictable because they did the same things over and over. It was such a low skill slobberknocker that it seemed like it should have taken place in the no holds barred era of UFC before John Perretti created real MMA. Both have terrible defense and just walk into punches, which made for a very entertaining bout of a sort. This felt more like a movie fight than a UFC match, that sort of 1980's fighting concept where real fights were basically just boxing, and most attempts to do anything else were largely ineffective, hence the sport with the least possible legal techniques was still somehow the most effective. No one could forget seeing Mike Tyson massacre some cans and they were perpetually convinced he was the most amazing fighter even though he was washed by 23-years-old and never really developed beyond what worked as a strong and athletic teenager, but I digress. Hokit is the old school 230-235 pound heavyweight that was made extinct by UFC allowing Brock Lesnar to stay on his heaping pro wrestling dose of roids, which led to Frank Mir putting on 30 pounds of muscle in seemingly a month, and things just cascading to where you basically never saw a heavyweight contender under 250, and several were now cutting to 265. Hokit still gets tired about as quickly as the typical heavyweight slob, but he's a lot more athletic, and keeps a much higher pace, especially in the first half of the round. His fatigue is a lot more tolerable because he gives 100% of what he has, that simply diminishes by about 75% from where it was at the start of each round. Blaydes is normally wrestling based, but was forced to strike because Hokit was an All-American wrestler at Fresno State who finished fifth in the nation at 197 pounds in 2019. Blaydes won the Illinois state championship in high school with a 44-0 record as a senior and an NJCAA National Championship at Harper College as a sophmore before getting into MMA, but his first his takedown failed, and Hokit quickly rocked him with an overhand right. Hokit busted Blaydes open landing several heavy hooks. Blaydes did show a good jab that could stop Hokit in his tracks momentarily, but Blaydes didn't have anything to follow it up, so Hokit would just go right back on the attack. Hokit had a big advantage in both hand and foot speed, he's really a lot more athletic than these big heavyweights, but was largely just standing in front of Blaydes bombing. Once Blaydes ducked into a takedown, Hokit was tired already. Blaydes didn't have any offense beyond holding when he had the wrestling advantage in the 1st, and that was more than he was able to do wrestling wise in subsequent rounds. Both were ready to expire 3 minutes in, but Blaydes now won a wild sloppy toughman level brawl against the cage. The fight was actually a lot more dramatic because their stamina was so terrible you always believed they were one punch away from the other collapsing from exhaustion. Blaydes ultimately controlled the majority of round 1. To me the real damage here was still Hokit, even if his run was only about 90 seconds at the start before fading out. Hokit recovered well in between rounds, and made a huge push to start round 2. He had his speed and energy back, and was just overwhelming the increasingly tenderized Blaydes with his punches. Hokit threw what he had at Blaydes after hurting him again midway through the 2nd, but his energy gave out before Curtis' chin did. Hokit was so gassed that Blaydes then mounted a comeback by virtue of being the only one still able to move. Again, Blaydes won the 2nd half of the round after Hokit did so much damage early. Hokit didn't recover as well to start round 3, and Blaydes actually won the initial exchanges. Hokit got his jab going in round 3, but he was so tired his right arm was at his waist, so he wasn't following up often. Hokit really did nothing but punch, yet Blaydes couldn't seem to defend hardly any of them, so his face was a complete mess. Blaydes suffered a fractured orbital bone and a fractured nose. Blaydes had periods where he landed jab after jab, but he lacks a fight ending strike, or really even a power punch despite being such a large man. Hokit came on later in the 3rd, but this round you could make the argument for Blaydes since he was more consistent. Hokit has a lot more power though. Neither really made much effort to avoid the others punches, so it was shocking that there were no knockdowns, especially with Hokit having Blaydes in trouble so early in round 1. I was surprised every judge gave Blaydes the 1st after he was wobbled twice early, though he did hurt Hokit later in the round, and won the last 3 1/2 minutes. Hokit definitely won the fight as a whole, but you could give him all 3 rounds, or you could give Blaydes the 1st and/or 3rd. All the judges gave Hokit the 3rd, so he took it 29-28. This isn't the sort of match you would want anyone you were traing to learn from, but it was good fun. Good match.

