'98 Champion Carnival League Bout: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada

from AJ Pro Wrestling 30 4/5/98

taped 3/29 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan

This is the best in ring fued of all-time. Most wrestlers will never even approach this level, but for Misawa vs. Kawada this appeared to be the second "worst" match they're had together in the 1990's. However, we all know that in a Misawa vs. Kawada match there is rarely anything that doesn't further the match in some way. Only a little more than half of this match aired, so you just have to guess to fill in missing pieces. There's no way of knowing whether you are right or wrong and the match just isn't the same in this form.

This had all the elements that make matches between these two great, and the psychology and build were far stronger than what's unfortunately become the norm in AJ these days. The main reasons I thought this was a little down from normal were that it wasn't quite as intense, the heat was down, and Misawa toned down his offense some because he was banged up.

This match was in a way what it had to be. They were set to meet in the biggest match in the history of the company just over a month later, so that was the important match. The job of their requisite 30:00 draw was to build anticipation for that match. In a way it did, but in a way it also gave you an empty feeling because this wasn't the memorable bout these two have every year in the league portion. Still, you couldn't expect them to put everything into this match because they had to save something for the Tokyo Dome. Part of the point of this match was to show that they needed a no time limit match at the Tokyo Dome, which would have been an excellent stipulation if it was Kawada vs. Kobashi given their two 60:00 draws in TC matches, but Misawa & Kawada have never done a 60:00 draw so why should a fan think they need more than an hour? Anyway, they didn't break as many finishers as they normally would, instead opting for more building. This match showed that these two are so even that they can't even wear each other down enough to execute all their big moves in this amount of time.

Kawada's strategy in this match was excellent. The powerbomb is the only move Kawada has beaten Misawa with, but he knew Misawa would try to avoid that at all costs, so instead he tried to give Misawa a taste of his own medicine. Kawada always loses to Misawa because he gets knocked out, so Kawada tried to knock Misawa out. He focused his attack on Misawa's head, but at the same time all his big potential knockout moves like the jumping high kick and Dangerous backdrop were also furthering the requisite bad neck storyline. This strategy was really the difference in this match and Jun's Carny final with Misawa and his July TC with Kenta. Kawada has the arsenal to back up a head/neck attack. However, Jun has nothing big to use on the knee, so in essence, all the cool spots to the knee were just somewhat pointless wear down moves that he used before he dropped Misawa and Kobashi on their heads with his exploder.

This match basically followed the predictable formula. They began with parity spots. Kawada hit the first big move, not surprisingly showing he wasn't going to pity his injured rival, viciously dropping Misawa on his bad neck with a suichoku rakka brainbuster. Unlike 6/6/97, he didn't follow with a triangle hold, instead opting to kick Misawa some more.

They jumped to the 17-minute-mark and Misawa was getting pummeled, so you figure he'd been getting the worse of it for a while. He made his comeback turning Kawada's deadly powerbomb into his corbata, and began working Kawada's knee over. This was a strategy from Misawa we hadn't seen in a while, but it was one of the things, along with the great build, that made this match reminiscent of their far superior 6/3/94 match. Unfortunately, for no apparent reason, Misawa left this strategy in the midst.

Later on Kawada tried his Dangerous backdrop, but Misawa blocked it with elbows. However, Kawada laid Misawa out with his devastating jumping high kick. They put over the toll of the match really well here, which should come as no surprise since this is the two best sellers in the world that we are talking about. Anyway, on a few occasions including after the aforementioned jumping high kick, Kawada lost good opportunities to pin Misawa because he was so spent that by the time he made it over to Misawa, Misawa was just able to kick out.

As always, this was a war and it was stiff as hell. One spot that I can't recall seeing Kawada use on Misawa before was high kicking him over the top rope to the floor. Back in the ring, Misawa & Kawada exchanged blows, but Kawada won by going to the neck with chops and a kakato otoshi. He did his deadly diving kneedrop right to Misawa's neck. Even though it wasn't enough to win Kawada the match, all of this was perfect strategy. Misawa caught Kawada in a German suplex, which was the finish of their 6/6/97 all-time classic, but Kawada kicked out at 1. Even though they were tired, these men always prove they don't know the definition of giving up. In the last minute, Misawa failed to knock Kawada out with his elbows. Kawada hit an explosive jumping high kick at the bell, leaving us with the impression that perhaps he was moments away from the win. It's too bad that they wasted time that could have been devoted to this great match by airing a match that had Masao Inoue and everyone's favorite wannabe shooter Yoshihiro Takayama. As is always the case with a Misawa vs. Kawada match, it gets better with the repeated viewing. 30:00 (15:54 aired). ****1/4

'98 Champion Carnival Final: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama

4/18/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan

From '98 Champion Carnival Special Highlight Commercial Tape

Even though Misawa belonged on Injured Reserve, the problem with this match had little to do with his health. I mean, obviously Misawa's health hurt the match, but the extent it took the match down is overrated. What really hurt the match is simply that All Japan is such a screwed up promotion. We know the booking sucks, and I'm not going to argue who belonged in this final, but the fact that we'd just seen this match in January, as well as a couple other matches between the two over the past year really hurt. What hurt a hell of a lot more is that AJ has forgotten what made their matches great. This was basically a spotfest. Since spots rule supreme in AJ these days, and top guys submit less frequently than Hulk Hogan does, you can't build a match like you once could. This whole match was basically cool spot=pop, anything else, especially a submission=silence. The fans actually seemed more into the cool spots themselves than the fact that Jun, who had the best chance he ever had of beating Misawa coming in, was coming close to taking out The King of the Heavyweights.	This may have been Jun's finest work in that it was the first singles main at Budokan that he carried. He did as good a job as you could possibly do of masking the fact that Misawa's health was in the toilet. Obviously, people know how Misawa wrestles so you can't pull the wool over their head so to speak, but if you look at the match, Misawa really never shows that he can't do any spots and rarely looks worse doing a spot than he normally does. Most of his athletic stuff is done right at the beginning of the match, and it's clear that he's going for the quick win because of his health, which makes a lot of sense. Once Jun started destroying Misawa's knee, which Misawa had in a brace, Misawa did a lot less moving. It made sense within the context of the match that Misawa wouldn't be doing planchas after Jun destroyed his broken knee cap, and hurt the "good" knee as well. It was a smart match in this regard, and with Jun doing the bulk of the work and moving, Misawa mainly just had to go with the moves and sell.

For everything that Jun did right, it goes back to what I mentioned earlier about the submissions though. Jun's finisher is the exploder, and he has no big knee spots. Thus, while injuring the knee is certainly a smart thing for him to do, you can't build the match around it. You can't pass off a sasorigatame (scorpion/sharpshooter) or figure 4 as a finisher when you never use those moves before. I know Misawa isn't going to submit to a "common" move. You know Misawa isn't going to submit to a "common" move. Everyone in Budokan knew the same thing. Thus, the match didn't build, and Jun's submission holds that no one has ever submitted to did nothing but transform the hall into a mausoleum.

Jun dominated this match because of Misawa's injury, and the fact that Misawa was going over. He used all his cool high spots again, but to an extent it fell flat here. We'd seen Jun roll out spot after spot in January, but those spots were advancing the match a lot more than they were here because Jun had a finisher he could go to, and the new moves he used/invented could have done the job. In this match, Jun was able to go from point A to B to C, but point D didn't exist. This match couldn't match their January TC because it was more of the same, with worse work, worse crowd reaction, worse selling, and a top star that was in far worse shape after three more months of being put through the buzz cutter. The work was still great, but it was down. The spots were still awesome, but these weren't nearly as innovative. The selling was still great, but Misawa didn't put as much into it as he usually does.

What pisses me off is that all they had to do to make this match better was give Jun a knee submission. There's no reason he can't do a hiza jujigatame. On the way to his 19 points, there's no reason, other than that AJ bookers can't think in advance (that is if they can think at all), he couldn't have beaten a couple of guys with that move. If he came into the match with a hiza jujigatame that was over, the whole knee attack would have worked. Instead, he may as well have continued to attack Misawa's neck like we've seen everyone do for the past year because at least Jun has a number of head dropping spots that could put Misawa away. You probably think I'm going overboard on one point, but it's hard enough for anyone to believe that Misawa is going to lose to the deadliest spot in the world, much less a spot that even a joker like Jun Izumida wouldn't submit to. The AJ fans would still buy submissions if anyone finished with them, but instead we get below piss poor booking and waning fundamentals. You'd think as these guys got older and more banged up, they would make the style easier on themselves. They could make the style far superior to what it is right now in the process. Where the style was a few years ago with Kawada & Misawa pushing psychology to new levels was far superior. Instead the style is regressing. There seems to be a problem with common sense. How else can you explain injured up wrestlers subbing fundamentally sound spots that advance the match for more dangerous head dropping spots that are supposed to get pops but are now almost passe due to overuse?

After Misawa's injured body was put through the meat grinder, he kicked out of Jun's exploder. Misawa stopped the subsequent exploder and used his elbows, a Tiger drop, then as we saw in January, Jun proved the Tigerdriver wasn't enough to beat him anymore. Thus, Misawa KO'd him with a running elbow to become the first sitting champion since Stan Hansen in 1992 to win the Carny. I may be going too hard on these guys because it was a miracle that Misawa could even wrestle a decent match in his condition, but the problems with the match are not caused by poor health, they are what causes poor health. A very good, albeit extremely frustrating final. 22:05. ****

Triple Crown: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada

5/1/98 Tokyo Dome

From AJ 90 Minute Special 5/3/98

Once again, this was disappointing by the high standards of this series. It was too short for the stupid no time limit stipulation, which can be attributed to Misawa's injuries. However, the match was very condensed, in that they skipped most of the body work and building to the spots. The match wasn't really toned down at all as far as the spots they used. They just went to the spots quicker, as has been the case in AJ of late, which hurt the match.

The match wasn't as compelling as it should have been, which can be attributed to Misawa's injuries. However, to me it was more that while they did a ton of near falls you could tell none would be the finish. The fact that Kawada was definitely winning, and he was fairly dominant, really had nothing to do with the near falls not working that well for me. However, the fact that these days everyone in AJ wins with the same move or two had everything to do with it.

The stiffness was down, which can be attributed to Misawa's injuries. Misawa didn't hold back at all, not that anyone would expect him to, but he didn't have as much on his elbows as he normally does. The problem was that after seeing these two work incredibly stiff every time they met in singles, it was almost like Kawada was being too nice by not totally killing Misawa. Being nice isn't exactly a characteristic that can exist in Kawada's character, but things that shouldn't be done and don't make sense just keep springing up left and right in this promotion. The other thing was that while he was nice not to attack Misawa's broken kneecap early on, Misawa didn't seem to do enough damage to him to make me buy him changing his mind. I mean, Misawa certainly rocked Kawada with elbows, but 15 minutes into the match, Kawada wasn't in that bad of shape. Certainly he didn't want to let the Triple Crown slip away as it always does when he challenges Misawa. However, if he wasn't just going to attack it initially, I would have preferred for his back to really be against the wall before he changed his mind.

