WWA 9/20/86 Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium, WWA Welterweight Title: Negro Casas vs. Fuerza Guerrera 17:19 (5:15, 3:09, 8:55).
DC: The match started off with some solid mat wrestling. They really kept taking it to each other. At some point, they went for a quick sprint with some more spectacular stuff that resulted in Casas winning the first fall after Casas flipped backwards off the top rope, landed on his feet, executed a quebradora and then used la casita to score the pinfall. Fuerza won the second fall, which was a fall that was a bit slower, and saw Fuerza pretty much dominate. The third fall initially didn’t have as much urgency and action as hoped, but they made up for it during the final minutes when they started bumping and diving wilder as the third fall went on. Casas hit a tope suicida and Fuerza hit a plancha off the top to the floor. There were several near falls towards the final minutes of the match. The match was going back and forth. In the end, Casas retained the title. Both men had given an excellent performance, and it appears these two were wrestling faster and more exciting than most luchadores at the time. Casas showed that he really understood how to make a match more dramatic by doing the right thing at the right time. Excellent match. ****  

WWA 7/18/87 Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium, Hair vs. Mask: Negro Casas vs. Hijo del Santo 15:37 (2:34, 4:23, 8:40).
DC: The match started off with a bang, as Hijo del Santo armdragged Negro Casas, and Casas bumped big for it and went underneath the bottom rope into the metal guardrail at ringside. Casas was great in his role as rudo, making sure that Santo got the opportunities to look like a superhero. Despite Santo doing well in the first fall, Casas pinned Santo to win the first fall via la casita. Casas celebrated, really putting over that he was now confident that things were going his way. When the second fall started, things were indeed going Casas’ way, as he was firmly in control for a few minutes. Casas got overconfident, and when he put his head down, this was an opportunity for Santo to fight back. Casas bumped big, as he bumped off the ropes while upside down after being kicked into the ropes by Santo. This was a truly spectacular bump. Santo then placed Casas in la tapatia for the win in the second fall.  The third fall was the most action-packed fall. Casas executed a dropkick in a superb and gracious manner. Casas started becoming more aggressive though, as he tried to rip Santo’s mask. There were several pinfall attempts by both workers. Santo dropkicked Casas to the floor, and followed up immediately with a tope suicida. Santo went for the camel clutch, but Casas resisted. Santo decided to put Casas in la tapatia again, but Casas got out of the hold. Casas took a bump over the top rope to the floor after being back body dropped to the floor. Santo immediately hit a tope off the top rope to the floor onto Casas. Finally, Santo managed to apply the camel clutch, despite Casas trying his best to fight it off, and Casas had no chance but to submit. This was an exciting and interesting match from start to finish. It’s the best lucha match of the 1980s that we have available. The match had excellent drama that was built up well. The match also had great athleticism and spectacular highspots that felt ahead of their time. Great match! ***** 

UWF 12/1/90 Matsumoto Undo Koen Sogo Taiikukan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 14:58.
DC: This was Kiyoshi Tamura’s first match back since getting injured by Akira Maeda on 10/25/89. His opponent was Masahito Kakihara, a promising young talent who only worked three pro wrestling matches previously, as he had made his debut in August. Both workers started off with kicks. Tamura swept Kakihara off his feet with one of his strikes. Tamura seemed calmer and more sure of what he was doing. Kakihara definitely gave Tamura a run for his money though. Ever enthusiastic Kakihara fought in what would become his signature head-on manner, Tamura would be able to push through more and do more damage. A high kick by Tamura sent Kakihara down, but Kakihara got back up in time. Kakihara hit a tremendous spin kick that knocked Tamura down for a nine count. A dropkick was then immediately executed by Kakihara. Tamura fought back with a series of kicks, which sent Kakihara down. Soon after that, Kakihara got knocked down again. Tamura was now trying to finish Kakihara off on the mat, but Kakihara’s swift reactions prohibited Tamura from going for a killer submission hold. Tamura executed a nice suplex, but he once again wasn’t able to finish Kakihara off on the mat. Kakihara executed an armbar, but Tamura went for a rope break. The match certainly had become quite competitive. Both workers ended up having only one down left, and the time limit was about to expire. Just two seconds before the time limit expired, Kakihara went for a rope escape one time too many times, and it cost him the match. Tamura was the victor. Good match. ***¼  