2/6/26 ONE Muay Thai: Johan Ghazali vs. Ye Yint Naung 3R
ML: High paced battle of young up and coming fighters looking to make an impression. Naung is 21, while Ghazali is 19. Ghazali was the longer and more traditionally skilled of the two. He didn't have to force anything because he was able to win the fight at distance, working the body especially well. Naung was a very spirited opponent, and he did everything he could to pull Ghazali into a firefight. Ghazali was a lot more technical, and because he had to reach, there was no need to get distracted by Naung's bravado. Naung sat down on his strikes a lot more, and threw very hard with ill intent, trying to make the most of the strike if he did manage to land it. He appeared to have a spinning back elbow knockdown late in the first after catching a front kick, but from the slow motion you could see Ghazali actually blocked it, so it wasn't ruled a knockdown even though he did fall. Naung did a better job of putting Ghazali on his back foot in the second round, but Ghazali could time him coming forward winging his heavy hands. This was a more intense and competitive round, though both definitely slowed down a little. Naung was eating some better shots now, but he would just taunt Ghazali and urge him to bring it. Naung did land a nice jumping front kick, but otherwise most of his work was done with his hands, throwing in some low kicks to keep Ghazali honest. Towards the end of the round, Naung really opened up with a series of flashy kicks, but he wasn't really setting them up by putting them behind anything. That was the issue for Naung, as he did a lot of big powerful things that would have been great, except for the fact that they weren't connecting because he wasn't disguising his attacks. Ghazali was able to cut Naung off in the third, and land some elbows with Naung against the ropes to swell him up. Naung was pretty much out of answers by this point. Ghazali won a unanimous decision. Ghazali apologized to his parents for playing with his food during the post-match interview. Good match.

2/6/26 ONE Kickboxing: Mamuka Usubyan vs Yassin Airad 3R.
ML: Airad is a powerful striker who is aggressive to the point of wildness. He throws everything in combination, often leading with punches to close the distance behind big kicks. His offense is good when it works, but you feel like he's trying too hard to make something happen all the time, although that obviously makes for an entertaining fight. Usubyan is mostly a boxer who was far more tactical. He knocked Airad down two minutes into the first round countering with an overhand left. Usubyan started to get aggressive to try to finish him off, but even a compromised Airad wouldn't let him dictate, and was right back to his heavy on the gas pedal style. Airad is one of those Diego Sanchez type fighters who is good at making himself the center of attention, to the point it might seem like he's winning even when he's not because his pressure and activity are so notable even though you can see him coming so he's often not that successful or effective. Usubyan was very good defensively in the pocket, and he remained patient, refusing to give Airad openings by trying to match his output. Airad gave all he had left for his final push in the last minute, and now he was more successful because the pressure was so overwhelming Usubyan was stuck on the ropes, but still Usubyan ducked and dodged the important blows. Usubyan won a unanimous decision. Good match.

2/28/26 AAA World Cruiserweight Title #1 Contendership: Dragon Lee vs. Jack Cartwheel 8:17
ML: Cartwheel lives up to his last name as one of the best gymnasts in all of wrestling. He is incredibly flexible and nimble. There was a time before Vikingo's injuries when Cartwheel had to take a backseat to him as a high flyer, but given Vikingo's current form, those days seem to be well in the rearview mirror. This probably looks even more like parkour then even most of the modern stuff, but at least if they are going to do that style, this is top shelf athleticism on display and they work well together. The mere presence of Cartwheel turned Lee into the power wrestler. Although Cartwheel is very showy (generally in a good sense), the match felt more like it had some stakes than like an exhibition. Lee definitely showed more stiffness and intensity. He was impressive here too, and he brought some things that Cartwheel didn't to help balance the action, in addition to doing a couple spectacular moves. You knew Lee was going to win because he's a WWE guy, and it came all of a sudden. The main downside here was the length, but it was all action from start to finish, so that's better than stretching it out just because. ***1/4

