Wrestling Dream Battles

Shinya Hashimoto vs Shiro Koshinaka (08/06): joined in progress but really good stuff. 8 of 12 punishing minutes. And a bit of post match melee as well! Jushin Liger & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Pegasus Kid & Jim Neidhart (08/06): Very fun, all action tag match. The teams were excellent pairings and everything felt really good although I can't recall if they teamed before or since. Liger was in the ring for his team a majority of the time so, you can't go wrong there. 10 minutes of excellent tag wrestling 🙂 08/11 Shinya Hashimoto & Osamu Kido vs Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura (08/11): 10 minutes of chaotic wrestling goodness. Akitoshi Saito & Aoyagi are at ringside and are jacking Hash & Kido up! Dusty Rhodes is in the stands (in official context) and is enjoying this one.  Super Strong Machine vs Arn Anderson (08/12): Good meat & potatoes wrestling by two of the best big enforcer type wrestlers, in my opinion. Big impact moves at the end. Nice stuff at 8 ...

W*ing Kanemura vs Masato Tanaka (FMW - 08/02/97) : Electrified Barb wire match. 13 minutes of death match wrestling done right! They had a great match and worked in some nice spots with the gimmick. They weren't crazy with most just being whipped or knocked back into the stuff. Personally, I think taking the turn buckles away from these two hurt what could have been... you're taking away Tanaka's Frog splash & tornado DDT as well as W*ing's senton splash. Still great stuff and Recommend it to fans of either! 👇👇👇 Click the labels below for similar stuff. Check out the most popular posts too!

AAA I found a great source for 2009 lucha libre and have been digging into that for a bit. I've been watching AAA since there's less available than CMLL and thus an easier project to devote time to. Also the energy & vibe is much more American style wrestling so it's a super easy thing to watch. It reminds me of ECW in a way with many of the story lines and segments intertwining. In general, I've liked the matches with Nicholas elements Millonario who most know as Psicosis. The dude still has it! He and Joe Lider do all kinds of hardcore spots like ECW/FMW never died. I've been digging the mini's too with Octagoncito being a standout amongst standouts. Super Fly is a guy that is impressive as well in terms of high flying average sized luchadores. AAA seems to focus on their heavyweights and although many don't do a lot for me from an in ring perspective, Mesias (Ricky Banderas) is really over with the crowds, he's got a great look & actually wres...

Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Yukihiro Kanemura & Hido (01/06/98): Oh yeah, this was just a blast! You kinda get everything you want here in one 14 minute match. It's like a Dean Malenko Nitro match from like '96 😋 It is just 4 pros having a very good wrestling match. It tells a little story (or continues one), has some drama with the heels hitting nut shots, using chairs and making blind tags, you've got your baby faces shining with their cool moves! Hayabusa vs. The Gladiator (Mike Awesome) (03/17/98): I wouldn't have laid it out this way but this was a very good battle between the two most flashy wrestlers. It did not disappoint one bit. There were some really great moments here and nice surprises. Really high impact stuff throughout. I thought the selling was pretty good as well. Nothing fantastic but both guys really sold the pain and struggle they were going through in this big stakes match. I think if you want to see a Gladiator vs Hayabusa match this is...

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!  =-=-=-=-= 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 & TAJIR...

Tajiri & Zumbido vs Chicago Express & Black Warrior (05/29/97 BJW): 7-8 minutes of lucha sweetness. Nearly constant movement. BJW shows the whole thing. Even they knew how good this was - hidden gem. RECOMMENDED Tajiri vs Chicago Express (05/30/97 BJW): Reminds me of Tajiri vs Super Crazy - dives, cool arm drags, ranas - you'll dig it! Tajiri & Ikuto Hidaka vs Super Crazy & Super Calo (12/18/99 ECW) Chattanooga, TN. This would be so awesome to see at your high school gym! These fans saw something special. Spring board moves, tilt-a-whirls, dives, fighting in the crowd... the ending came sooner that I would have wanted but that's not a complaint but a preference. Very good stuff! RECOMMENDED  Tajiri vs Tommy Dreamer (03/25/00): Wichita, KS. Corino is talking crap on the mic. Dreamer comes out to shut him up but Tajiri intervenes. This was a fun house show type match yet had some pretty good spots. Definitely scratches an itch for your standard ECW match. Everyone...

I'm really glad that I've had the opportunity to dig into FMW. As an ECW fan in high school, FMW always seemed like the cooler cousin of ECW...if just for the Tanaka vs Awesome stuff. In my VHS days, I had BJW & IWA Japan stuff but not FMW. Eventually I got an Explosion Death Match comp tape. Then a few years later, I got the Highspots Hayabusa comp which was very good but not great as a taste of the true best of Hayabusa. So finally digging my teeth into the meat of FMW has been fulfilling. As garbage/hard core wrestling has fallen out of mainstream favor for a long while, I think the memory of ECW and FMW is fading. So I'm glad to keep the flame burning. I need to watch more but my absolute favorites so far are: Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto vs Masanobu Kurisu & Dragon Master [Kendo Nagasaki] (FMW 04/01/90) Masato Tanaka, Kuroda & Koji Nakagawa vs Kanemura, Hido & Hosaka (FMW - Exploding Barbwire match - 09/01/96) Masato Tanaka vs Mr. Gannosuke (01/06/98...