UWF-I 5/10/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 14:16.
DC: This was their second match together, and this was the first UWF-I match ever. Newborn UWF had folded, and that caused the creation of UWF-I, RINGS and PWFG. This was a really good way to start off a new league. It was a match with quite a good amount of stiffness. Kakihara showed a lot of energy and enthusiasm, but Tamura always seemed to be one step ahead. The match succeeded in trying to be kinda flashy yet somewhat realistic (especially for pro wrestling standards) at the same time. It appears that this was the philosophy of UWF-I in general. This match ended when Tamura scored the win via submission. Good match. ***¼

UWF-I 6/6/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tom Burton 9:08.
DC: Kiyoshi Tamura did a really good job of carrying this match. Tamura moved around a lot and kept showing aggression. Tom Burton wasn’t nearly as refined of a fighter as Tamura was, but he gave a pretty good effort here despite only sticking to relatively basic stuff. Tamura’s understanding of how to carry an opponent and his knack for working an entertaining bout really shone through here. It was also once again clear that Tamura was a talented wrestler who kept improving during these early years of his career. Very good match. ***¾ 

UWF-I 7/3/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo 17:35.
DC: These two really worked this as a heated battle. The matwork was amazing, as it was not only urgent, but it was also very intense. The selling was great, as they only sold whenever it was necessary to sell, while focusing at all other moments on making the other struggle for position. This match was not only never dull, but it was intriguing at all times. They really put over so well here that they didn’t want to give the other any opportunities to find openings that could lead to any sort of offense. They were constantly very concentrated and focused on every detail the other was doing or planning to do. This was the first time Kiyoshi Tamura was really tested to go beyond any sort of fight he’d been having thus far in his career, and this challenge seemed to really help him blossom and reach new levels of excellence not discovered previously by him. His natural talent helped him dig deep within and come up with solutions that he previously possibly wasn’t aware of knowing. Tamura more than living up to his potential was the nicest surprise about this match, but we shouldn’t undervalue Yoji Anjo’s role in this match. Anjo wasn’t as explosive and quick as Tamura, but he certainly showed that he wanted to get the job done and give as strong a performance as possible. In the end, it was Anjo’s maturity as a wrestler that helped him get the win here. Great match. ****½ 

UWF-I 8/24/91 Shizuoka Sangyokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato 9:42.
DC: The matwork was mostly very interesting, especially when Kiyoshi Tamura’s explosiveness shone through. What kept this from being great was that Yuko Miyato, while giving a very good performance, wasn’t quite on the level of Tamura in basically every way. Tamura once again proved his excellence though, and he was on quite a roll when it came to providing high-quality work in memorable matches. Excellent match. **** 

UWF-I 10/6/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Tom Burton 18:48.
DC: Kiyoshi showed his tremendous mat wrestling skills, and it was whenever he was on the mat that he was most dominant, significantly more so than whenever he engaged in stand up striking, at least in this particular match. Miyato was quite fired up in this match and gave a surprisingly strong performance. Everyone really put over the struggle quite well. Yuko Miyato and Tatsuo Nakano were testing each other out during the stand up fighting early on. Tom Burton was the only gaijin in the match, but he blended in quite well, and clearly tried his best to contribute. Nakano and Tamura had quite a fascinating battle on the mat for a bit. Nakano’s matwork wasn’t nearly as fancy as that of Tamura, but Nakano’s fearlessness made up for whatever he was lacking in finesse. Near the end of the match, Nakano caught Tamura by surprise with an ankle hold, but Tamura survived. Nakano continued to give Tamura a run for his money, and he hit Tamura with a strike that knocked Tamura down. Burton hit a nice double arm underhook suplex on Miyato, and Burton also hit a nice German suplex against Tamura, even though Tamura was trying his best to get out of this situation. Things were looking rough for Tamura, but Tamura’s quickness and mat wrestling talent eventually got him a victory, as he countered Burton’s next attempted move and applied an ankle hold that made Burton tap. It was quite a competitive tag team match, and this is a really good example of how to work a shoot style tag team match. Excellent match. ****