5/23/26 AAA World Cruiserweight Title: Laredo Kid vs. Rey Fenix 8:51
ML: I thought this was mostly a slight improvement over their first match. Both are in the same vein where they are just trying to show out, but they had more chemistry on the second try, and did a better job of countering one another. Laredo was still wrestling as a tecnico, although the majority of the fans were rooting for Fenix. They treated it as a big title match, and it felt like either man could win. The best spot saw Laredo spike Fenix on his head with a Destroyer DDT. Fenix then saved his head on the poisonrana and answered with a German suplex. Laredo turned the Mexican muscle buster into a small package, which I wish was just the finish if they were going to do a short match. The action was fast and furious until Fenix hit goodbye amigo and instead of Fenix finishing him off, the ref had to stop the match to check on Laredo because he kept starting to get up then falling back to the canvas to sucker the ref in. I really hate that refs never stop matches, and when they randomly interject themselves, it's essentially another stall tactic. This match had a nice brisk pace up to this point, too. The ref eventually walked away and started talking to unknown officials, so Laredo recovered and low blowed Fenix for his heel turn, then won with the frog splash. They basically did the complete match they were going to do before the silly ref stuff, so I don't finish itself really hurt the match, it was just played out in the silly manner that shows pro wrestling will probably never move beyond it's carny roots. ***

5/30/26 AAA World Cruiserweight Title: Laredo Kid vs. Rey Fenix 11:54
ML: This was their third match in less than a month, and probably the decider, at least for now. It was my least favorite of the three because in the other two both were tecnicos just trying to top each other, and one could make the argument that either were better, more exciting, whatever. Laredo didn't do a lousy job of playing rudo by any means, but taking a guy who exceeds at being spectacular and instead having him work a slower pace and use more filler offense and less flying is never an improvement. At least he wasn't doing the usual walking in circles and playing to the crowd like seemingly every heel in WWE, AEW, and NJPW. This had more time than their previous matches, and while it was good that it felt a little less rushed, they didn't actually do more with the extra time, and as a title change on a big show, I expected a little more finally. Fenix was basically as good as he's been in any of the matches in the trilogy, but he seemed better here because he was doing a higher percentage of the match's spectacle. Fenix was pushing here, but even hitting the Mexican muscle buster didn't end it. I found it extra corny that after all these years, Laredo suddenly actively wanted to cheat to win, and this just made him seem inferior to Fenix, whereas in the first two matches he was showing he was actually on his level. Fenix blocked the low blow early, but Laredo was able to turn the tide with it later when Tirantes noticed the exposed turnbuckle then hit his frog splash for a near fall. Laredo was the one that took the bump into the turnbuckle when Fenix avoided his charge though, and this time the Mexican muscle buster finished. These two could have delivered something far more spectacular than we got in any of these matches, but the first two where they filled the little time they had as well as they could were more satisfying than this one where they were content with playing their roles. Fenix is still an excellent worker, but even in a "longer" match like this, he still wasn't doing anything particularly creative or surprising as per usual with WWE involvement, and his creativity and variety of high flying were previously what made him special. ***

AJPW 3/4/92 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Dean Malenko & Joe Malenko 14:09
DC: The Malenko’s had been appearing in AJPW since 1988. Dean Malenko would start touring extensively for NJPW in October of ‘92, and would return to NJPW many times. Joe Malenko was pretty much a part-time wrestler (due to his job as a pharmacist) and didn’t follow the same career path as that of his brother. As no-nonsense as Dean was, Joe was arguably even more stoic and shoot-style-esque. Danny Kroffat showed his tremendous versatility. Around that time, he could mix it up in hard-hitting stand-up brawls with guys like Toshiaki Kawada, he could mix it up in fast-paced tag sequences with the likes of Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, and here he showed that he could really hang in there with mat wrestling experts like the Malenkos. Doug Furnas was more of a Scott Steiner-esque slam bang powerhouse style wrestler who was able to hang in there with the more technically refined guys when needed. But Furnas certainly played his role well and adapted to the unadaptable Malenkos, even encouraging them to be open to his more energetic style and setting them up nicely for success. The Malenkos' technical ability and unique style made this match-up quite intriguing, but it was the Can-Am Express of Kroffat and Furnas that made it a good match. Kroffat was the worker of the match, as he worked circles around the monotonous Malenkos, making them look more vigorous than they were. Kroffat was such a great worker in 1992, especially in tag team action. In the end, Kroffat scored the pinfall win over Dean to win this interesting but somewhat uncompetitive match. Good match. ***¼  