The psychology, and especially the build were down, which is hard to fathom giving Misawa's injuries. You'd think with Misawa falling apart, they'd want to extend the match as much as possible without doing spots, but once again this wasn't the case at all. I'm not talking about these guys locking on The People's Chinlock for two minutes so they could rest and kill time. Misawa & Kawada are very capable of doing strong focused bodywork that advances the match, but they have forsaken it. They did do several teases, but it was tease a dangerous spot then do a different high spot. While that isn't bad wrestling, it's far from the kind of build that made past AJ matches great.

Kawada came into the match in the best shape I've ever seen him in, having really trained hard for the biggest match of his career. Misawa was wearing a knee brace again, and it was quickly apparent that if he wasn't in the worst physical condition he'd ever started a match in, he was at least pretty damn close. They teased Kawada dropping Misawa on his bad neck with the suichoku rakka brainbuster early on. Misawa had two big runs of offense in this match, with the first being early on before Kawada took his already crumbling body apart. Misawa's offense was still very good, but he was somewhat limited in what he could do, and he was laboring to do what he did.

After the heat killing facelock, they teased Misawa's Tigerdriver. Kawada came back with a great spin kick that "reinjured" Misawa's neck. What is so impressive about Kawada's spin kick is that he stops on a dime in the middle of being Irish whipped, and really in the same motion spins 180 degrees with the kick to the face. Kawada then went to work on Misawa's neck, including hitting the suichoku rakka brainbuster for a long pop. Kawada tried to put Misawa away with the powerbomb, but Misawa countered it with his corbata. Kawada was able to maintain control by putting Misawa down with a high kick.

Misawa turned it around with elbows. Why they went to this only 11 minutes into the match is beyond me, but I pretty much covered that earlier. Later on, Kawada ducked Misawa's rolling elbow and suplexed him on his head. Misawa popped up and hit a weak running elbow, but Kawada no-sold that and put Misawa down with his jumping giri, which both sold. I've seen them do this sequence many times before, and for a no-sell spot I usually like it, but there just wasn't any zip on it with Misawa in this condition.

Kawada dropped Misawa on his head, but again Misawa came back with elbows. After being German suplexed on his head, Kawada pulled a Misawa and escaped to the floor to recover. Misawa dragged Kawada back in the ring, and you could really see how much trouble Misawa's knee was giving him during this. Now that Kawada was in worse shape, Misawa was able to Tigerdriver him for a near fall.

Kawada could see the title slipping away once again, or at least I think that was supposed to be the theory, so he got mean and launched an all out attack on Misawa's bad knee. It was a focused attack with everything done really well, so the how was excellent but the why could have been better. Misawa's selling during this segment was excellent, particularly when Kawada put him in the figure 4 and he was screaming in pain. Misawa's selling is normally far more subtle, so this really worked as far as making you think he was in agony.

Misawa again came back with elbows, and they weren't as stiff as normal. He once again tried for his Tiger suplex, but Kawada was able to stop it until Misawa rocked him with a rolling elbow. Kawada tried to come back with his jumping giri, but Misawa blocked it with his elbow arm. What I really liked about this spot was that Misawa sold the arm. Most other guys would have acted like the move did no damage because it was blocked, but the move has the same amount of impact whether it hits your head or your forearm so it's just stupidity on the part of the guys who don't sell it. Kawada's new focus became taking away the elbow arm. Once again, it was a focused attack that Misawa sold well.

"I thought Misawa should've made more of an attempt to get to the ropes when Kawada put him in the jujigatame about 22:00 in because it is supposed to be such a killer hold. I understand that he was selling his ass off, but while most people squirm around until they can get to the ropes, he just laid there. It wasn't like they threw in the jujigatame just for the sake of doing it, so it was especially important that Misawa put it over properly," wrote Michael Smith.

Kawada couldn't damage the arm enough to take it away, so Misawa once again came back with elbows. They went back and forth with big spots, but none of them created the illusion that they might be the finish.

"What I found most disappointing about the match was that toward the end, Misawa never had the opportunity to provide a flurry of credible offense where one could surmise it might be the finish. When the match ended that night, I made the comment that 'Misawa was never in danger of winning.' I was really looking forward to a couple of nice sequences where Misawa would put together some big moves in combination to tease the finish, perhaps involving his frog splash, diving neckbreaker drop, Tigerdriver, German suplex, elbows, etc., especially since we knew going in that Kawada would be put over. Oh well," Glenn wrote.

Kawada finally caught Misawa with a stiff abisegeri and jumping giri, which must have done wonders for Misawa's neck, for big pops. Kawada was throwing bombs now, and the crowd was really popping.

When Misawa tried to turn it around with an elbow, Kawada abisegeri'd him right back to maintain control. You knew Misawa was in big trouble, since even his most reliable weapon couldn't phase Kawada. Kawada hit a jumping giri followed by a suichoku rakka brainbuster, which probably should have been the finish to the match if they were just about to go home anyway. This was an opportunity to create a new finisher for Kawada that would have been over big for years. It also made sense because the brainbuster played on the neck storyline of the match. Instead, we were back to the one move that Kawada has beat Misawa with, the powerbomb. Kawada struggled for it in his typical fashion, struggling to summon all the power in his body, and flashing the trademark toothless mouth in the process. Kawada finally powerbombed Misawa, but Misawa kicked out for a huge pop. The crowd just continued yelling as Kawada powerbombed Misawa again, this time leaning over Misawa deep for the title victory over Misawa he'd been waiting some 5 ½ years for. The fans were jumping up and down.

"The one image from the Dome match that really stands out is when they panned the crowd at a wide angle after Kawada had just won and some guy jumped out of his seat and ripped his shirt off in celebration as everyone was going nuts (you have to be paying close attention to see it). That's just something that you don't see enough of anywhere. A spontaneous show of emotion in celebration of a great accomplishment by your favorite wrestler (or one of them)," wrote Michael Smith.

Of course, Kawada, whose rib was broken along the way, sold for a while before the undercarders dragged him up and Masao Inoue lifted Kawada up on his shoulders. The finish was excellent, especially due to the crowd, but in typical AJ fashion, they failed to think beyond this match so it wasn't as good as it could have been.

This was certainly a great match, but we've seen it all done so much better in the past that even though Kawada finally won the title, the match didn't excite me nearly as much as I had hoped and expected. It was obvious that injury hurt the match, but just as obvious that the reason for all the injuries is that the style has changed for the worst. This is not to say that there weren't injuries before because obviously there were several. The matches are even more tolling now though, and it's hurting their quality in more ways than one, while not helping their quality one bit.

The closing minutes were very memorable and the crowd was great, which isn't exactly a trademark for the Dome. Everything they did would have people raving for months if it was anyone but them doing it. This was a great match. It was awesome by the standards of what all but the top dozen or so wrestlers in the world can do, but by their standards, it doesn't match up. It wasn't close to 6/3/94 or 6/6/97, nor was it as great as say 10/21/92 or 3/30/97.

The book on Kawada's quest to defeat Misawa had finally come to an end. The epic struggle between these two had in a sense ended in an unfitting manner when Kawada pinned Misawa in the triangular Champion Carnival final on 4/19/97. This was truly the end though, and it was a fitting conclusion to the incredible series, seeing the perennial bridesmaid's greatest day be in some ways the promotion's greatest day (remember wrestling is first and foremost a business). It always comes back to AJ being on the same road to ruination that AJW was on a few years ago though. It was also a great thing when Akira Hokuto, a bridesmaid of sorts due to being by far the best woman wrestler that never held the WWWA World Singles Title, finally had her day on what was by leaps and bounds the best show ever held at the Tokyo Dome. AJW was only delivering greatness for 10 months after that day, lets hope it's not the same for AJ. 28:05. ****1/2

World Tag Titles: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace

6/5/98 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center

from AJ '98 Super Power Series Commercial Tape

This was a surprisingly great match. Kawada & Kobashi made it such, excelling in the areas they normally excel. Taue & Ace were always serviceable, and occasionally great. Taue seemed more awkward than normal, so perhaps age and injuries are catching up to him, or maybe it was just that he was working with Ace. When Kobashi carried Taue, the match was very good. Ace's facials are always goofy, but he's fine when it comes to double teaming and the match was very good when Kawada was carrying him. This wasn't that good when Taue was in with Ace. While this isn't all that surprising, it was somewhat disappointing because the singles match that Ace should have won from 10/21/97 Budokan was a very good match. Luckily, Taue vs. Ace was kept to a minimum, but there was a price to that. Since Kawada & Kobashi were needed to make keep the quality of the match up while Ace or Taue respectively were in, they didn't work together all that much to build to their TC match.

The reason this match was so good was that the body was very strong and solid then they really kicked it into high gear with great spots back and forth for hot near falls. The attacks early on were focused, and the Kawada vs. Kobashi rivalry was heated up even though they didn't log that much time together. The heat was a lot better than you would expect. The fans getting into the match so much once the workers turned it up a notch made this match seem like something special. The match would have been dramatic anyway, but a hot crowd that is reacting to everything adds a lot to the drama.

Kawada and Kobashi started, mainly exchanging stiff blows. Neither man could gain the advantage, and Ace tagged in before the 2:00 mark. They worked over Ace' neck for several minutes. Taue did a couple of lousy guillotine drops during this portion, but Kawada's greatness made it an overall good segment.

Kobashi tagged in a little after 8:00, and no sold Taue's elbows then took control with his high spots. Less than 0:30 into his dominance, he ran over to the opponent's corner and elbowed Kawada off the apron to the floor. When Kobashi tried to pin Taue the first time, Kawada came in and made the save even though there was no threat of Taue not kicking out. Kobashi was pissed. He thought about attacking Kawada, but they wound up just having a stare down. While this was going on, Taue recovered and he blindsided the distracted Kobashi with a kick. Kobashi & Kawada soon worked another stiff segment. Kawada was the one who "won" the segment because he put Kobashi down, but he put over the damage off the stiff blows he withstood, and he had to roll over to his corner to tag Taue.

Kobashi attacked Taue's bad knee with a half crab, so Kawada came in to save him. Kawada unloaded several kicks, but they weren't enough to make Kobashi break. Kawada decided a running start would give him the necessary force to make Kobashi break, and Kobashi did break the hold, but not the way Kawada had envisioned. Kobashi saw Kawada running at him, so he released the hold and put Kawada down with his lariat. They continued attacking Taue's knee, including Kobashi kneebreakering Taue on a table.

Taue finally tagged out a little before 20:00 and Kawada tried his big moves, but Kobashi avoided them and tagged out. The action and crowd really got hot during the segment where Ace did his big spots to Kawada, including finally being able to cobra clutch suplex Kawada. Kawada took a nice bump on this, although he didn't make anyone forget Misawa. When Taue saved Kawada from being pinned by the cobra clutch suplex, he stayed in the ring and nodowa otoshi'd Ace, which bought his partner enough time to make the tag.

Taue came in and nadare shiki no nodowa otoshi'd Ace, but Kobashi saved. Taue tried to do his nodowa otoshis in rapid succession, but Ace countered with a sloppy Ace crusher. Ace then slowly made his way over to the corner to tag Kobashi.