UWF-I 1/9/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato 8:11.
DC: This bout started exciting with Miyato knocking Tamura down early with a spin kick. Tamura fired back with a sleeperhold. Tamura showed some amazing counters on the mat. Booker Miyato had to really step up his game to try to be competitive in this match, because Tamura was such an excitingly skilled performer. Tamura’s performance was great, but despite Miyato’s efforts, it never felt like he had any real chance of winning. Excellent match. ****

UWF-I 2/15/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Mark Silver 18:23.
DC: The best match on this card was Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda, a great match that should be considered one of the five best matches of 1992. That means that, for a change, Tamura didn’t have the best match on the card. This was because he was put in a somewhat random tag team match here. While he was the least skilled performer in the match, Mark Silver gave a solid showing. He clearly tried his best and hit some nice moves. Tamura showed his quickness as soon as he was in a position that required him to counter and/or escape in order to avoid getting in a worse position. Once we got to see Tamura vs. Nakano, the action in this match reached its climax. Nakano was a more challenging opponent than Silver was, due to Nakano having more skill than Silver, and Tamura had to dig deeper to be able to counter and escape from the veteran whenever possible. The action slowed down quite a bit in this match, as everyone was seemingly getting increasingly cautious. Miyato controlled Silver for a bit until Tamura was tagged in again. Tamura was definitely the one who provided the most excitement in the match. Overall, it was enjoyable, but it wasn’t as memorable as Tamura’s recent singles matches. Good match. ***¼ 

UWF-I 3/17/92 Nagoya Tsuyuhashi Sports Center: Mark Fleming & Yoji Anjo vs. Yuko Miyato & Kiyoshi Tamura 20:40.
DC: The opening match on this card was a great match between Hiromitsu Kanehara and Masakazu Maeda that is highly recommended viewing for anyone interested in watching a great wrestling match. Kiyoshi Tamura worked in the fourth match on the card, as he teamed with the booker to face the experienced Yoji Anjo and his tag team partner. Anjo’s tag team partner in this match was a gaijin called Mark Fleming, who spent a large portion of the 1980s wrestling for the NWA, but he also toured NJPW in 1989. When Fleming was in the match, the match was good but also rather basic and slow. Fleming used his amateur wrestling skills and his size to his advantage. Fleming is definitely a good wrestler, but he’s not a very interesting one to watch. When Anjo was in the ring, the match was a lot more exciting because of the countering and occasional flashy action. Yuko Miyato gave a good performance and threw several good moves, but the match was at its best when Tamura and Anjo were facing off. Not only did Tamura vs. Anjo provide us with nice counters on the mat, it also gave us some really good stand-up striking moments. Very good match. ***½ 

UWF-I 8/28/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo 30:00.
DC: Instead of a friendly handshake, Kiyoshi Tamura showed that he wasn’t here to make friends, as he was clearly here to fight and slapped Anjo in the face. Anjo didn’t seem to be too bothered by it, and he was eager to give Tamura a hard time in this contest. The speedy counters and the urgent escape attempts were a joy to watch. Whenever they wrestled on the mat, it had a purpose. This wasn’t one of those pro wrestling matches in which the matwork was just there for the sake of it. No, that was not at all the case here. Every moment of this match felt like either man had to be cautious yet courageous in order to survive and succeed. The execution was superb. The moves looked slick, and the selling was perfect. Tamura shows everyone why he was one of the very best technical wrestlers in the world. Because it’s a 30-minute match, they slow down a little bit during the latter portions of the match, but that’s just realistic and natural. However, the match honestly could have received a quarter star more if it was a 20-minute or 25-minute match instead of a 30-minute match. Still, this was a great match. ****½