AJPW 3/4/92 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Giant Baba & Dory Funk Jr. & Andre the Giant 14:48
DC: Three members of the Super Generation Army, who were three of the top stars in AJPW and roughly in their mid 20s at the time faced off against a team consisting of three legends who were all over 44 years old at the time and whose respective primes had roughly come to an end about ten years prior to this match. Dory Funk Jr., however, could still go and was easily the most effective worker of the legends team. His giant tag team partners dragged the match down, unfortunately. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, the smallest guy in the match, did a particularly good job of making Andre the Giant, the biggest guy, in the match look almost passable. This was less than a year before Andre would pass away. He had known for years that he wouldn’t live long, but in the years and months prior to his death, he was clearly having more and more trouble even walking, let alone getting into a wrestling ring. Even WWF, who had always worshiped the legendary status of Andre, did not want to book Andre anymore by this time (as Andre’s final WWF appearances were in 1991). Kenta Kobashi hitting a moonsault on his boss, Giant Baba, was a pretty cool sight. This was a really fun match. Andre could barely move at the time, but it was surreal to see him in a match with these guys in 1992. All things considered, including the limitations of the giants, this was actually a well-worked and well-designed match. Honestly, this was about as good as it could possibly be. The match ended when Kikuchi did the submission job to Dory’s spinning toe hold. Decent match. **¾   

AJPW 3/4/92 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Title: Stan Hansen vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 19:12
DC: Stan Hansen had been the champ since beating Jumbo Tsuruta on 1/28/92. As expected, this was a slow and methodical match that relied a lot on selling. The quality of the storytelling was quite good, as the execution was solid, and the timing and pacing worked well here. Everything made sense, and they were able to capture the attention and interest of the viewers. Jumbo Tsuruta was the man who made Mitsuharu Misawa a star, but Misawa was significantly better than Tsuruta was by this time. And this showed, as Misawa had a far more compelling match with Hansen than Tsuruta had earlier in the year. Hansen’s clunkiness prevented this from being really good, but it turned out to be better than expected. Strong performance by both. Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 3/4/92 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, AJPW World Tag Team Title: Steve Williams & Terry Gordy vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue 31:18
DC: Steve Williams & Terry Gordy was such a successful tag team that they even were hyped on WCW TV around that time and were able to work with WCW in spite of WCW being closely tied with AJPW’s rival league NJPW. This was a decent match with a decent amount of excitement. There was plenty of action. The main issues were that the execution was generally not that great and that this was pretty much the Miracle Violence Connection show with Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue acting like side shows. Somehow, Tsuruta & Taue won this bout and the title. Decent match. **½   

RINGS 3/5/92 Amagasaki-shi Kinen Koen Sogo Taiikukan: Volk Han vs. Gennady Gigant 12:37
DC: Volk Han was taken to the mat several times by Ukrainian judoka Gennady “Gigant” Yaremenko, and Gigant was able to keep Han on the mat for a bit. However, Han remained calm and trusted in his own ability. Gigant used his weight advantage well and tried his best, but Han’s quickness and skill level proved to be too much for Gigant. Han understood that the debuting Gigant was relatively limited as a shoot style pro wrestler, as Han smartly worked around that. Gigant was able to follow Han’s lead, but Gigant wasn’t really able to make more advanced contributions. In the end, Han was able to use his superior and more diverse skill set to beat Gigant relatively easily. Han was only in his second pro wrestling match here, but he was already able to carry Gigant to a good match, which proves how much of a natural talent Han was. Good match. ***¼