IWE 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. Mach Hayato vs Cobarde (03/02/81): Pretty cool stuff, paced closer to Mil in AJPW but moves similar to NJPW lucha libre at the time. joined in progress 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! Herodes vs Mighty Inoue (1981): Roy's got this listed as El Cobarde but it's Herodes. Very good stuff, Herodes is quite the the chicken shit heel. Good face/heel match with Inoue finding his openings. Exciting finish too. World Wrestling Peace Festival 06/01/96 Lady Apache & Reina Jubuki (Akira Hokuto) vs Bull Nakano & Neftali: This was Bull vs Hokuto with Lady & Neftali as help. A fun time!...

TAKA Michinoku vs Pantera (WWF) : A rare WWF match here on Dream Battles. But it's here because this is an awesome cruiserweight (light heavyweight?) match between two international greats. This all kinds of spectacular moves PLUS they get time to work a story. The announcing is pretty awful and distracting (and I loved JR & the King) so mute it. Anyhow, this is one you will definitely enjoy the heck out of 😁 👇👇👇Check out the labels for more matches you might like

Genichiro Tenryu & Randy Savage vs Yoshiaki Yatsu & Haku (SWS) : Man, this starts off with a bang! A real melee...this was GREAT! Macho's diving off the top & bleeding , Yatsu & Haku are stomping on Tenryu's face like they are trying to stamp out a fire. I LOVED THIS ONE. Haku is perfect in Japan - watch all of his SWS stuff 😄 Tenryu & Yatsu never have liked each other and are excellent foes. When I named the blog, Wrestling Dream Battles, this was the type of match that I was thinking about. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED stuff especially if you're a fan of any of these dudes! Check the pic out, Haku is about to take a flying leap!  👇👇👇 Check out the labels below for more good stuff!

Hey you guys! More Madness! This time we're looking at Michinoku Pro Wrestling in 1999. " Evil" Great Sasuke & Masaaki Mochizuki vs Gran Hamada & Tiger Mask IV (01/10/99 Michinoku Pro) : This was very good, heated stuff! Excellent action when both pairs interacted. I've seen this given 2 stars (**!?) but this is much better than that. 11 minutes. Great Sasuke vs Jinsei Shinzaki (04/27/99): Yes! This was a great match. I loved all of the twists and surprises. Sasuke had a counter or reversal for Shinzaki at nearly every turn. It's probably not as got as their 1994 match but it's absolutely worth your time. Strongly RECOMMENDED Masaaki Mochizuki, Gran Naniwa & Pablo Marquez vs Great Sasuke, Magnum Tokyo & Kendo (04/29) : 10 of 26 minutes. What we get is pretty damn great. Great tag moves, dives & the other good stuff you want from these guys. Very good stuff!  Going to be watching more Michinoku '99. This is really good stuff and hasn...

Randy Savage & Haku vs Genichiro Tenryu & George Takano (SWS) : First off, if you're born in the 2000's or 2010's, all that neon spandex is real 😄 That actually could be bought at a sporting goods store at the mall. Anyhow, we get a heck of a matchup. Takano is just a partner to Tenryu. He is alright here but you're watching this for Randy & Haku vs Tenryu. Randy does so many little great things trying to goad the SWS ace. The action is right in line with what you would see during the 80's with All Japan and you'll get no complaints from me. Haku is a perfect fit for Japan. He stomps Tenryu's head so many times that the Japanese icon starts bleeding ! Yes, from there this match gets great. Randy is loading up punches to the gash. And this starts to get a bit chaotic (good). And then it gets even better when a chair is brought into the mix. From there, things go off the rails and like any good promotion, this sets up more drama & dissension.....

Joshi is something I'd loved but eventually moved away from... thinking I'd seen all that I had wanted to see. It took me long time to come back to it but the blog has definitely reconnected me. I know some folks are not as interested in it as much the men's stuff but, I think you're missing out. If you're looking for things outside of "the usual joshi must see's", try the following: Crush Gals vs. Jumping Bomb Angels (AJW 09/14/1987) Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama (JWP 10/10/90)  Eagle Sawai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito (JWP 04/26/91)  Mariko Yoshida vs. Manami Toyota (AJW 08/30/92) Chigusa Nagayo vs. Mayumi Ozaki (JWP 05/22/94) Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai (JWP 05/22/94) Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA 04/15/95) Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs KAORU & Kiyoko Ichiki (GAEA 01/19/97)  Las Cachorras Orientales vs. Watanabe & Maekawa (...