Taue stopped Kobashi's lariats with high kicks, but Kobashi caught him with a rolling chop and Taue stumbled into a guillotine Ace crusher. Kobashi then released Tiger suplexed Taue. Ace took Kawada out, and they did their combination back suplex/Ace crusher spot for a 2 9/10 count. Kobashi continued dominating Taue. He worked toward his moonsault, but when he finally climbed up the ropes to perform it, Kawada cut him off.

Kawada took Ace out with an enzuigiri, and Ace really wasn't involved in the match after this because every time he recovered they just took him right out again. Kobashi finally lariated Taue, but he was too hurt to cover immediately and that cost him because Kawada, who was down in the ring, recovered just in time to make the save.

Kawada dropped Kobashi on his head with a Dangerous backdrop at 27:15, and everyone was down selling at this point. Kawada and Taue did their combination powerbomb/nodowa otoshi to Kobashi, but Ace was able to make the save before they took him out again. Kobashi was able to fend off some of the big spots, but as soon as he avoided one opponent's big spot, the other opponent would catch him with something. Finally, Taue nodowa otoshi'd Kobashi then dragged him up and Dynamic bombed him for the win. 30:26. ****1/4

Triple Crown: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi

6/12/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan

from AJ '98 Super Power Series Commercial Tape

Kawada+headlining June Budokan=Very Strong MOTYC. Kobashi+someone to carry him, do most of his thinking, and eliminate most of his goofiness=Very Strong MOTYC. In this match, we had both equations, and we had that result.

This was an awesome performance by Kawada. Kawada can be the best wrestler in the world when he wants to, and he certainly picked his spot here. He singlehandedly made this the best pro style match since Misawa vs. Kobashi 10/21/97. Kawada did a great job of carrying Kenta, or as JDW would put it "leading the blind." This was Kawada's best performance since 1995, which really says something.

What made this match so great was that Kawada brought back all the things that used to make AJ main events great, but have been brushed aside as dangerous spots became the in thing. The build, psychology, drama, set up, timing, and pacing in this match were all excellent because of the way Kawada carried the match. They still did a lot of big spots and the match was still ungodly stiff, but they weren't rolling things out or doing things just to try to get pops. What separates a Kawada masterpiece from the best stuff that almost anyone else can produce is just about everything done has meaning and works. That was the case here.

One of the many things that made the match great was that they really worked the holds. This is an aspect that is so often missing these days to the point that it's worth mentioning if the wrestlers do it. However, most people overlook it because they focus on the high spots and disregard that "boring" body work that needs to be done right to properly to bridge to the spots they want to see. The most useless move in all of wrestling is The Rock's chinlock because he just sits there for 2 minutes doing absolutely nothing. The move serves no purpose other than for him to get a rest because his stamina is almost as pitiful as his move set. The move doesn't advance the match in any way, shape, or form, but when you come right down to it, nothing he does really advances the match. I mean, take a look at the 30:00 match he had with Helmsley on 7/26/98, and you'll see it's just pathetic. Not only do they do nothing to advance the match, but they can't even develop any semblance of a storyline or really build to anything (a tease or two in 30 minutes doesn't cut it) in all that time. Pretty much all they do is a bunch of aimless brawling, mainly punches, and these are not exactly Benoit or Ultimo blows. These guys' blows don't cut it for the same reason Glacier and The Cat's kicks don't cut it, they have nothing on them. Even with two People's chinlocks, both men clearly blew up, which I don't fault them for because it's bad booking to have two guys with no move sets out there for 4 times as long as they normally work. In a way, the match was like Hase vs. Akiyama 5/1/98, except that was 8 great minutes stretched out to a 27 minute match, while this was 8 great moves stretched out into a 30:00 match. The only thing that kept the crowd awake was that they ran out a stiff once in a while and had Chyna interfere. Of course, the most pointless move in all of wrestling, The People's elbow did get a pop, so I guess that made the match good? The match did heat up the Degenerates vs. Nation fued, but anyone with half a clue of what good wrestling is should be able to see the match itself was not good at all. Anyway, even though there weren't really any high spots in the early portion of Kawada vs. Kobashi it was excellent because they put everything into each hold. At the same time, they were teasing or building to the big spots. It sounds funny in this day and age, but Kawada driving his elbow into Kobashi's back was a good spot. Kobashi's headlock was also good because it was worked, but more so because it showed it was too early for Kawada to suplex Kobashi on his head.

Despite the incredible stiffness, Kobashi kept wanting to suck up the pain and comeback with a blow of his own. Kawada had to keep him in check by either selling himself or pounding Kobashi until he didn't comeback. Kobashi also kept wanting to go to his beloved high spots, but Kawada would simply refuse and cut Kobashi off with an ultra stiff blow. Thus, Kobashi was eventually forced to sell.

Due not only to the stiffness, but to the build, when Kawada did his high kick, I felt like I really saw something. If I've seen this spot once I've seen it 1000 times, and they did the exact same no sell then high kick in the tag title match from a week earlier but I didn't even notice that until I was capturing the images for the column, but it really stood out here because they had been going back and forth with stiff blows and Kawada was the first one to sell one like it really hurt him. Just when you thought Kobashi was going to rattle off some high spots, Kawada no sold his chop off the ropes and ran off the ropes for momentum then unleashed his high kick with great wrath and furious anger. Kobashi helped make this look really impressive by getting blown backwards with his mouth open, so it partially looked like he was surprised the move had so much on it and partially looked like he was hit by a truck.

Another spot early on that worked because it was done a little different was Kobashi's short knee. "The knee to the gut spot was interesting because Kawada just collapsed like a balloon deflating. It worked well as a spot because it went just enough against what you expected to make you briefly wonder if it was a real hit," wrote Mike. Kobashi saw Kawada really putting this over, so he was smart enough to immediately attack the stomach.

After working Kobashi over, Kawada tried to drop him on his head at 12:30, but Kobashi still stopped it. Kawada would have to stiff Kobashi some more to wear him down enough to do this spot. Kawada's facials during the series of high kicks he used on Kobashi were excellent. He is just a master of making it look like he is summoning all the power in his body to deliver every big strike. Kawada began kicking Kobashi's knee out, but it was purposely the "better" knee of the two because Kawada wanted to beat Kobashi "fair and square."

At 15:00, after delivering more stiff blows, Kawada again tried to drop Kobashi on his head, but Kobashi still wasn't damaged enough. Kobashi soon came back with a running neckbreaker drop then tried to drop Kawada on his head, but Kawada stopped it with an enzuigiri. At 16:05, after all the teases back and forth, Kobashi avoided Kawada's chop and dropped him on his head with a half nelson German suplex.

Kobashi went for his powerbomb, but Kawada stopped it. However, Kobashi's rolling chop did enough damage that he could hobble over and powerbomb Kawada then released Tiger suplexed him. What made the rolling chop stand out was that Kawada did his patented stagger sell where he slowly goes backwards and down at the same time until he hits the canvas, while at the same time Kobashi went back to putting over his knee. The combination of Kawada's bump and his selling on the Tiger suplex was awesome. Kobashi crawled over and covered Kawada for the first near fall of the match. They teased Kobashi moonsault, which got a big pop. What Kobashi wound up trying was a diving neckbreaker drop, but Kawada caught him in the air with a jumping knee, which both sold.

Kobashi caught Kawada's spin kick, but Kawada enzuigiri'd Kobashi with his free leg and Kobashi collapsed backward like he was KO'd. Kawada dragged Kobashi up and laid in some of the stiffest blows of the match until Kobashi fell back down. Kobashi was out of it, or so Kawada thought. Kawada hoisted Kobashi up for the brainbuster, but Kobashi woke up and shook his legs so he fell on Kawada. Kawada knocked Kobashi into the ropes with an enzui lariat then jumping high kicked him on the rebound. Kobashi was staggered, and he stumbled right into Kawada's Dangerous backdrop. By the time Kawada crawled over to make the cover, Kobashi was able to kick out.

Kawada continued on the offensive, getting hot near falls from his powerbomb, but the joint went silent the second he went to the stretch Plum. Kawada really worked the second stretch Plum of the series, making perfect facials and noises plus shaking his head up and down. The reality is that, even though Kawada was putting his heart and soul into the spot, if the fans don't buy the move as the finish, there's nothing you can do to get heat on it. If someone of note had actually submitted from the stretch Plum (was Takayama on 3/1/97 the last "name" to lose from the move itself as opposed to being pinned after it?) then the move would still get heat, but it's AJ and they have no clue. After an epic seesaw battle, Kobashi powered out of Kawada's powerbomb, but Kawada put him down with a high kick. Of course, as soon as he high kicked Kobashi, Kawada basically collapsed because he had expended so much energy in his failed attempt to powerbomb Kobashi. Kawada's selling is so great and Kenta's is so mediocre that it almost looked like Kawada was in the worse shape of the two when they both sold this.

Kobashi finally came back with a Dragon screw, which Kawada did a great job of selling. Kawada tried to maintain control with a high kick, but Kobashi no sold it and unleashed his lariat, which was the move Kobashi used to score his first career win over Kawada on 3/27/98 in his hometown of Nagaoka. What made this a great near fall was that Kobashi fell down on top of Kawada from the effort it took to deliver the lariat. This got a big reaction and looked like it could have been the finish.

Kobashi again went for his moonsault, but Kawada rolled once toward the center of the ring so he would be out of range. Finally, after two powerbombs, Kobashi hit the moonsault for a hot near fall. Kobashi was feeling it, and he went back to his lariat, but Kawada cut him off three times before he actually hit it. The place was just going nuts. Kawada got up and stumbled around, but he found it in him to jumping high kick Kobashi, and both sold for about 30 seconds before Kobashi slowly crawled over and collapsed on Kawada for a near fall.

Kawada stopped a chop and did a jumping takedown into an udehishigigyakujujigatame. What made this such a great spot was that it was a dramatic three step process. First, Kawada was on his back and had Kobashi's arm. Then he took Kobashi over to his back. Finally, Kawada broke Kobashi's grasp and locked the hold. The fans really reacted to this, which was somewhat shocking because Kawada doesn't win with this on the rare occasions he uses it. We were finally seeing a move that the fans bought as a submission.

"One of the reasons this really worked was that it was not clean and easy. It was not a flash submission. Kawada had to grab the arm in the middle of a flurry, drag Kobashi down with him, then work to get position and get his arm extended. Once again, it was a little against the flow, especially since they had already had spots where they traded until on had to sell. This all made it look more legit to me. The spot also showed that if you set it up properly, AJ fans will still pop big for submission spots. Baba needs to take notice," wrote Miko.

This was the perfect finish because Kawada had not only brought back submissions so you could get heat without doing a dangerous spot, but he brought back the all the aspects that were key to the greatness of AJ past, as well as taking another step toward establishing himself as the new top star and draw. The only problem was that the collective brain power in the AJ front office registers a negative rating, so they totally fucked things up, as always. Kobashi got a rope escape and, even though his arm was injured, soon came back with his lariat, which both sold really well. Kobashi did a good job of putting over the previous damage of the udehishigigyakujujigatame here.