AJPW 3/6/92 Hiratsuka: Kenta Kobashi & Dory Funk Jr. & Andre the Giant vs. Johnny Ace & Stan Hansen & Fire Cat 13:34
DC: Fire Cat was Brady Boone, a wrestler from Minnesota who had worked as Battle Kat in WWF earlier in the decade but was released by WWF not too long after his debut due to an incident at a bar. He certainly looked a bit out of place here with this Fire Cat gimmick amongst these more traditional wrestling characters. He looked like he'd mistaken AJPW for Universal. His work looked smooth, though. Kenta Kobashi and Johnny Ace carried the bulk of the work and were the best workers in this match. Stan Hansen showed a lot of intensity and added a lot of heat. This is not meant to be a surly comment, but I’m genuinely surprised that Andre the Giant made it to the building based on how immobile he was at his point in his life. This trios match was a lot less memorable than the one from Nippon Budokan a couple of days prior, due to the absence of AJPW’s founder Giant Baba and the absence of peak-level Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. However, thanks to this 3/6/92 match relying so much on Kobashi and Ace, the work was generally of higher quality. The man of the match, Kobashi, scored the deserving pinfall after a graceful-looking moonsault on Boone. Good match. *** 

CMLL 3/6/92 Mexico City Arena Mexico: America & Ciclon Ramirez vs. El Felino & Gran Sheik
DC: America was the truly excellent luchador El Pantera II. It was not surprising that his opening segment with up-and-coming superstar El Felino (brother of Negro and Canelo Casas) was quite fascinating. You could tell Felino was a Casas family member because of his tremendous display of talent back in the early 1990s. Gran Sheik (Ari Romero) and Ciclon Ramirez didn’t want to be second fiddle, so they did some very solid mat-based stuff. This competitive spirit kept this match interesting all the way through. All four of these guys wanted to keep impressing everyone that was watching. In spite of this turning into somewhat of a chaotic match, they managed to make the chaos seem organized, which is something the main event guys like Konnan were often not able to accomplish. In spite of being a solid technician, Romero was the weak link of the match, because he wasn’t a convincing bumper and looked basic next to these three spectacular guys. Felino was oozing talent. Ciclon Ramirez showed he was still very relevant. America (El Pantera II) was the man of the match, though, because he executed everything he did excellently. Excellent match. ****

CMLL 3/6/92 Mexico City Arena Mexico: Ultimo Dragon & Octagon & Kato Kung Lee vs. Bestia Salvaje & Blue Panther & Javier Cruz
DC: Bestia Salvaje didn’t look like the Warlord thanks to his recent hair vs. hair victory over Huracan Sevilla. He bumped and sold masterfully here. Javier Cruz was a thinking man’s wrestler, and he played his role well here. He’s kinda like a lucha version of Larry Zbyszko. Some of his bumping looked good, but he was definitely the weak link of his team. Blue Panther was a solid and reliable technician who always tried his best to adapt, even if he wasn’t actually able to due to him physically not being very flexible. His chemistry with Ultimo Dragon was tremendous, as we know from their excellent 1/31/92 singles match. Ultimo Dragon and Octagon were the two most over tecnicos in lucha libre Mexicana at the time. Octagon’s performance in this match was quite decent, especially his tope suicida on Panther. However, it was Ultimo Dragon who truly was the worker of the match (closely followed by Salvaje). Panamanian wrestler Kato Kung Lee was the obvious weak link in this star-studded match. Kato Kung Lee, this poor guy, must have been trained by a fake martial arts master, because this guy just acts like he’s auditioning for some kind of bad B-movie. His selling also looked comical. In his defense, though, he was in his mid 40s here, and supposedly this guy used to be good. The tecnicos won the first fall, which was quite a fast-paced spectacle. The second fall was a moderately paced brawl that saw the rudos get back on track. Surprisingly, we didn’t get the predictable quick equalizer for the rudos. Instead, this became a wild back-and-forth battle that ended up being out of control. The chaos certainly took away some of the class of this match, but it was overall quite enjoyable. Good match. ***¼ 

