Wrestling Dream Battles

I'm trying to work through my DVDs still! Most/all of these are from AJW Athena TV episodes. I think someone compiled the best of a bunch of episodes. These are a sort of consultation prize on my AJW 09/21/97 DVD that cuts off the end of the famous cage match. Zap I is Kaoru Ito and Zap T is Tomoko Watanabe for reference. 02/16/99 ZAP I & T vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Kayo Noumi - This is how you do a studio TV match! Fast, violent and entertaining! The ZAPs are on the warpath. Maekawa can put up a fight but Kayo is a lamb for the slaughter. Kumiko tries her best but Ito & Tomoko are their normal high impact selves plus with weapons too! This was great! LCO are in the stands & mix it up with them afterwards. Yay! Zenjo vs. Neo SCRAMBLE BOUTS 5 X 5: Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Miyuki Fujii & ZAP Isozaki vs. Kyoko Inoue & Chaparrita ASARI & Misae Genki & Saya Endo & Yuka Nakamura - This was great!!! Takes a minute to ...

Hi folks! A kind soul has posted more Big Japan Wrestling and dammit! I'm going to watch it. Hopefully you find something cool to watch from what I've reviewed. 01/07 Chikako Shiratori & Kiyoko Ichiki vs. Chihiro Nakano & Marcela - Joshi in Big Japan! This was very fun wrestling. Shiratori & Kiyoko Ichiki reminded me of Mita & Shimoda. This got good when Marcela got tag in because her & Nakano started doing double team moves. Looking forward to more! Ikuto Hidaka vs. Fantastik - Hidaka, I know. Fantastik is new to me but, I like him. He did this dive that was super dangerous looking... and super cool!! Definitely want to see more of him. These two did a really fun fireworks action match. There were lots of awesome aerial moves and moves off the Irish whip. Fun bit of lucharesu. BJW is on a roll! Super Delfin vs. Minoru Fujita - Super Delfin is in BJW!? Looks like the show is in Osaka so they booked him. Cool! He dominated Fujita early with arm locks. Fuji...

OK we're back in New Japan proper this time! That last batch of matches were outstanding though. Check that post out if you haven't done so. December Keiji Muto vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (12/10) - And that's how you do it!! Finally doing legwork just right! This was a badass bout. Muto's had Tenzan bugging him all year. He starts quickly and tries to eliminate the big headed baddie. Tenzan doesn't get beaten so easily and really takes it to Muto. It's a 10 minute bout and it's great! No overwrought drama or bullshit where they have to kill time. Great stuff!  From the 12/11 show : Dean Malenko & Wild Pegasus vs. Hiro Saito & Sabu - Haha! Yes Sabu & Big boy Hiro Saito are a great team! Malenko & Benoit have their hands full with them. If Saito isn't raking the eyes or hitting someone in the nuts, Sabu is flying at them like a riderless dirt bike at an outlaw motocross race. I loved this match. Benoit and Dean have no sense of humor and try to...

Greetings and salutations! We're back to New Japan and we're beyond the G1 Climax. A big focus at this time is the NJPW vs UWFi feud. I've watched a good sample of UWFi and the matches below aren't necessarily representative of their shoot style. That said, they company does start to incorporate the style seen in these feud matches. I digress. If you're interested check out my other blog at The Further Adventures of Puro + More where I'm covering shoot style like UWFi. September through November From the 09/23 show: Lord Steven Regal vs. Wild Pegasus - Oh wow! This was tremendous. The first part was Regal's style. This was flawless and could have been done in 1975-80. Eventually Benoit found and opening and it became his high octane style. Neither man was completely out of his element. Eventually Regal was bleeding from his ear. This elevated the perception of true violence. The finish seemed imperfect at first but then made sense to me and was fitting give...