Kawada stopped Kobashi's lariats and hit a jumping high kick that knocked Kobashi silly. Kobashi oversold this in Michaels like fashion. Kawada was just as dizzy as Kobashi, and he walked into a lariat for another hot near fall. Both men were close to dead, but Kobashi sold this a hell of a lot worse because he always "finds adrenaline" somewhere. Kawada couldn't stand anymore, so Kobashi pulled him up and held him by what little hair he has. Kobashi reared back then, with all his might, he lariated Kawada out of his boots to surprisingly make it two in a row over Dangerous K and take the Triple Crown for the second time in his career.

Sometimes change is a good idea, and everyone knows Aj needs it, but having Kobashi win the title here certainly wasn't the right thing to do. The finish worked for the crowd, but it was a desperate act that probably did irreparable damage to the promotion. Not only did it kill any chance of Kawada ever being the man, well unless he's the last man standing in the rubble of a once great promotion, but it set up another series of main event matches that would be spot, spot, dangerous spot. The inferior Kobashi style had won out once again, much to the delight of the fans in attendance, but if anything it would go on to hurt attendance. Now the top stars are all one step closer to the wheel chair, and AJ is one step closer to a demise of AJW purportions.

The match itself was tremendous though because Kawada's performance was basically perfect. He did an awesome job of working all the big spots into the match at the right time, which you'll never see from Kobashi, and the execution was just about perfect. Kobashi hobbling out with assistance from his friends was a great job of putting over the toll of the match, but soon the toll of his style will have these guys entering the ring that way, if they can make it there at all. Unfortunately, I don't get paid by the word, but a guy who did once opened his novel "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I think that's the best summation anyone could come up with for this match. 33:49. *****

Independent World Heavyweight Title & World Brass Knuckles Title Double Title Match

The Gladiator vs. Masato Tanaka

9/28/97 Kawasaki Stadium

From FMW Over The Legend Kawasaki Commercial Tape

These two have always delivered when they wrestled each other, but they turned it up a notch here. This had great spots and big bumps, as the match was a strong combination of ring work and gimmick spots. The main problem with the match was that the selling was rather weak, but that was expected given the league. There were also a number of spots that weren't executed to perfection.

Every time these two wrestle, Gladiator kicks Tanaka's ass. This works toward making the match quality because Tanaka is such a great bump boy that he makes Gladiator, who isn't that good, look Awesome. The story of this match was that Tanaka was finally able to take all Gladiator had and comeback for the dramatic win ala Atsushi Onita. The problem was that there wasn't a thunderous pre-retirement Onita-like ovation when Tanaka got this big win, or anything even marginally resembling one.

After Gladiator taunted Tanaka, they opened with a stiff exchange of chops and it stayed hard hitting throughout. Neither man was going to back down, but they would get crossed up only 40 seconds into the match. Tanaka got the early advantage, highlighted by a Misawa-esque elbow suicida. Gladiator came back with a slingshot shoulder attack, and soon hit his impressive version of the plancha where he dives over the top rope to the floor.

Tanaka made his comeback at 5:00, including his swinging DDT and a nadare shiki no brainbuster. Gladiator ducked Tanaka's second running elbow and dropped him on his head with a released German suplex. However, Tanaka summoned all of his energy and put Gladiator down with a lariat. Both sold this, though not nearly as long as the AJ greats they lifted the spot from would have.

The gimmicks kicked in as Gladiator springboarded off a chair like our good friend Sabu and clocked Tanaka in the head with a chair. Tanaka basically no-sold this and the subsequent chair shot, which was questionable judgement at best, and tried to come back with an elbow but Gladiator released German suplexed him. Gladiator draped Tanaka on the top and German suplexed him for a near fall. Tanaka was forced to sell this spot forever because Gladiator went to the floor and set two tables up. Gladiator Liger bombed Tanaka off the apron through two adjacent tables. After both sold, Gladiator dragged Tanaka back into the ring and broke a piece of one of the broken tables over Tanaka's head then Liger bombed him for a near fall.

Gladiator set another table up outside the ring at 12:00 and tried to powerbomb his favorite bump boy over the top rope through the table. Tanaka slipped out though and gave Gladiator a dose of his own medicine by thunder fire powerbombing him over the top rope through the table!

Back in the ring, Tanaka got two hot near falls with his thunder fire powerbomb, but neither looked good because they didn't have any impact (so actually they were more reminiscent of Onita than they were supposed to be). Tanaka used some elbows that Gladiator didn't really sell, but the sequence culminated with Tanaka KO'ing Gladiator with his roaring elbow for the win. Tanaka took both titles.

This match has been overrated a little bit, but I can see why because you have to put things in perspective. Certainly it was from perfect, and even the finish was weak due to the powerbombs and bad selling. However, outside of All Japan, this may have been the best Japanese heavyweight match of 1997. 15:18. ****

Independent World Heavyweight Title & World Brass Knuckles Title Double Title Match

Mr. Gannosuke vs. Hayabusa

4/30/98 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan

From FMW ENTERTAINMENT WRESTLING LIVE SUPER MATCH IN YOKOHAMA Commercial Tape

Hayabusa is a great pure worker with awesome high spots, but he's no better than average in any other aspect of wrestling. Luckily, Gannosuke does understand how to wrestle, and he instilled enough of the other aspects to make the moves have some meaning. This was a basic match as far as the storyline and psychology went, but simple and effective works, and is great psychology by FMW standards. This was still mainly work, but it was an exciting and dramatic match with tons of near falls and some of the best high spots you'll ever see in a heavyweight title match.

Hayabusa kneecap dropkicked Gannosuke about three minutes into the match. Gannosuke blew out his knee legit early in this match, and missed a considerable amount of time. My guess based on Gannosuke's selling of the move was that it was the first knee spot, the kneecap dropkick, that he blew it out on. Hayabusa launched an all out attack on Gannosuke's knee. Gannosuke did a great job of putting this over, partly because he can sell but partly because he was really in a great deal of pain. Hayabusa didn't really put any effort into his submissions, and it's very hard for a masked wrestler to show intensity even if they try. Nevertheless, Hayabusa seemed rather bored during the early portion because he wasn't doing his spots. The problem with the match was that Hayabusa is going to beat you with a flying move or his falcon arrow, not a knee submission. I can cut these guys some slack because the knee was just something that accidentally happened, so they did what they could to adapt to it even though it doesn't play into Hayabusa's move set.

"I thought Busa should've stayed on the leg more, but he wasn't too adept at working it

over in the first place. The fact that they didn't tease it as a way for Hayabusa to win hurt the match as far as reaching a higher level," wrote Michael.

Gannosuke came back at 7:25, turning Hayabusa's lariat into a wakigatame. He proceeded to attack Hayabusa's arm. The roles were reversed here, but the outcome was the same in that Gannosuke was really putting a lot into his holds, while Hayabusa was only doing a decent job of selling them.

Hayabusa came back at 9:30 with a swandive kneecap dropkick, but Gannosuke avoided his quebrada and maintained control. Gannosuke used Hayabusa's falcon arrow, which was the move Hayabusa won their 4/29/97 match with, on him for a near fall. Gannosuke was selling his knee bad in between holds, with the knee injury "costing him chances" to win the match or put together a flurry. Hayabusa soon made a comeback, which included an awesome tope con hilo. Gannosuke pulled his Gannosuke clutch (Kido clutch) out of nowhere, which was the move he pinned Tanaka with on 1/6/98 to win both titles, but Hayabusa retained control and did his firebird splash for a near fall. Hayabusa got a near fall with his falcon arrow then tried to put Gannosuke away with his phoenix splash, but Gannosuke cut him off.

The match got excellent because not only were they doing great spots, but they were kicking out of their finishers late so you thought this finisher could do it and they held off the answer until the last fraction of a second.

"I liked the way the match built, and the finishing sequences were tremendous. Lots of false finishes, which I loved. I went to this show with someone who had really never seen FMW before. I kept saying to him, 'there's the Falcon Arrow, that's the end.' Oops, wrong again," wrote Glenn.

Gannosuke tried his Michinoku driver II, but his bad knee gave out, probably legitimately, when he did it so it didn't do nearly as much damage as normal. Gannosuke was able to hit it cleanly about a minute and a half later, but the combination of the knee injury and the toll of the match prevented him from making a cover.

Hayabusa took control and got a 2 9/10 count with his falcon arrow.

"I was surprised that Gannosuke kicked out of the falcon arrow, but I didn't see the drama that you saw. The near falls were hurt by the lack of heat. The crowd was dead for the whole match since the show sucked so bad. I did think the match was very good, just not as good as it could've been

had the crowd been into it," wrote Michael.

Gannosuke was again going to cut off his phoenix splash, but this time Hayabusa saw it coming so he kicked Gannosuke. He then tried to settle for a swandive elbow, but Gannosuke punched him in the face in midair and both sold to put over the toll of the match. Hayabusa nearly caught Gannosuke in a Dragon suplex, but Gannosuke kicked him low then thunder fire powerbombed him for a 2 3/4 count. Gannosuke got another 2 3/4 count with his Northern Light suplex. Gannosuke tried his Michinoku driver II again, but Hayabusa slipped out and was now able to deliver a released Dragon suplex. With Gannosuke stunned, Hayabusa was finally able to phoenix splash Gannosuke for the win. Hayabusa became the 5th Independent World & 14th Brass Knuckles Title holder. Really good and gutsy performance by Gannosuke. With all the spots in this match, I would have liked to have seen Hayabusa hit one or two more big spots before he got the pin. At least the Dragon suplex was made important by an earlier tease and the phoenix splash is one of Hayabusa's main finishers, which was teased on more than one occasion. It's kind of disheartening when a big show sellouts, but even the quality matches with over performers don't have any real heat. 21:45. ****

Overall, this FMW PPV was very much like a WWF PPV. The undercard had a lot of matches that looked bad, if not really bad, even though they were edited down. I There were a few good ones like Masato Tanaka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (a lot worse than expected though) and Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Yukihiro Kanemura (a lot better than expected). The main event was worlds better than anything else on the show. If one of these guys was Austin or Michaels, people would be raving about this match and bragging about their greatness because they saved the show. However, since this is "garbage wrestling" the same people are quick to dismiss the whole show as crap. I've seen all these vaunted WWF matches from this year that are supposed to be great, and there was one **** match in the whole lot, Austin vs. Dude Love 5/31/98. Austin vs. Dude had a ton of gimmicks, choreographed spots, and booking swerves, but of course was deemed a great brawl instead of "garbage wrestling." So let's figure this out, we have FMW who popularized "garbage wrestling" and invented a lot of things within that genre such as several different death matches. We have W*ING and IWA Japan, who copied FMW's ideas, but took the insanity of the gimmick matches to the next level. We have ECW, who copied both of them, but made the product far "raunchier" by adding the swearing and scantily clad women. Then you have the WWF, who brought ECW's "raunchiness" to prime time television and in some ways took it to the next level. Somehow the result of all this is that FMW, W*ING, & IWA Japan are seen as "garbage" or "porn wrestling." ECW is either great to their hardcore fans and the uninitiated who just mark out for the spots and angles, but crap to most anyone else. Most people see them as a promotion being held back by the swearing, scantily clad women, and certain angles they run, which is at worst partially true because it keeps them in late time slots or off tv all together. However, despite

1) delivering crap even though they have, in comparison to ECW and FMW, a basically unlimited supply of money to use the best talent

2) burying almost every talented worker they have

3) having about one good match per show when there's no reason they couldn't have several

4) using a bunch of stiffs on top when anyone pushed could draw against Austin

5) marketing an adult product to a bunch of 5-year-olds

6) being by far the most sexist and racist promotion on the planet

7) pulling stunts like nipple shots on their TV show and PPV that would have everyone saying Heyman had lost it if he would have done the same thing (which in a way is true because at the moment WWF can get away with it and ECW couldn't)

8) doing the same things that are considered crap or bad ideas when FMW or ECW does them

WWF is a major league promotion. Thus, they are considered great entertainment led by the god of all wrestling Steve Austin because people with double standards said so.