AJW 3/7/92 Yokosuka: Akira Hokuto vs. Bull Nakano 9:06 of 14:33
DC: Bull Nakano was the holder of The Red Belt, the most prestigious belt in all of women’s pro wrestling history. This was a non-title match, however. Nobody gets better matches out of Nakano than the great Akira Hokuto, so this was an interesting match-up to say the least. Hokuto worked hard, and Nakano worked smart. This match was essentially a more condensed and more no-nonsense version of their excellent 1/4/91 match, although perhaps it just seemed that way due to the immaculate editing skills of AJW TV’s editor. What aired was all fast-paced high-end pro wrestling. In the end, Nakano scored the pinfall win to prove her status as the top women’s champion in the world. Excellent match. ****¼  

AJW 3/7/92 Yokosuka, UWA World Women’s Tag Team Title: Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Suzuka Minami & Yumiko Hotta 22:47
DC: Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada had become the first holders of this title at the 1/19/92 Universal show by beating Kaoru Maeda & Lady Apache in a decision match. Their first title defense was on 2/12/92 against Akira Hokuto & Kyoko Inoue. This 3/7/92 match was their second title defense. The underrated Suzuka Minami worked hard and showed great intensity. Yumiko Hotta showed the focused attention and snug execution required from a top challenger. Yamada did a great job putting over the attack by the challengers, selling in a sympathetic and relatively realistic manner. Toyota’s main strength in this match was her tremendous urgency and passion. It was very easy to get into what she was doing and want to see what she was going to do next, both from a fan and reviewer perspective. When Yamada was tagged back in, she showed a level of urgency that showed she understood that after being on the receiving-end of so much punishment earlier that she had to be way more firm and aggressive, which is exactly what she displayed. Minami and Hotta were a tremendously effective tag team that would not stop trying to destroy the opposition. They were so destructive in their approach that if it wasn’t for Toyota being so flexible that she shouldn’t have survived the onslaught. Even when Yamada tried to increase speed, Hotta showed swiftness in her replies to the point that she would get the final word in. Yamada’s kicks were what saved her, as her precision in hitting the kicks to Minami’s head is what turned things around for the champions. Toyota showed a great deal of resistance whenever the opposition tried to execute moves on her. Minami remained dangerous even on defense, as she would try to use the momentum of gravity to escape an oncoming sequence. Minami’s tope suicida was like a torpedo launched to destroy. Toyota then hit a super Asai moonsault to take everyone out who was nearby. Toyota almost scored the win via the JOC suplex, but Hotta wasn’t hurt enough yet to not be able to kick out. Hotta’s selling was very accurate and represented the level of damage done to her (AJPW guys should learn how to sell from Hotta). The action got more speedy and exciting, and this was needed to take the tough Hotta down. Yamada eventually pinned Hotta, which resulted in Yamada displaying a relieved and beautiful smile. Great match. ****¾ 

Universal 3/12/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Universal Strongest Trio Decision League Semifinal: Silver King & El Texano & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. El Hijo del Santo & Coolie SZ & Bulldog KT 5:15 of 20:12 shown
DC: It’s a shame we didn’t get to see the entire match, because the highlights shown looked really good. Silver King showed his excellent athletic ability in the brief moments that were shown of his work. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the match was El Hijo del Santo literally knocking a Japanese lady off her chair at ringside when he hit a tope suicida on Dr. Wagner Jr. They all tried hard and gave a strong effort. This appeared to be at least a good match, judging from what was shown. Good match. ***¼

Universal 3/13/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Universal Strongest Trio Decision League Final: Gran Hamada & Dos Caras & Kendo vs. El Hijo del Santo & Coolie SZ & Bulldog KT 9:00 of 18:11
DC: Half the match was shown, but based on what aired, it looked like Hijo del Santo was definitely having a very strong week. Dos Caras and Gran Hamada were also impressive. Coolie SZ, who was wearing Mr. Perfect-inspired gear, was the most consistent and most solid performer of his team. Hamada’s team won in two straight falls. Decent match. **¾ 

