Month in Review: June - Thoughts & Recommendations

Antonio Inoki vs Tatsumi Fujinami (03/19/82 NJPW): Roughly 15 minutes of grappling & more grappling. If you want to see technical wrestling, this is your ticket. A technical duel between master & student.  Definitely recommend this one!

Fujinami has worked his way into my top 3 favorite wrestlers of all-time. Let's look at the other top matches of the month.

NJPW

Tiger Mask vs Villano III (06/24/81): Amazing technical encounter. Two greats engaged in a battle of wit & will. A classic bout - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Vader vs Riki Choshu (06/27/89): Vader gets his mask ripped and they are looking to destroy one another! THIS is what you want with these two. Awesome ending too. LOVED THIS! 

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Jushin Liger vs Pegasus Kid (11/01/90) Oh yes! This was great stuff wrestled at an urgent pace. Each guy was going for the win whether it was from a big move or a quick pinning maneuver. LOVED THIS. Not overwrought or cliche. Solid RECOMMENDATION

Hiroshi Tanahashi & TAJIRI vs TERRIBLE & Texano Jr (11/03/10): Pretty sweet, action filled tag match! Everyone came to wrestle. Lucha moves, power double teams, Tanahashi doing his big stuff even though it's a small show. Yeah, this was a lot of fun. I recommend it.

AJW

Esther Moreno & Suzuka Minami & Yumiko Hotta vs. Debbie Malenko & Mika Takahashi & Miori Kamiya (06/05/91 - 06/30 TV): Esther stole the show with her moves. Mika had a couple good ones too. Everyone looked good. Nice quick pace, super easy watch. RECOMMENDED

Hamada UWF / FULL

Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto vs Manami Toyota, KAORU & Mika Takahashi (06/04/90): Aja & co. are brutal bruisers while Toyota & Honey Wings are technical and fast. Pretty much exactly what I wanted with this one. Near classic match, LOVED IT!

Yoshihiro Asai vs Negro Casas (06/07/90): Great match that should be part of the 90's junior canon. Mat wrestling, fierce chops and slaps plus nice twists & surprises. Definitely Recommend!

Yoshihiro Asai vs Bestia Salvaje (06/07/92): These guys threw caution to the wind! A year later, Asai puts on another awesome match. He & Salvaje brought the intensity and the moves. Great match, recommended! Gonna keep my eye out for more Bestia Salvaje in the future.

IWE

Strong Kobayashi & H. Eigen vs Isamu Teranishi & Mighty Inoue (06/29/80): 2/3 falls. Great match! Match builds wonderfully. A match for old school tag wrestling fans. 20 min or so. RECOMMENDED

Cobarde & Herodes vs Isamu Teranishi & Mach Hayato (02/28/81): Great action tag match! Tons of stuff going on here. Definitely recommend this one! Ref kinda muffs the finish but it doesn't really matter.

Carlos Plata & Jose Luis Mendieta vs Isamu Teranishi & Mach Hayato (04/08/81): This was off the hook! Joined in progress but fast paced action with some really crazy moments. Definitely recommend this one!

SWS

Ultimo Dragon vs Jerry Estrada (12/12/91): This was a lot of fun. Estrada made Ultimo Dragon look great. It had spots he was doing in Hamada's UWF/FULL but they did more. RECOMMENDED

UWA

Can Am Express (Furnas & Kroffat/LaFon) vs Los Cowboys (Silver King & El Texano) (07/04/92): 2/3 falls but that's the only lucha libre part about this. The match was much more junior/Puro oriented. It was rough around the edges but would have been right at home in W*ING or other indie. HIGH RECOMMENDATION for fans of either team. Great stuff, glad I saw it!

World Wrestling Peace Fest 1996

Negro Casas vs Hijo del Santo: Great match, they packed a lot into a short time. That dive was badass. RECOMMENDED

Perro Aguayo & La Parka vs Pierroth Jr. & Cibernetico: A blast! A bunch of action plus Parka is a hoot. RECOMMENDED

Dos Caras, Atlantis & Hector Garza vs Dr. Wagner Jr, Silver King & Gran Markus Jr: LOVE IT, technically minded, BIG RECOMMENDATION to lucha novices like me.

Thoughts:

I have been making an effort to watch lucha libre or at least matches that have luchadores. This is not something brand new as lucha libre is foundational to junior wrestling and what I'll call the hybrid-international style of wrestling we've seen since the 2000's. I've really enjoyed Yoshihiro Asai/Ultimo Dragon much more than I thought I would. That sounds goofy to me since I've liked him for awhile but I wasn't expecting him to keep impressing me. 

I've also been enjoying exploring the junior wrestling of the very early 1980's. Tiger Mask is fantastic... And also keeps surprising me. I did a big Tiger Mask project a few years ago and if you've only seen his matches versus Dynamite Kid then, you are missing out. Finding that Villano III match was pretty cool but then having it be that good... That's awesome. Like I said above, Fujinami keeps amazing me. Also IWE "Junior Wrestling" (not sure if they called it that) is much more my cup of tea than the bloody brawling stuff that Rusher Kimura was doing. I say that because Mighty Inoue, Teranishi, Animal Hamaguchi, Mach Hayato are working their asses off in the ring. I had no idea.

Hoping to finish up New Japan 1990 in July. Probably going to be some NJPW 1989 along the way. That Vader vs Choshu match was sweet! I have been posting my 1987 All Japan matches on PWO. More should be coming there. More Tajiri too.

Check out the labels below for more recommendations! Thanks for reading!