ARSION STARLET '98 Commercial Tape 4/17/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

The first starlet: Reggie Bennett & Jessie Bennett vs. Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa. This match had good action, and was very good in points, but there were too many problems with the spots. Many of the spots there were problems with were only partially blown and/or covered well, but even so there were so many little flaws. "I don't think it was that the spots were blown as much as it was that the set-up of a lot of them was slow and sloppy," wrote Michael. The match was mainly killed by Jessie, whose inexperience was all too obvious. The other three were good, but Jessie just wasn't close to being on the level with them.

Michiko & Yumi double teamed Big Mo early to gain the advantage, but when they had her in a double standing wakigatame, Jessie came in and tried to break it up with a double jumping lariat. In order to do this, Jessie would have to jump over Reggie sunset flip style, lariating both opponents before she started turning in the air. It just wasn't going to happen with the height and hang time Jessie gets on her jumps. The result was that she probably did more damage to her partner by landing on her bent over back then to the opposition. Jessie threw some heavy chops in this match, but her jumping and flying moves didn't look good because of the aforementioned, and also because some were a little off the mark.

Michiko caught Jessie in a hiza jujigatame, which Jessie sold well after she got to the ropes, but not enough while she was in the move. Omukai kicked the leg a few times then tagged Yumi, who came right in with a dropkick the leg.

Yumi & Jessie's sequence was good because both had a certain attack they were focusing on, but the other wasn't going to give it to them. Yumi wanted to take out the leg, but Jessie, who was on her back, kicked and kicked with her free leg so Yumi couldn't do anything to it. Jessie was trying to squash Yumi in the corner, but Yumi avoided the second running shoulderblock and immediately kicked Jessie in the leg. Fukawa rolled into a hiza jujigatame, but Jessie concentrated so much on doing everything she could to make it to the ropes that she didn't really sell the well worked to, legit finisher very well.

In order to mount Fukawa, Jessie put herself in spots where she would have lost if this wasn't worked. The problem with the mounts in ARSION is that the women don't do much once they mount. It's good that they know he positions, but getting the mount means nothing if you don't try to launch a strong offense once you get there. Even the pathetic "girl" punches of Mark Coleman would be a vast improvement over sitting on top and thinking about what a good rest you are getting by holding the dominant position.

Reggie and Yumi were going to lock up, but Reggie put her hand over her head where Yumi couldn't reach it as a way of taunting Yumi. Reggie then used the size and power advantage that this tactic pointed out to destroy Yumi, but Yumi eventually countered Reggie with a headscissors out of nowhere and tagged the much taller Omukai.

Reggie dominated Omukai as well though, delivering two great body presses. Reggie injured Omukai's arm on a blockbuster, but neither her nor Jessie ever attacked it even though Omukai sold it sometimes. Jessie even put the udehishigigyakujujigatame on the "wrong" arm. All this makes me think the injury was legitimate, though probably not as serious as they would make it out to be in Omukai's second match, and that perhaps Reggie and Jessie just don't have the sense to pick up on it.

"Maybe the Bennett's were not sure about the injury since it obviously was not planned. Due to the language barrier, they may not have been able to communicate well enough to ask her how bad it was. If so, their leaving it alone could have been for safety sake," wrote Chris.

It was etched in stone that the veteran Aja was going to attack the shoulder, unless Omukai's arm was so bad it was about to fall off.

Omukai came back with a series of backdrops, showing she could throw the much heavier opponent around then Fukawa tagged in and did an ultra huracanrana. Fukawa did a diving body press and tried to immediately go into a chickenwing armlock.

Reggie came back and almost had Yumi in the Reggie rack, but she couldn't do it because she couldn't reach Yumi's leg. Seeing this, Omukai came right in and broke it up with kicks before the problem became obvious to everyone.

Jessie did a couple really nice power moves for a near fall, but she had problems lifting little Yumi for a powerbomb. On the second try, Fukawa turned it into a huracanrana. Omukai came in and DDT'd Jessie to set up Yumi's Lionsault. Jessie wasn't close enough though, so Yumi dragged Jessie up and DDT'd her closer to the ropes. When Jessie lifted her arm to kick out of the Lionsault, Yumi took the other arm and applied an udehishigigyakujujigatame. Fukawa then did the Buff blockbuster for a near fall.

Fukawa tried to use jumping moves to knock Reggie off her feet, but Reggie no sold them and tried a lariat. However, Fukawa avoided this by taking Reggie down with a jumping neckbreaker drop. Omukai came in and missed a kick, so Reggie no sold it and gave her the opening for her Taurus kick, which Reggie sold. Omukai got some near falls on Reggie, but Reggie still wasn't in that bad of shape, so Omukai couldn't German suplex Reggie until Fukawa came in and dropkicked her.

Reggie came back and used her Global bomb on Omukai, but Fukawa saved. Jessie got a near fall on Omukai with a guillotine leg drop, but Omukai avoided the second one. Bennett tried to powerbomb Omukai twice, but it was avoided, more likely blown again, and Omukai took Jessie down into a wakigatame. You could see Reggie standing only a few feet in the corner not doing anything as Omukai turned it into her crucifix finisher, but then you realized the reason she couldn't was that Yumi was holding her leg from outside the ring. Jessie had no choice but to submit.

In her interview Reggie explained that this was Jessie's first tag match and that even though she had been pro for two years, she'd only wrestled 15-20 matches, so it was a learning experience. The other three were good enough here that this could be a very good match when Jessie gets better. 19:50. **

The second starlet: Aja Kong & Lady Metal vs. Omukai & Faby Apache. Omukai made this match with her selling. Aja picked up on the shoulder injury from the previous match, and debilitated it. Omukai's facials were once again excellent, and she put over the shoulder every chance she got. If anything it was too much because sometimes she might have been better off selling the move done to her instead of going back to the arm. Perhaps her shoulder was so bad that she had no choice to but to sell the shoulder.

"I think it is likely that they saw what shape the shoulder was in between matches, and then decided it was okay to play the injury up. However, that doesn't change that fact that Omukai is tough and dedicated for allowing Aja to go so nuts on her shoulder when it must have really been hurting," wrote Chris.

Of course, the Mexicans sucked, but this was a short match and neither worked enough to hurt the match that much. The beginning of the match where they worked together for 1:15 was the worst part of the match, but it wasn't Tijuana opener level of green Lucha or anything. The worst thing about Faby is that she finds it necessary to try to get the crowd to pop after each and every move she hits. I suppose it's better than what we normally see from that near Hall of Famer The Great Lazy, especially his stalling exhibition in that "***1/2" match he had on 1/4/98 at the Tokyo Dome against Choshu #2, but it was still a waste of time that killed the flow of the match.

Omukai was screaming in pain as Aja debilitated her shoulder. They had to stop the match to spray Omukai's arm and check if she could continue, but there was no quit in her. Omukai tried to fight back with one arm, but you can guess how long she was able to hold off Aja in that manner. Aja was stiff, and she not only continued to work the shoulder, but she brawled outside the ring, including throwing Omukai shoulder first into a row of chairs. Omukai showed great fighting spirit and kept trying to come back, but Aja quickly cut her off. Finally, Omukai avoided Metal's assisted somersault senton and tagged Faby.

Faby did a tope con hilo off the apron and brawled on the floor, which wasn't bad. Metal finally came back and held Faby so Aja could suicida her. Faby avoided the suicida, and seeing this coming, Aja tried to hang onto the ropes to avoid taking her partner out, but Aja hurt her back doing this. Omukai took Aja out with her swandive missile kick, and Faby applied a submission hold called el nudo for the win.

Omukai got destroyed by Aja, but she gained a measure of revenge by keeping Aja from making the save, which cost Aja the match. Sakie Hasegawa came out and shook Omukai's hand, and they did an interview together. Of course, Omukai was putting her shoulder, which she had an ice pack on, over the whole time. 11:25. ***1/4

Rie Tamada (2-4-1) vs. Mariko Yoshida (ARSION debut). This was a weird match. It was kind of a new style to women's wrestling. In a way it was like some of the worked matches you see in RINGS, but it wasn't close to a worked shoot. It was mainly on the mat, with high spots interspersed. The gist of the match was they that just kept countering each others submissions and spots.

"The match was good, but it would have been a better if Tamada had focused her attack on one specific body part. At times it looked like she didn't know what to do next due to not being focused. Attacking Yoshida's bad arm might have been nice, but another part would also have worked if she it was clear she didn't want to win by working over the arm that had been broken," wrote Michael.

Sometimes one of them would get caught in a finisher, but the weird thing about the match was the selling. Even when there was a finisher, neither really put it over as such. At other times, Rie would do a move and Yoshida would no-sell it by staring at Rie. Some of the counters were great, but you saw so many that they kind of lost their luster. Yoshida got a bloody lip on the way, but won with a henkei facelock. 12:29. ***

The final starlet: Mikiko Futagami (6-2) vs. Candy Okutsu (4-3-2). This was an exciting all- action match. In fact, there was so much action that it was hard to keep up with at times. The work and workrate were great. The downside was that the comebacks and selling, especially on Candy's part, were Koji-esque.

This started out fast, and actually it stayed that way throughout, with Candy knocking Futagami to the floor and doing the Sayama feint. Candy tried a climb-up plancha, but Futagami saw it coming and reentered the ring, so Candy turned around on the top rope and gave Futagami a diving body attack. However, Futagami rolled through on this and locked in an udehishigigyakujujigatame.

Futagami put Candy in a Dragon sleeper, but Candy did a cool bridge, basically flipping backwards over Futagami, and turned it into a sleeper. Candy hit a couple of missile kicks and a moonsault attack that came up a little short. They did a nice sequence of counters on the mat that resulted in neither being able to lock in a finisher.

Futagami leveled Candy with a lariat for a near fall. She tried to go to the top, but Candy dropkicked her to the floor and this time was able to hit her climb-up plancha. However, Futagami put her in an udehishigigyakujujigatame on the floor, which Candy put over well.

Back in the ring, Futagami used her Northern Light suplex, but of course she didn't win with her LLPW move. Futagami put Candy down with shoudas and went to the top, but Candy made a quick comeback with her nadare shiki no Northern Lights suplex. Candy tried a diving headbutt, but Futagami avoided it. Futagami then tried a running shouda, but Candy avoided that and did her rolling German suplex for a near fall. However, Futagami broke the pin by turning it into a chickenwing armlock. Futagami set Candy up on the top and pulled her off into an udehishigigyakujujigatame, which looked a lot better than when she did this spot to Aja.