LLI 3/13/92 Neza Arena Neza: Negro Casas & Espanto Jr. vs. Halcon 78 & Super Pinocho
DC: Halcon 78 would become known as El Mexicano in AAA a year later. He was alright. Pinocho’s gimmick was presumably based on Pinocchio. Espanto Jr. was a solid rudo and did some good bumping and selling. Negro Casas was obviously the worker of the match, and made this interesting. His sequences with Pinocho were particularly good. Pinocho was interested in working hard and trying to play his part in keeping the pace high. It was a relatively long match, but the work was generally quite decent, plus the dives and bumps at the end made it worthwhile. The main issue was that the match failed at grabbing the viewer’s attention sufficiently, as the match felt a bit disjointed. Overall, it was entertaining enough. Decent match. **¾   

Universal 3/14/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Silver King & El Texano & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Gran Hamada & El Hijo del Santo & Dos Caras 11:00 of 13:48 shown.
DC: The action was pretty much non-stop with everyone trying hard. Dos Caras probably stood out the least, especially since this usually isn't the type of match he excels at (and he was somewhat inconsistent as a worker most of the time anyway), but he still showed some good moves. Gran Hamada may not have been the most graceful flyer, but his flying moves always look effective. Hamada was definitely a worker who stood out in this match. Silver King & El Texano bumped around very well for the opposition. El Hijo del Santo knew his role, and he knew exactly when it was the right time to add something to the match. He certainly was a smart trios match worker. The high pace combined with the high-quality wrestling made this a memorable match. After the match was over, the fans stormed towards the ringside area to shake the wrestlers' hands and ask them for autographs. Very good match. ***¾  

UWF-I 3/17/92 Nagoya Tsuyuhashi Sports Center: Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda 18:04
DC: Technically, this was impressive, because they did a good job of trying to have a realistic-looking contest. However, they were trying so hard to have a realistic match that it lacked conviction. They didn’t know how to really captivate the viewer. Of course, this was all great for rookie standards. But it’s exactly the rookieness that took the match down, as it came across as two kids sparring for the sake of it without really knowing why. The best thing about this match was that the execution and timing were better than in their disappointing 2/29/92 match. However, the match seemed to go on forever, especially during the latter and less inspiring parts of the match, which lacked consistency. This was their fifth match, and they’re running out of ideas to come across as not being sick and tired of being booked against each other all the time (and I’m running out of motivation to keep seeing them wrestle each other, lol). Also, this was their longest match together, perhaps a bit too long for two rookies. The finish looked cool, though. And all things considered, this is worth a mild recommendation. Good match. ***¼  

UWF-I 3/17/92 Nagoya Tsuyuhashi Sports Center: Masahito Kakihara vs. Mark Silver 30:00
DC: The best thing about this match was that they made everything they did look like it made sense in that moment. What Mark Silver lacked in technique, he made up for in drive and determination. Masahito Kakikhara focused on working a smart match without being concerned about entertaining anyone. Kakihara did a particularly good job of being as realistic as possible, even when Silver at times wasn’t necessarily (which in Silver’s case mainly was due to lack of knowledge and therefore can be forgiven). Kakihara’s selling was exactly enough (not too much, not too little, perfectly subtle). Silver’s selling was fine overall, but his loud wailing was something you’d expect in a Manami Toyota match, not in a UWF-I match. During the final stages of the match, Silver’s nose started bleeding after a stiff hand strike to the face. All in all, this was a darn good match, especially for a match of this length. Silver’s performance was quite good overall, and Kakihara gave one of the best performances any pro wrestler gave that week. Kakihara’s timing and execution were particularly proficient. Very good match. ***¾ 

UWF-I 3/17/92 Nagoya Tsuyuhashi Sports Center: Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Yoji Anjo & Mark Fleming 20:40
DC: This was yet another recommendable match on a very strong card. Kiyoshi Tamura worked in the fourth match on the card, as he teamed with the booker to face the experienced Yoji Anjo and his tag team partner. Anjo's tag team partner in this match was a gaijin called Mark Fleming, who spent a large portion of the 1980s wrestling for the NWA, but he also toured NJPW in 1989. When Fleming was in the match, the match was good but also rather basic and slow. Fleming used his amateur wrestling skills and his size to his advantage. Fleming is definitely a good wrestler, but he's not a very interesting one to watch. When Anjo was in the ring, the match was a lot more exciting because of the countering and occasional flashy action. Yuko Miyato gave a good performance and threw several good moves, but the match was at its best when Tamura and Anjo were facing off. Not only did Tamura vs. Anjo provide us with nice counters on the mat, it also gave us some really good stand-up striking moments. Very good match. ***½

