Wrestling Dream Battles

Go Shiozaki vs Austin Aries (6th Anniversary - 02/23/08): Holy shit! This was awesome! Aries knows how to work with NOAH guys. The size difference made for some fantastic counters & reversals. The story is the smaller Austin chipping away at the larger Go. I'm glad that they don't pretend that Aries is the same size as the NOAH native. But don't misunderstand, they still beat the crap outta each other! This is exactly what I hoped for with this bout. It's a hard hitting match with great, great pacing. It's a match that reminded me why I love ROH. And this one is a classic - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! 👇👇👇 Click the labels below for more stuff you'd like!

Takeshi Morishima vs Samoa Joe (ROH) - They did an awesome job capturing intensity and building the spectacle without having a ton of matches. This was a grudge match without a big build up. Anyhow, they just beat each other up all match. Joe was vicious and Morishima is a rhino. His hip attacks and lariats were especially brutal. On top of this, these two slammed and suplexed each other all over the ring. Helluva ROH debut for  Takeshi Morishima. Great match! RECOMMENDED

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...

NOAH - 04/27/08 I bought this DVD awhile back and this seemed like a great time to watch it! Akira Taue, Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin vs D'lo Brown, Buchanan & Bobby Fish : This reminded me of a WAR 6 man match with the talent mix they have here. Taue is hitting big moves and watching him & Buchanan tussle is fun. Everyone is working really well with each other. They're not doing anything too complex but this got very good at the end. The near falls were quite believable since there's not a clear pecking order.  Kenta Kobashi, KENTA & Tamon Honda vs Yoshihiro Takayama, Naoki Sano & Go Shiozaki : A lot of the match story & action was Shiozaki challenging his mentor, Kobashi. They damaged each other's chests with vicious chops. Then there's the additional element of Go breaking away from 'Burning' so Honda & KENTA are glad to punish Shiozaki for. Sano & Takayama are a helluva team to have on your side though. Takayama has eterna...

Kenta Kobashi & KENTA & Tamon Honda vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano & Atsushi Aoki - This baby moves at a steady pace for around 30 minutes. There's nice spikes in the action so it never feels like a drag. In fact, its hard to tell when the end is coming. That's a good thing! Kobashi is all about his chops, KENTA is the workhorse and even Tamon Honda has his good moments. For the other team, Takayama is the big focus as both Kobashi and KENTA have a purpose for attacking him. Aoki keeps going after Kobashi to raise his standing in NOAH. I liked this part. Sano just continues to be a very good player in this match. His stomps & kicks looked devastating. This was a very good match that didn't rely upon high spots or melodramatic kick outs. This was just a quality 6 man match. You'll definitely like it! Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Suguira vs. Mark Briscoe & Jay Briscoe - A true 'Holy Shit!' finish! This was more than just a finish...

Go Shiozaki vs Tyler Black vs Claudio Castagnoli vs Delirious (ROH) : This is from the Take No Prisoners show. This was a hell of a 10 minute show open! They packed a ton of great sequences in here. Go brought his chops & kicks, Delirious was explosive, Claudio showed his strength & Tyler Black (Seth Rollins in some circles) had a bit of everything going for him. I thought this was a great 10 minute match. They didn't waste a movement or a moment... It's an easy watch and totally recommend it. 👇👇👇Check out the labels below! Or perhaps you should look at the popular posts? Maybe look over the archives - Give it a shot!

Hello wrestling fans!  Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi was the ultimate rivalry when I got into Japanese wrestling. Dave Meltzer gave their matches all kinds of stars (back when it meant something). Their matches for AJPW in the late 90's pushed the boundaries of what pro wrestling could be. I definitely think their matches are worth seeing to this day. If you haven't seen their work against each other then, I have a guide for you! Now let me preface this by saying this isn't an exhaustive list of all of their encounters. These are the BIG ones. These are the MUST SEE ones. Absolutely feel free to fill in the gaps. Any additional matches that you see during King's Road AJPW, the richer your experience will be. That said, don't feel obligated. If you just want to dive right in - go for it! So a little back story: Misawa and Kobashi had been allies since the Jumbo vs. Misawa feud of 1990. Generally speaking, this was a feud of old guard vs the new stars (Akira Taue ...