Candy stopped an Irish whip and went into a powerbomb then moonsaulted Gami for a near fall, which was another quick comeback on Candy's part. Candy ran off the ropes, but Futagami shouda'd her for a near fall. When Candy kicked out of this, Futagami keylocked her. Candy ducked a shouda in the corner and used her rolling German for a near fall. Candy set up her nadare shiki no Northern Light suplex, but when she ran up the ropes, Futagami shouda'd her off then diving headbutted her. Futagami rolled into a strangle hold, which was the finish of their first match on 2/28, but Candy was too close to the ropes. Futagami dragged Candy up and brought her to the middle of the ring so she could do another strangle hold for the win, but Candy once again made it to the ropes, which frustrated Futagami. Futagami did a victory roll, but it was innovative because instead of holding both legs for the pin, she held one and made it a submission hold that looked like a modified stump puller. Candy tried to turn Futagami's German suplex into a bodyscissor victory roll, but Futagami stopped it and wheel barrel suplexed her. However, Candy landed on her feet/knee and caught Futagami with a Yakuza kick for the upset win. This showed that Candy would be a player in ARSION, and after the match she talked about the ARS tournament, which she would go on to win. Excellent action even though the comebacks should have been better. 13:15 ****1/4

AJW Athena #2 8/23/98

8/9 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Japan Grand Prix '98 Semifinal: ZAP-I vs. Miho Wakizawa. AJW totally missed the point here. It was a big surprise that Wakizawa won the Junior League to get into the semifinals with the three best from the Top League. Instead of doing a feature on Wakizawa and building this up as the biggest match of the kid's career, which is was by far, they wasted a half hour on embarrassing modeling moments and The Pirates (two attractive young women who tend to show off their chest right before it's time for a commercial break). I can't even remember one offensive move that Wakizawa did, or if she even did any, in the 2:28 of 13:36 that aired. Athena is practically more of a variety show than a wrestling show, and that is a bad thing when you have a league of young wrestlers that badly need TV time to get over.

Japan Grand Prix '98 Semifinal: Manami Toyota vs. Yumiko Hotta. The finish of this match was excellent with Toyota debuting a move to beat the "shooters" with. Hotta tried to turn Toyota's Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex from the corner into an udehishigigyakujujigatame, but Toyota twisted then bridged forward, which was called a henkei jackknife, for the win. 20:31 (1:30 aired).

Japan Grand Prix '98 Final: Toyota vs. ZAP-I (Ito). This wasn't much of a final. The ZAP gimmick sucks because it reduces a top 5 female worker like Ito to a Dump level worker, but doesn't come close to elevating her to 1/10 as great a heel.

I was the one who carried the match, which was good, but Toyota was letting her do too much. In all the great matches where Toyota is carried, she supplies great work and high spots. Here she was too hesitant. It was like she was, for once, making an effort to put over the previous damage and not make a quick comeback, but she wasn't really sure how to do it and still mount an offensive.

Ito didn't use objects in the context of putting the on best possible match, she just overly relied on them. In a sense, it wasn't so much that the gimmicks were bad, but that they didn't get any heat. The match never came close to having the aura of a final, even though, at points, Toyota really tried to get the crowd into it.

The work was strong. I's execution is really underrated. Match in and match out it's damn near perfect, but that seems to go unnoticed. Toyota didn't blow anything, but her spots were off to varying degrees. She was barely on offense because she was going over, but in the storyline it was because ZAP-T (Watanabe) was constantly interfering. They tried to make Wakizawa a star (at the live show), as aside from being in the semifinals, she was the one who interfered on Toyota's behalf.

"I like that everyone gets involved in the ZAP matches, but it happens too often. The wrestling and match quality suffer due to all the outside interference. I was disappointed in this match because there was virtually no wrestling and Manami didn't win cleanly," wrote Michael.

The finish saw T accidentally hit I with her rod then Toyota used her "new" Japanese Ocean Drop finisher for the win. This whole match just came off really flat. In the past, I would think the match must have been pretty bad for AJW to have cut more than half out of such an important match, but these days it's anyone's guess. 23:47 (9:06 aired). ** range

8/23 Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan

WWWA World Singles Title: Shinobu Kandori vs. Manami Toyota. This match had what almost all the women's matches these days lack, major crowd heat. When you watch this match, you really feel like you are seeing an event. Certainly the heat doesn't compare to the heat the Crush Gals got, especially when they were wrestling Dump Matsumoto, but this match did have the aura of a world title match. The last time an AJW main event had this aura was the Shimoda & Mita vs. Ito & Watanabe cage match from 9/21/97, which was also held at Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan.

"It must have ruled to have been at this match live. The crowd was great. The near falls at the end had me near marking out even though I already knew the outcome and the finish," wrote Michael.

This was Toyota's best performance in the past couple of years. She's certainly had days when her work was better, but this match was her smartest by a wide margin. There is a major style clash between Toyota & Kandori. This was their first singles match, and they haven't even wrestled on the same show in a long time, so it was surprising that they understood so well what would and wouldn't work. This has never been a strong suit for either of these two. Because, among other things, they compromised their styles to an extent, went against the expected, and played off each others move sets a bit, the match turned out to be about the best match they could have together at this point.

"This wasn't the best match I've seen from 1998, but it was the most enjoyable. I'll definately be talking about this match for a while. If I don't rewatch this match at least two or three times this weekend I'll be surprised at myself. I'm so happy that it not only didn't disappoint, but it rocked harder then even I had imagined it would," wrote Michael.

Kandori started the match looking very tough and intense. Since Toyota is a face and was the "home" wrestler, Kandori bought her offer of a hand shake. Toyota surprisingly double crossed her, pulling Kandori into her own choke sleeper. Obviously Kandori wasn't going to submit, but the move showed that Toyota wasn't going to be a slouch when it came to submissions, and might even be able to beat Kandori with one of her own holds. Toyota tried to go for her trademark series of dropkicks to start the match, but Kandori had these scouted out so she held onto the rope once and brushed them off another time. By doing this and making some faces, Kandori was showing that Toyota's high spots weren't going to work in this environment. Toyota didn't back down from the punkish Kandori, instead she used Kandori's own shoudas, complete with mocking Kandori's post shouda ritual, to put her down. Kandori stayed down as long as she could, and looked kind of ill while she was lying there, before popping up at 8 in fighting pose to show that she could continue. For Kandori, this was some of her better selling. Now that Kandori had been hurt, she wasn't able to ward off Toyota's high spots so easily. Thus, Toyota was able to do her springboard plancha. Toyota even found a few credible ways to do her high spots to Kandori. For instance, she tied Kandori up in the ropes then did a running dropkick. Before that happened though, Kandori avoided Toyota's Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex and did a rolling cradle. The spot itself looked horrible, but it was important because Kandori was showing she wasn't a one-dimensional wrestler. It was a revenge spot of sorts for Toyota using Kandori's choke sleeper and shoudas, showing that Kandori might be able to win with one of Toyota's own high spots.

Kandori tried to catch Toyota in submissions, and the crowd was popping. Toyota respects Kandori and her gimmick, so she did make Kandori's submissions seem deadly and she didn't put Kandori in those cool looking fake submissions like she did when she wrestled the much lower ranked Hiromi Yagi. Toyota wasn't afraid to use submission or two of her own, so it wasn't entirely Kandori on the mat. She also wasn't afraid to slap Kandori when Kandori tried to intimidate her by getting in her face.

Kandori took control using her over spots. Toyota made a comeback with a rolling cradle that wasn't too impressive because Kandori didn't do a very good job of going with it. Toyota tried her moonsault, but Kandori got her feet up. Kandori surprised everyone by immediately doing, for perhaps the first time in her career, a La Magistral for a near fall then went right into a Teioh lock. Kandori powerbombed Toyota, and Toyota tried to make it dramatic by kicking out so late that Bob Yazawa had to stop his count because his hand was going to hit the mat for three before Toyota raised her shoulder. The fans chanted "Toyota" as Kandori lifted her up for another powerbomb. Kandori didn't bring Toyota up on her shoulder in the Canadian backbreaker far enough though, so Toyota wasn't able to roll through cleanly, and her comeback was debacled even though Kandori did a good job of saving it by falling into the sunset flip.

Toyota was avoiding Kandori's lariats all day, and she turned this one into her Japanese Ocean suplex for a hot near fall. Toyota tried her Japanese Ocean drop, but it wasn't going to work, so Kandori covered it well by simply not helping Toyota lift her anymore then catching her with shoudas as soon as Toyota put her down. Kandori did a judo throw into an udehishigigyakujujigatame. Toyota blocked the submission, so Kandori turned it into a wakigatame, but Toyota made it to the ropes.

Toyota tried to comeback with a springboard reverse sunset flip, but Kandori was standing in the center of the ring. There was no way that Toyota, or just about any other mere mortal, was going to be able to pull off that spot. Kandori may have thought that Toyota was going to do the springboard body attack, as she had earlier in the match. If that was the case, Kandori would have been in about the right spot. Perhaps they were on different pages or Kandori just didn't realize how far away she was, but in any case the spot turned out horrible. Kandori wasn't going to let this hurt the match any more than it had to, so she went right to the next spot, trying for an udehishigigyakujujigatame. When Toyota tried to avoid this by going to her knees, Kandori turned it into the sankakujime, which was the move she beat Hotta with to take the titles, but it wasn't enough this time.

Toyota made a comeback and did a missile kick to the floor and her springboard tope con hilo with Kandori on an unbreakable table. Toyota got a hot near fall with her Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex. They redid the finish of the Toyota vs. Hotta JGP semifinal, and it really worked because the fans went nuts. It proved to not be a shooter killer, but the win against Hotta with this spot will keep the move over for quite some time. The crowd was screaming "Toyota" at this point. Toyota gave the sign for her J.O.C. suplex, and lifted Kandori up for it, but Kandori countered with a victory roll and sloppily scrambled to apply a henkei hiza jujigatame, Toyota's arm was trapped in the regular lock, for the submission win. This was Kandori's second title defense.

I didn't like that they didn't work to any of the submissions, and the match didn't really have any moves that weren't high spots. The work itself was better than expected, and although it was a little sloppy it was less flawed than expected because there weren't any bad comebacks or poorly sold spots. The match was far more exciting than expected. Playing off each others move sets really helped the match. It would have worked better had they saved one of those spots for later on, or used a different one toward the finish. I would have liked to see Toyota actually try to win with a submission, but Kandori doing one of Toyota's suplexes probably would have worked better. Still, both women and their styles came out looking strong. The crowd was hot throughout, and even though they were clearly pro Toyota, there was a huge pop for the finish. 18:08 (17:24 aired). ****

Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada

11/30/97 Nagoya Shi Taiikukan

From GAEA G-Panic #3 12/13/97

This was an excellent storyline match. The story was dissention in the ranks of the KAORU & Yamada team due to Yamada being suckered in by the heel tactics of Ozaki. Ozaki was in Yamada's head to the point where Yamada was so obsessed with beating up Ozaki that she lost track of the point of the match, to win. The initial reason Yamada was so pissed at Ozaki was that The Minky One's constant interference in a prior tag match between KAORU & Yamada and Ozaki's understudies, Sato & Chikayo Nagashima, caused Yamada to be pinned by Sugar.