UWF-I 10/23/92 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazuo Yamazaki. 15:34.
DC: The match already starts off intense at the start, as Tamura catches an attempted kick by Yamazaki and pushes Yamazaki backwards, which results in Yamazaki having a look on his face that basically says something like “So this is how you want to play? Message understood.” And, indeed, Yamazaki is definitely fired up and ready to go. Tamura stays focused and doesn’t allow himself to get too happy or unhappy about anything happening. The UWF-I crowd was clearly into all the counters, and that not only speaks volumes about this crowd appreciating real top-level wrestling, but it also speaks volumes about the high level of shoot style wrestling these two great shoot style workers are capable of. Yamazaki threw some really good kicks, but Tamura wasted no time in trying to make Yamazaki submit once he was able to grab Yamazaki’s leg and take him down into a leg submission hold. This wasn’t a slow match, but they weren’t working at a frantic pace either, as they were healthily cautious about the other’s next moves, since they were obviously aware of each other’s ability. They were certainly smart for not throwing caution in the wind. This wasn’t a match that was just crawling along though, as there were plenty of flurries of offense that came about whenever an opening was seen and taken advantage of. Just a little after the 15-minute mark, Yamazaki hit a German suplex, and he was going for another one, but Tamura was prepared this time and blocked it. Yamazaki didn’t want to waste his momentum and went for a sleeper, but Tamura used his instincts and ring awareness and walked backwards until Yamazaki’s back bumped into the turnbuckle corner padding. Tamura then took advantage of Yamazaki just very briefly losing focus, as Tamura threw Yamazaki down and followed up immediately with an armbar for the win. This was such a well-executed shoot style match, because what they did all felt like it made sense. Yamazaki could perhaps have shown slightly more urgency, but overall, his performance was quite excellent. Tamura gave a great performance, and it was possibly among his performances so far in his career. His eye for detail and his insight on how to make this match flow in a logical manner really stood out here. It’s easy to overlook the greatness of this match because of the high-quality work we’re used to seeing from these two, and their ability to work at a high level is so smooth that they almost make it seem easy. And just like on 8/28/92 against Yoji Anjo, here against Yamazaki on 10/23/92, Tamura once again worked a match that was likely a top 20 match that year. Great match. ****½ 