AJPW 3/20/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Champion Carnival Block B: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 20:40.
DC: This was better than expected. The storytelling could have been better, as they didn’t really manage to grab the viewer’s attention and tried to get away with this by pretending to do meaningful things in the hope they’d trick the viewer. All the wrestling moves and holds, while not very spectacular (yet relatively exciting for average heavyweight standards perhaps) were executed quite well, though. And the selling was quite strong as well (even though it sometimes became a bit too pretentious and “epic”). In the end, it felt like it was worth watching and mildly recommendable. Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 3/20/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mitsuharu Misawa & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshinari Ogawa 8:21 of 21:15
DC: The storytelling and build were solid, as expected. They did a good job getting people interested in the final minutes, but it took them a while to get there. Less than half of the match being shown may have also contributed to this match feeling underwhelming. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi did a very good job of “playing Ricky Morton” as people used to say. Decent match. **¾ 

CMLL 3/20/92 Mexico City Arena Mexico: Felino & Ponzona & Comando Ruso vs. Oro & Plata & Bronce
DC: The lucha displayed in this match was perfectly fine. Felino stood out for his bumping and his awesome gear and mask. Ponzona also had a cool mask. Oro stood out for his athleticism and high flying. Bronce was a solid luchador, and his Asai moonsault near the end of the third fall was very spectacular, as he landed in the second row and almost took out a fan. Plata seemed to hurt himself (at least temporarily) at the end of the first fall, which was won by Los Metalicos (Oro, Plata y Bronce). Comando Ruso was very bland but he could work. The short second fall was won by Ruso and his furry tag team partners. The third fall was not very long either, but it was easily the most spectacular. Oro pinned Ruso after a very graceful-looking moonsault. All in all, this was lots of fun. Good match. *** 

CMLL 3/20/92 Mexico City Arena Mexico: Blue Panther & Jerry Estrada & La Fiera vs. Love Machine & Hijo de Lizmark & Hijo del Solitario
DC: Prior to the match, they showed footage of Love Machine and Blue Panther getting in a fight when they arrived at the arena, but it was immediately stopped by Antonio Pena and others. This feud was heating up more every week. Jerry Estrada was the lucky one who got escorted to the ring by the bodacious blonde, the one who seemed to always be the most preferred ring girl. The heels pretty much dominated the first fall. In the second fall, Hijo de Lizmark and Hijo del Solitario, the two sons of famous luchadores, were able to pin Jerry Estrada and La Fiera respectively. The main story of the match was that Machine and Panther would just constantly try to beat each other up, which had pretty much been the ongoing theme since they arrived at the building. Panther and Machine definitely showed the most intensity in this match. Machine really tried to do his best here, as he even did an Owen Hart-esque flip, which he’d rarely do. In spite of the rudo team being far more experienced, the tecnicos scored the big win when Machine pinned Panther. Machine and Panther would even continue to fight after the match. Panther’s mask ended up getting partially ripped. And it was announced that these two would soon meet in a mask vs. mask match! Decent match. **¾ 

AJPW 3/31/92 Toyama, Champion Carnival Block B: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue 8:55 of 17:03.
DC: The match started off in an energetic way, as Akira Taue was relentless in his attack on Toshiaki Kawada. Once Kawada was able to fight back, it became more of a back-and-forth affair. The match lost quite a bit of steam and moves didn’t really feel like they had meaning, as they failed to keep the high energy momentum they had early in the match. The crowd was really into this, and the crowd reaction made the match feel more memorable than it was. The work was good enough for a mild recommendation, but the subpar structuring of the match and the subsequent withering of the momentum of the match prevented it from being more than that. Another downside of the match was that it felt they were more interested in putting on a good show than actually winning the match. Good match. ***