Ozaki & Yamada had a stare down before the match, and Yamada wanted Ozaki to start, but of course Sugar started to piss Yamada off. The distraction of Ozaki allowed Sugar to gain the advantage, and Ozaki was sure to get under Yamada's skin by double teaming her. At one point, Sugar had Yamada in a facelock and Ozaki came in and bit Yamada's leg to annoy her. As soon as referee Tommy Ran escorted Ozaki to her corner, Sugar turned the facelock into a bite.

Ozaki & Yamada first officially wrestled at 2:30, which was too early for them to first meet, but this match was too condensed to begin with. Ozaki was pretty much paired off with Yamada for the sake of the angle, so I guess that was the logic to it. This made Sugar seem inferior because Yamada disregarded her and didn't want to wrestle her. However, this was fine because the end result of the match was another good push for Sugar. Actually, it was pretty obvious here that Sugar was inferior because she just isn't a polished worker yet, and she was screwing up some spots. There was a huge difference when KAORU was wrestling Sugar and when Ozaki was in, which wasn't Sugar's fault. You can't expect someone who had just turned 19 the day before to really know how to wrestle, just supplying quality work, which Sugar did, is more than enough for them to do in a tag match with the veterans. The problem is that KAORU wrestles with the mentality of a 19-year-old even though she was 28 at this point. For all intents and purposes she's an incredibly poor woman's Koji Kanemoto, minus the cockiness. Luckily, KAORU's liabilities weren't exposed too much here because Ozaki pretty much eliminates them when she is carrying the match. The match was set up so that Yamada was the one who was beat on, thus KAORU didn't have the chance to make many quick comebacks. Sometimes the situation made it ok for KAORU to roll out her spots. Generally when she was in with Sugar it was vintage KAORU, with her doing all kinds of cool things with little rhyme or reason to them.

At 7:40, Yamada did some sort of suplex off the top to Sato that was kind of a cross between a belly to belly and a hip toss, but Ozaki made the save. Instead of trying to finish Sugar off, Yamada chased Ozaki and they brawled on the floor until KAORU restrained her partner. KAORU was like "what the hell are you doing?" as she pointed to Sugar, who was still down in the ring. When Yamada reentered the ring, she didn't even try to pin Sugar, instead she kicked her once and slapped KAORU's hand hard on the tag in a very bitchy manner. KAORU came in and tried her moonsault, but by this time Sugar had recovered so she avoided it. The Oz Academy then double teamed KAORU, including a double diving footstomp, which was a favorite double team spot of Ozaki's back when she used to team with the soon to be retired Cuty Suzuki. Of course, when KAORU came back she didn't sell the previous damage at all and she immediately went to all her big spots.

KAORU & Yamada got into an argument because Yamada threw Sato into her corner and challenged Ozaki to come in. KAORU's point was that Sugar had just taken some of KAORU's best stuff while Ozaki was relatively fresh. KAORU tried to restrain Yamada, but her sights were set on attacking Ozaki. As Yamada gave KAORU a little nudge to leave the ring, Ozaki ran out of the corner and shoved KAORU in the back, making KAORU think it was her partner that gave her an added boost. Ozaki & Yamada were tearing it up together, and don't think it was a coincidence that Yamada was showing shades of her old greatness in this match. When Ozaki finally tequila sunrised Yamada, KAORU still made the save because first and foremost she wanted to win the match.

Yamada came back with her spinning leg lariat at 11:00 and crawled over to tag KAORU, who came in and did her swandive moonsault finisher. Sugar made the save because Yamada was still down, but KAORU got pissed at Yamada for not recovering in time to cut Sugar off. Yamada just made a grouchy face at KAORU. KAORU used her Excalibur (Michinoku driver II) finisher on Ozaki, but again Sugar made the save because Yamada was sitting on the ring apron. Suddenly Yamada recovered and wanted to tag in, seemingly because she realized Ozaki was "ripe for the pickens." Ozaki came back with an uraken to KAORU though and tagged Sugar. With Sugar in, Yamada had no interest in tagging in, so she walked across her side of the apron where KAORU couldn't tag her even if she could make it to her corner. Ozaki & Sato double teamed KAORU then Ozaki held Yamada off while Sugar tried to finish KAORU. Sugar had KAORU set up for her Liger bomb, but Yamada got free and tried to break it up with a kick. Sugar saw this coming so she moved KAORU into the line of fire then Dragon screwed KAORU for a near fall.

KAORU tried to comeback with a Misterio rana, but Sugar turned it into her Liger bomb for a great near fall. Ozaki took Yamada out on the floor then reentered the ring and caught KAORU with an uraken just after KAORU had avoided Sugar's. Sugar then tried to Liger bomb KAORU for the win, but it was blown and KAORU fell on top of her, so they simply redid the finish. This made no sense because KAORU landing on top would be a counter that turned the tide or at least a spot where both sold because KAORU was "too damaged" to comeback. Of course, when you have KAORU and an inexperienced wrestler you shouldn't expect logic.

Yamada went nuts, attacking Ozaki after the match, but she was restrained by several women. The Oz Academy did their typical post match taunting and bragging while Yamada was being restrained. KAORU & Yamada then got into an argument and they had to be held apart. Yamada kicked KAORU in the back when she was walking back to the dressing room, so they had another pull apart.

An excellent match, especially Ozaki and Yamada's performances. A great angle because there were so many dimensions to it, building on an old fued, possibly creating a new fued, strengthening the heels and the effectiveness of their tactic, and giving the young star another big pin. The problems were that it was too short, Sugar wasn't on the level, and KAORU will always be KAORU. 13:47. ****

Tag League Final: The Great Sasuke & Super Delfin vs. MEN'S Teioh & Shoichi Funaki

taped 11/9/97 Sendai

From Michinoku Lucha TV 11/15/97

This was everything you could ask of these guys, if not more. Some of the other great Michinoku Pro tags have had better workers, but it was still the typical Michinoku tag with great work and high spots, mainly supplied by Sasuke, building to a mind-blowing sequence of great near finish after great near finish. What was lacking in work, which really didn't turn out to be anything due to Funaki being in top form and Delfin looking great because he was spotted, was more than made up for because the storyline, psychology, and playing to the crowd, were much better than normal.

Everyone knew Sasuke needed knee surgery, so the match was build around the heels debilitating his bad knee. This worked because Funaki has a strong submission background from his days in Battlarts. What really made this storyline work was unlike AJ booker(s), Sasuke actually thinks in advance. Thus, when these teams met in the league portion, Sasuke submitted to Funaki's hiza jujigatame. If Funaki could make Sasuke submit a week earlier, you better believe he could do it again, and the fans did.

The crowd was hot from the outset, clapping their hands and chanting Delfin before he even locked up with Funaki to start the match. One of the things that really made this match work was that Teioh & Funaki were really good at getting heat. Delfin's charisma has always been one of his best assets, and Sasuke was in the sympathetic role, so the crowd was really buying into this, booing the heels and cheering the faces.

Teioh began working on Sasuke's leg at 2:30 with his tribute to Terry Funk spinning toe hold. Delfin & Teioh did some Lucha, and Delfin almost caught Teioh off the ropes with his upper blow, but Teioh saw it coming and escaped to the floor.

At 5:50, the knee work really kicked in with Funaki catching Sasuke with a kneecap dropkick, which drew boos because he wasn't being a good sport. Funaki exposed Sasuke's knee brace and tied him in the corner, taunting Delfin before he kneecap dropkicked the defenseless Sasuke. Teioh did a Super kneebreaker. He also did his Bret Hart imitation, wrapping Sasuke's leg around the post and putting him in a figure 4. Sasuke was doing a very good job of putting over the knee, as well as the danger of moves like Funaki's figure 4. He finally made a hot tag at 11:45, and the match really kicked in and got great from here.

Sasuke's theory of selling is that you don't let the bad knee hamper the execution of any of your spots, but you sell it big in between moves. Obviously there are positives and negatives to that line of thinking.

Sasuke took Funaki out with his quebrada, and Delfin did his swinging DDT to Delfin clutch to Teioh, but Funaki recovered just in time to save with a dropkick. Sasuke got near falls on Funaki with his quebrada then tried his German suplex, but Funaki kicked his knee. Sasuke tried a roundhouse kick, but Funaki turned it into a Dragon screw. Funaki played to the crowd in [insert your favorite first name] Fuyuki like fashion before trying to apply the figure 4 on Sasuke for the win. However, Sasuke turned it into a small package for a great near fall. Sasuke tried his thunder fire powerbomb on Funaki, but Teioh saved with a dropkick to the back of the knee.

Funaki repeatedly tried to beat Sasuke with his hiza jujigatame, but still couldn't get the job done. Meanwhile, Teioh was using his signature spots on Delfin. Instead of going for the cover after his miracle ecstasy, Teioh used Delfin's own Delfin clutch on him, but Sasuke made the save. Funaki continued using knee submissions to Sasuke with Delfin out of the picture to save, but Sasuke would eventually make the ropes.

Sasuke took Funaki out with his suicidal rider kick, and Delfin used his signature spots on Teioh. Teioh's did a very good job of selling here, especially stumbling around in between Delfin's backdrops.

With Delfin recovering, Sasuke took both opponents out with his thunder fire powerbomb then collapsed onto Funaki. Delfin recovered enough to stand up straight and set up his upper blow. When Teioh finally recovered enough to stand, he was easy pickens for the upper blow KO by Delfin to take the tag tournament.

The fans who had been going crazy for a while all hoped the security railings and surrounded the ring. All the fans in front were reaching their hands out in hopes that Sasuke or Delfin would touch/slap it. Sasuke was of course putting his knee over big during all of this. 18:55. ****1/4

Super Delfin vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa

6/28/98 Fukushima Sunshine Namie

from Michinoku Lucha TV #10

Delfin was always a guy that needed to be carried to have a very good or better match. He finally assumed the role of the veteran and carried Hoshikawa to the best singles match I've ever seen him in. Hoshikawa has improved a lot, and he's been having good matches of late. However, Delfin brought to the table the ring smarts that the much better working Masato Yakushiji (who had a ***1/4 match with Hoshikawa on the same tv show) doesn't possess at this point. This started slow, but turned into a great match with practically 10 minutes of near falls back and forth. The vast majority of the offense was convincing, but Hoshikawa still falls prey to weak execution from time to time.

They did some nice Lucha early, but the first big spot was terrible, as Delfin was knocked down from a Hoshikawa kick that didn't really connect. Hoshikawa used kicks as his primary weapon as always, and the others were much better than the aforementioned.

Delfin made a comeback and controlled Hoshikawa with submissions and suplexes. While there was nothing wrong with the first 14 minutes, they weren't particularly eventful and they didn't really establish a storyline.

