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 ...

Tatsumi Fujinami vs Greg Valentine (NJPW 08/13/82) : Fujinami vs Valentine in '82? Hot damn! Sign me up! And this absolutely delivered! Both guys were beating the sweat off of each other. The Dragon used his drop kicks but Greg was definitely "The Hammer." He was pounding Fujinami with elbows, over hand chops & clubbing fists to the sternum. To make matters worse, Dick Murdoch was his ring second. The Texas red neck wasn't shy about interfering (but not too much). I LOVED this match. A near classic battle! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of either. 👇👇👇 Click the labels below for more 1980's wrestling recommendations!

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Prince Devitt (08/12/10) : G1 match. Wow! Holy cow, that was a great little match! Nice wrestling to start. Tanahashi works Devitt's leg which they actually come back to later (although wish they would have revisited in the final third). Great finishing stretch nonetheless and an excellent wrestling match. RECOMMENDED I'm still working on my New Japan 2010 project. If you missed it, check out my look at 2010 Best of the Super Junior Tournament . Click the yellow text and it'll take you right to it 👍

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...

Tiger Mask & Kengo Kimura vs Dynamite Kid & Bret Hart (07/16/82 NJPW) : This was very exciting. It had great moves but they also kept it simple. Dynamite and Bret were great rough neck heels while still showing they were technically adept. I think this should be included in the list of Tiger vs Dynamite matches to see plus its another excellent Bret in Japan match. So a must see for any Hitman Hart fans. This is a great all action tag match. Easy recommendation! 👇👇👇Check the labels below for more good stuff!

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...

Tatsumi Fujinami vs El Solitario (05/10/79 NJPW) : Wow! 10 minutes of aggressive yet sportsman-like chain wrestling. Absolutely enthralling stuff. A technical wrestling fan's dream...I LOVED IT. All Time Classic in my book! This felt perfect to me. If you're interested, MUST SEE. Check out my Cruising the 80's series 👍 Or check out the labels below.

  Zero One Wrestling • Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito v Osamu Namiguchi & Shito Ueda: Pretty fun little match. Simple but effective tag wrestling. Seriously, U.S. wrestling should just aim for this instead of over complicating everything. •Takao Omori v Kohei Sato: I'm not sure how this was edited time wise. Maybe half was shown of 10 minutes. What we got was enjoyable stuff.  •Daisuke Sekimoto v Kamikaze: 7 of 11 minutes. Holy cow! This was a hard hitting yet surprising little sprint. Kamikaze is an excellent mid card bruiser who pairs well with Sekimoto. This was a blast if you like lariats and suplexes! •Ikuto Hidaka & Munenori Sawa v Masaaki Mochizuki & Minoru Tanaka: Junior shoot-style brawl? That's a good way to describe this bout. They were haphazardly kicking each other all match. There's a lot of animosity here. This was really exciting and although a bit frenetic, it sold the hate. I definitely want to see more of these guys squaring off in '08. So it ...

I haven't seen it all but contrary to popular belief, early 2000's Japanese wrestling doesn't suck. Is it different than the greatest decade in modern wrestling (1990s) ? Yup but there's plenty of great wrestling to enjoy. I think the inter-promotional stuff is very interesting and although it would stay a part of puro, it was best when it was fresh & new. You might be familiar with a couple of these but there's a bunch that I think flew under the radar or have been forgotten about: Curry Man, CIMA & Super Boy vs Minoru Fujita, Shiryu II & Jody Fleisch (M-Pro 12/21/99) A few days short of 2000 but I'm counting it! Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama vs Takao Omori & Takashi Sugiura (06/16/01) NOAH Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama (07/27/01) NOAH Jado & Gedo vs The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV (M-Pro 08/19/01)  Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tatsuhito Takaiwa  (ZERO1  09/15/2001)  Naomichi Marufuji vs. Naoh...

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,...

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!

Tiger Mask & Gran Hamada vs Perro Aguayo & Les Thornton (NJPW) : Yes! This was a lot of fun! Tiger is hurt before the match and the heels prey upon. There's no masked superhero. Instead there's a liability that the bad guys exploit. They wrestle this like a classic tag match with the ref not seeing tags by the baby faces, heels switching out but we get those great hot tags and Gran Hamada really makes use of them like few others can. He's awesome! A definite recommendation for anyone wanting to see prime Hamada as well as anyone thinking Tiger Mask was just all flips & shit. He's an excellent face-in-peril. More great matches coming shortly. Check out the archives on the side of the page or maybe click a label for cool match recommendations in the meantime 👍

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! 

Andre the Giant vs Killer Khan (NJPW) : Bad ass big boy battle! This a lot of fun. Just two monsters of the square circle clubbering away at each other. It's 1982 so don't expect a big finishing sequence or even a finish but a nice bit of old school wrestling. 

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.

Killer Khan & Tiger Toguchi vs Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch (NJPW) : This starts as a good joined in progress tag match. I preferred Tiger & Khan as they were doing some different moves including the under utilized double scoop slam (Strong BJW should have used that one). Where this gets really good is on the floor. Things quickly escalate into a bloody chair swinging brawl. THIS is what you want! If this would have been one of Dusty's Bunkhouse Brawl matches, this was have been awesome. It's only 1982 so we don't get that but savor what we get with this. It's a good time and 8 1/2 minutes. 👇👇👇 Check out the labels below for more wrestling you might like! Use the archive to go back see other wrestling recommendations. March Mayhem had lots of good stuff or Cruise the 80's with me.

Choshu, Chono, Liger, Akira vs Nakamura, Goto, Devitt, Minoru (NJPW 03/23/08) : Astute observers will notice this is from the same show as the previous entry. This actually takes place a little later in the card. It's really easy to skip over these types of matches for the big time singles matches. You would be missing out on some great wrestling though. Here you've got the story of Old versus Young. I think that drama never gets old. Someone always has something to prove. Now, you might be worried about the action here. Chono and Choshu must be pretty broken down, right? Not really! These guys could still move and still take bumps. And they were happy to slug it out with the youngsters. It really is shameful to see how many  U.S. wrestlers of the same generation really coast by on nostalgia. I think a Riki Choshu was a 30 year ring vet here. Anyhow, this was a fast paced, action filled match. The juniors were athletic and spectacular while the heavyweights were pounding away o...