Hi wrestling fans! We've got more Tajiri You Might Have Missed! Check out this cool pic! Okay let's get to the matches! Tajiri vs Minoru Tanaka (BJW 02/03/98) : This is from Big Japan Wrestling. These two are at it again! See this post for their previous fight. Here we get the full match & its 8 minutes of excellence. This is a tournament match so both wrestlers are looking to end this quickly and advance to the finals. Minoru has the advantage as he uses his grappling skills to put Tajiri in a few submission predicaments. Yoshihiro fights with his feet but is looking to send Minoru back to BattlARTS with suplexes. There's a lot of cool stuff here and fans of either guy will have a blast with this bout. Very good! ~spoiler alert~ Tajiri vs Gedo (BJW 02/03/98) : Yes! This was smart! Gedo uses the injury Tajiri sustained in the previous match against him. This is well paced, told a great story but had plenty of action & excitement. This was a great match! Gedo is awe...

Lex Luger vs Masahiro Chono : Color me surprised! This was very good stuff...maybe even great. Chono doesn't get the love he deserves. Just a great character especially in Japan. But here, I had no idea Luger was still wrestling. You know what I mean? This would have been pretty well received if it took place in the States, I think. Probably just because they actually wrestled with a good pace, good action and there wasn't a bunch of crap. Not gonna say I'm a Lex fan but...he's probably one of my favorite muscle bound meatheads. Riki Choshu & Takashi Iizuka & Osamu Nishimura & Satoshi Kojima vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Akira Nogami & Michiyoshi Ohara & Akitoshi Saito : As I get older, I understand the punch & stomp-on-the-throat style of wrestling much more. I have always valued intensity in wrestling; a type of intensity that you don't get in 2020's wrestling (sorry it's true). It connects with me on a primal level. I'll be honest,...

The Winger vs Fantastik (BJW) : Big Japan Wrestling is becoming one of my favorite promotions because of the variety that they've offered since day one. I was watching my BJW death match tape in 1999 and while I thought that was pretty sweet, I would have loved it had they included great mucha stuff like this! Fantastik lives up to his moniker. The Winger is a guy I knew from some death match stuff but he's a very good wrestler. He gets broken down over the years but late 90's & early 2000's seem to be his prime. This match cooks at just over 9 minutes. It's all lucharesu action with a very nice pace. I am very thankful that BJW included virtually all of this match. They tend to clip things up but even they knew how cool this was for BJW at the time. Solid Recommendation to those interested.  👇👇👇 Check out more stuff you'll dig! Plenty of recommendations for stuff you want to see!

Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW) : Two of the very best ever. Two guys that are in my personal top 10 ever. Early on the Dragon is breathing fire and Tenryu is getting burnt. Dragon Rocket topes until Genichiro puts an end to that. Tenryu busts Fujinami in the snout and is gushing blood ! This is what he needs. Tenryu feeds on his opponents pain. Oh this is fucking beautiful - blood is spraying off Fujinami's chest with every chop from Tenryu! The Dragon WON'T QUIT. This is classic stuff. Emotionally speaking, this is an All Time Classic to me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Other ones that I would recommend are: Akira Maeda vs Tatsumi Fujinami from '86, Jim Duggan vs Ted DiBiase or vs Buzz Sawyer from Mid South '85. 👇👇👇Check out the labels for more matches you might be interested in. Thanks for reading!

Shinjiro Otani vs El Samurai (NJPW) : Wow! These guys hate each other! There's nothing fancy about most of this match. They are slapping, punching and kicking each other in the face for a lot of this bout. Once the action escalates to the "move section," the maneuvers feel like a natural extension of their animosity. These are two grumpy people. Beyond that, I think this battle is a fine snap shot of what a great wrestler Otani was. I find him to be the very best of the classic New Japan Juniors, only behind Liger. Otani's body language, selling, facial expressions are all top notch. If you combine his work in New Japan and Zero One, I probably would put him in the top 25 wrestlers of all time. Click these links to see more great Otani recommendations: Zero One Wrestling 2007 part 1 Zero One Wrestling 2007 part 2 Zero One Wrestling 2007 part 3

Randy Savage vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan (NJPW) : Where did this come from?! This was great. They worked surprisingly well together. Savage took a couple insane bumps for his 1996. This was about 9 minutes of wrestling joy. Maybe I'm a Tenzan & Savage fan. Maybe I just love bright colorful pants? Either way RECOMMENDED stuff. 👇👇👇Check out more stuff you might like - click the labels below! 

Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka & Osamu Kido vs. Akira Nogami & Tatsutoshi Goto & Shiro Koshinaka (NJPW) : This is puroresu! This is a frenzy! These dudes want to destroy each other. Every move & every strike has extra "umph" behind it. Iizuka gets hard way blood from a headbutt. Kido legitimately elbows Akira in the jaw. It's not all angry punches, kicks and stomps. There's some great moves off the ropes & off the turn buckles as well as devastating suplexes. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - It's Korakuen Hall baby!  Bonus: Satoshi Kojima & Osamu Nishimura vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata : Kojima trying to take on both big boys is great! Nishimura is hitting some fierce drop kicks. You probably can guess the outcome but this is all about the journey and not the destination. Hash & Hirata are helluva team. Check out my New Japan 1995 posts for more.