From the 14-mnute mark, the match was great with near falls back and forth at a rapid pace. The work during this portion was great. Hoshikawa got a 2 count after his enzuigiri, and was so disgusted that he didn't score the big upset there that he pushed referee Ted Tanabe. Hoshikawa came just as close to winning with his Northern Light suplex. Delfin came back and tried his swinging DDT, but Hoshikawa Northern Light suplexed him for an even nearer fall. Delfin continued kicking out really late, which made the match dramatic. Finally, after Hoshikawa hit his diving enzuigiri, Delfin didn't kick out. What Hoshikawa didn't immediately realize though, was that Delfin's foot was on the rope. Hoshikawa got another 2 9/10 count with a diving enzuigiri. He delivered a stiff lariat, but again Delfin kicked out at 2 9/10.

Delfin made a comeback with his upper blow, and used various DDT's for near falls. Finally, Delfin put Hoshikawa away his Delfin stunner (fisherman DDT?). Hoshikawa came incredibly close to scoring the big upset, and looked really good in the process. A large part of the reason he looked so good was that Delfin held the match together. Obviously Delfin going the extra mile to make Hoshikawa look good by taking his best moves and nearly getting pinned by them helped a lot too. 23:34 (23:10 aired). ****

Oz Academy Debut Show on GAORA

taped 6/21 Club Citta Kawasaki

Mayumi Ozaki vs. Bad Nurse Nakamura (free). Nurse was available low cost "talent," but she certainly wrestles like her name states, BAD. Her offense is awful, with a small move set of moves that she sometimes hits. Her setup and transition are poor. Her selling sucks because she doesn't put anything into it, just takes the bump and that's it. To make things worse, Nurse was rusty because FMW was only using Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari.

This was a brawl, of course. As always, the spots where someone swung an object lacked impact, but looked good if they were avoided. The spots where the gimmick was used as a stationary object were good.

Nurse tried to push Ozaki, and even though Ozaki went above and beyond the call of duty to put Nakamura's offense over, no one was buying it. As great as Ozaki's selling is, it was overdone here simply because Nurse's spots were done so poorly. Ozaki's offense looked good, but the Nurse was hit with little impact or miss.

The highlight was Ozaki stopping Nurse's Irish whip and urakening her, which was much like what Kawada does with his spin kick. This looked like the finish, but Nurse kicked out at 2 3/4. The finish came about a minute later when Ozaki avoided Nurse's rod and urakened her. Ozaki then tequila sunrised Nurse for the win. They edited 5 minutes out of the match even though they had plenty of time to kill. Ozaki didn't have Megumi Kudo & Rieko Amano in this match to make up for the suckiness of the Nurse, so this wasn't a miracle like the 4/8/97 Dress Up Wild Fight Tag Match. Due to Ozaki it was still very good for a Nurse match, whatever that is worth. 13:09 (7:55 aired). **

Sugar Sato vs. Dynamite Kansai (JWP). This was similar to the match Kansai had with Candy on 6/8/97. Candy had a good excuse for the match not being anything special because her back was in terrible shape, but I don't know what Sugar's problem was. She looked and wrestled like she was sick or something. This should have been very good, but Sugar was really off to the point that it was below average. Her execution was well below her normal standards, and many of her moves didn't have enough on them to be credible enough for Kansai to sell. This match didn't flow well because for whatever reason, maybe just that they aren't familiar with each other, they didn't work that well together. Kansai was good, and the match was good when she was on offense, but she has had better days.

This followed a pretty predictable formula with Sugar jumping Kansai before the bell, but Kansai cutting her off and dominating her for a long stretch. Kansai's offense was good, as was Sugar's selling. Sugar finally made a comeback, but she looked terrible doing a series of bad running kicks until Kansai cut her off.

Later on, Kansai tried to kick Sugar in midair, but Sugar caught Kansai's leg and did her Dragon screw to hiza jujigatame, which was an interesting idea but only looked decent. Sugar refused to release her sleeper when Kansai got the rope, so Kansai escaped to the floor, but Sugar still held on. Sugar tried to turn it into a brawl, but she didn't have much success until Kansai kicked the post when Sugar ducked.

Back in the ring, Kansai stopped Sugar's Liger bombs, so Sugar tried to attack the knee to set up another hiza jujigatame, but the kneecap dropkicks weren't good. They were better than the two urakens that followed though. All of these partially blown spots set up Sugar finally Liger bombing Kansai twice for near falls.

Kansai came back with a backdrop driver that Sugar sold well. However, Sugar turned Kansai's lariat in the corner into a somewhat blown schoolboy for a near fall. Sugar tried for her uraken, but Kansai kept avoided it twice and used her big moves, culminating with a Splash Mountain for the win. 13:48. *3/4

Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Toshie Uematsu & Sonoko Kato (Gaea). Just when you thought this might wind up being a mediocre show, these four went out and had a very long and exciting workrate match to turn things around. This was mainly good for the spots, though it wasn't bad in the other areas. The moves were ordered properly, although there was no real focus and they obviously aren't Kawada when it comes to building to and incorporating the big moves. The match didn't really have a storyline. However, Amano & Kato went at it so hard and were so good together that they did more than enough to make you really want to see them have a singles match. It was a little sloppy, but certainly not overly so.

"This was an awesome match with some really cool spots (including the wicked release German Amano gave Uematsu), some great near falls, and a beautiful sequence of cross-armbreaker reversals by Amano and Kato," wrote Michael.

Amano, who wound up being the second best performer on the show behind Ozaki, & Nagashima are very underrated workers. Kato had a really strong performance here because not only was the work better when she was in, but her intense and fiery mannerisms added another dimension to the match. She also put a lot of effort into everything she did. Uematsu tends to be a slouch, but she wasn't outclassed here and did add to the match.

The early portion of the match was solid. They worked the holds well and got over both the heels and the rivalry. At 2:15, Uematsu had Chikayo between the middle and top rope and was choking her with her leg, so Chikayo bit Uematsu's thigh. The Oz Academy soon began a spree of heel tactics. The highlight was Chikayo sitting on Uematsu's back and pulling on Amano to add pressure to her ½ crab while Tommy Ran was trying to get Kato to stay in her corner. Kato was pleading with Ran to turn around so she would see the illegal double teaming. Eventually Ran turned around and caught Chikayo red handed, but both Amano & Chikayo had the nerve to point to Kato, who was now standing halfway between her corner and the neutral corner, and motion to Ran to make her return to her corner. You have to love the Oz Academy!

The second half of this match was awesome with great work, high spots, and all kinds of near falls. Things really took off just after 12:00 with Chikayo doing her Oz flip (assisted somersault senton) off the top onto both opponents who were standing on the floor. She then held the opposition so Amano could tope suicida them.

The sequence Amano & Kato did from 15:15 to 17:30 provided some of the best wrestling of the year with great submissions, counters, and flying. Chikayo held Kato against the ropes after Amano had ducked a lariat, and Amano climbed up the ropes and took Kato down into an udehishigigyakujujigatame. Kato quickly turned it into one of her own, but Amano bridged out and did an Oklahoma side roll like takedown into the udehishigigyakujujigatame. Kato was trapped, but Uematsu quickly saved her with a diving body press. Kato's facials during this sequence were great, the best of which came she petitioned to Ran that she got a 3 count with her Dragon suplex. Kato tried another Dragon suplex, but Amano broke Kato's grasp and did her dobitsuki udehishigigyakujujigatame (jumping takedown into cross arm scissors), but Uematsu saved. Chikayo tried a huracanrana, but Kato held her in high angle powerbomb position and Uematsu tried a diving body attack, but Chikayo turned it into the huracanrana just in time to avoid Uematsu.

At 18:00, Chikayo tried the Oz flip in the ring, but Kato got her knees up. Kato then did her nadare shiki no Kamikaze, but Amano made the save. Uematsu used her double wrist arm sault on Chikayo, but Amano again made the save. Uematsu decided to try it off the top rope, but Chikayo knocked her off and delivered a diving footstomp. Chikayo fisherman bustered Uematsu, but Kato saved with a guillotine leg drop. Chikayo avoided Uematsu's double wrist arm sault, but Amano's subsequent double team backfired and Uematsu German suplexed Chikayo for a near fall. Uematsu tried her double wrist arm sault again, but Chikayo countered by kind of landing on her feet. Chikayo caught Uematsu's knee lift and fisherman bustered her for the win. 21:34. ****

Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. Kyoko Inoue & Yoshiko Tamura (Neo Ladies team). This was mainly work and spots. The early portion was strong and did a good job of leading to them. Some of the spots were blown though because Sugar's bad day continued. In fact, she was surprisingly the worst performer on the show other than Nurse, who just sucks.

Ozaki was the glue that held this together. Kyoko was pretty spry today, and she did a good job here. Ozaki worked well with her, so hopefully they will eventually have a singles match at some point. Tamura isn't polished, but she did a pretty good job here. Who would have guessed she'd be better than Sugar?

Tamura focused on Sugar's knee, and Kyoko picked up where Tamura left off when she tagged in to set up future Tamura submissions. Later on, Kyoko stopped Ozaki's nadare shiki no brainbuster and dropped Ozaki off the top with front layout suplexplex. This set up Sugar doing what Ozaki had failed to do, nadare shiki no brainbustering the much larger opponent.

Kyoko tried to get the crowd to cheer, including doing her hip swivel that should have died with that fellow donut eater who wrote about as many of his songs as Kyoko did. This was a pro Oz Academy crowd though, so Ozaki just gave the thumbs down and the fans booed Kyoko. It was great!

Sato & Tamura exchanged leg submissions in a good sequence. Tamura ducked Ozaki's uraken then turned her lariat into a wakigatame, which looked nice. Ozaki soon caught Tamura with an uraken for a near fall. In general, Ozaki's urakens and Kyoko's lariats weren't put over as being that deadly here, which wasn't a good thing. Ozaki used several urakens and tequila sunrises on Kyoko, but couldn't finish her off. Kyoko seems to always make quick comebacks now, which was really annoying here because Ozaki hit her with what seemed like 80 urakens and she just came back with her lariat selling nothing. I wonder if Kyoko has been studying Kobashi matches? In any case, Kyoko's once great stamina is gone, so she seems to think that conserving her energy then expending it in bursts is the way to go.

Sato was fine until she worked with Kyoko about 15 minutes into the match. She just didn't have the power to powerbomb Kyoko, although Kyoko didn't give her enough help the first time. On the second attempt, Kyoko gave Sugar enough help that she could execute the move, but the spot didn't look good.

Sato did a great thunder fire powerbomb to Tamura for a near fall, but Tamura came back with her nadare shiki no double wrist arm sault. Tamura ducked Oz's uraken so it hit Sato. Tamura then did her double wrist arm sault for a near fall. Sato did a sky high reverse neckbreaker, or at least that's what it was supposed to be. Sato turned Tamura's reverse double wrist arm sault into something of a bulldog and tried to Liger bomb Tamura twice, but it was blown both times. Perhaps part of Sugar's problem was that she was tired from wrestling twice and lifting much heavier women. Thus, Sato used urakens, Tamura did a great job of selling the second, as a bridge to redoing the Liger bomb for the win. Overall it was a very good match, but it was certainly hurt by Sugar's debacled spots down the stretch. ***1/2