Jd’ 11/23/01 Tokyo Differ Ariake, AWF & QOR Double Title, LSD 01 Rules: The Bloody vs. Sumie Sakai 36:36 of 60:00 shown.
PA: This is an interesting match to look at. They shortened it for TV, but they thankfully kept the Athress stuff to a minimum, for once, and showed more than I was expecting. It was one of the 9 best joshi matches of 2001, definitely one of the best of the lot in terms of my personal enjoyment, though perhaps one of the worst of the lot in terms of actual quality. The thing with Sakai was she was just as crazy as Bloody, and happy to go along with the crazy spotfests she'd dream up where they were hanging over the balcony fighting, doing monsaults off ledges into the crowd, and other stuff like that. I got a kick out of their indy spotfests, but they didn't really try to weave them into any sort of a "match". For instance, the 7/22/01 The Bloody & Fang Suzuki vs. Sumie Sakai & Hiroyo Muto LSD 01 Rules match is either a classic or complete garbage depending on your perspective. It's Bloody's dream match, so it's a collection of crazy and creative spots, and there's nothing more to it than that. It's better than anything KAORU has ever done, and I liked it for what it was, but I was expecting some sort of crazy Bloody spotfest that went for an hour here, so these two having a wrestling match at this point was something different. They did make sure they went harder than I've seen anyone do in a 1 hour match, except maybe the 5/7/95 Kyoko Inoue vs. Manami Toyota, which I wasn't as high on as everyone else is. The first half of Toyota vs. Kyoko was headed towards the 5* match it's touted as, but the second half falls away and meanders, to the point they somehow managed to have a 60 minute match with maybe one near fall one could actually buy. Manami and Kyoko are athletically superior, but it was really just a display of that, and they ran out of stuff to do halfway through. Bloody and Sakai had a full 60 minute match worth of stuff, it was clipped so there might have been 20 minutes of dead time for all I know, but it didn't seem that way. I thought they were pretty smart with what they were doing, from the momentum building and multiple falls, the selling and the pacing. Bloody wasn't a one man show here, but she was the one making the match compelling, more with her selling than anything else. Sakai was the underdog, chasing Bloody most of the match, so the selling was required. If Bloody wasn't selling to the level that she was, the match would've been just a good spotfest that went too long, rather than an excellent match. They countered each other on the mat early. Sakai wasn’t too interesting here when she wasn’t going for the arm, but Bloody was really good with her struggling, putting Sakai’s submissions over and with her nice counters. Bloody was quite content to work the mat, but Sakai was trying to quicken things up and blow her away with spots. They jumped ahead a bit, and Sakai missed a dive, which led to Bloody trying to put her away with her suplexes. She went up top, but Sakai rana’d her down. Sakai missed a moonsault, but countered a lariat into a Fisherman Buster. Bloody Jaguar bridged out of it, and fired back with an Uraken to take the first fall at 30:25. The comebacks here were probably too convenient, but their selling was good enough that they made them work. A moonsault followed, and Bloody took another fall at 30:50. Sakai tried to fight back, but Bloody took another fall at 31:55 to put her up 3-0. They went to commercial and came back with Sakai hitting a pair of Fisherman Busters, but not being able to put Bloody away. A diving senton got her a fall back at 41:50. Bloody’s selling here was great, so fatigued and just clutching at Sakai to slow her down. Sakai just held the shoulders for a pair of near falls and Bloody rolled her outside. They fought to the back of the building, and Bloody found a ledge to dive off of. Sakai met her half way up the railing she was climbing and they both went through a table. In the ring, Sakai went for another Fisherman Buster, but Bloody caught her in a Bloody EX to get another fall at 45:35. Bloody pulled Sakai up so Sakai just headbutted her, and they were both down. Bloody went for her Dragon Suplex from the top, but Sakai countered to a sunset bomb and got it back to 4-2 and 47:05. She quickly followed up with a rana to get another fall at 47:17. They hit their second wind, briefly, Sakai boomeranged off the middle rope and they collided heads, which did some damage to Bloody. Another Fisherman Buster from Sakai and the match was even at 49:17. Sakai went for a TKO, but jumped on Bloody when she was getting up at 8, and kept pressing for another fall. The two had basically swapped roles from earlier in the match. Sakai got the lead at 50:45 to be up 5-4. They took another commercial break, and Sakai had a jujigatame on Bloody when they returned with 6 minutes left. Bloody was blocking it with everything she had. And then it was time to groan, as they annoyingly took the shortcut of having Fang run in to break it up, which gave Bloody a cheap fall to level it at 55:25. Bloody got her Bloody EX on, but Sakai survived it until Bloody let go from fatigue. Bloody blocked a Fisherman Buster and tried a flash pin, but that’s about all she could muster up. She still blocked Sakai’s Jujigatame though and rolled outside. The rest gave her enough strength to fire back with a pair of awful Uraken’s, but Sakai survived them. Bloody was obviously really tired because the next two were so bad they hit Sakai in the mid section, but she picked up the fall anyway to take it to 6-5 at 59:35. Sakai went for flash pins, but the time ran out, and Bloody won 6-5. Sakai was fine, but Bloody really showed why she’s one of the best workers of 2001. She looked so dominant when she was in control and sold just as well when Sakai had the momentum, really making it look like Sakai could walk away with the belts. This was an excellent match and probably would have been a MOTYC had it not fallen apart at the end (starting with that awful Fang run in), but the rest was an interesting and compelling match. They might not sell bodily damage, but they put over the toll unbelievably well. They wisely used momentum with one fall often leading to multiple, which added to the drama, and is something you rarely see because most wrestlers egos won’t allow them to drop multiple falls like that. Sure, it had the "benefit" of being cut by 20 minutes, and multiple falls, but this smoked the 10/24/01 Maekawa vs. Momoe 60:00 draw. ****

DC: This was essentially an Iron Woman Match. This was certainly impressive, as these girls went 60 minutes without having ever come close to a match length like that before (at least to the best of my knowledge). Their singles matches against each other were previously usually either 13 minutes or 21 minutes, but never 60 minutes long. They started off at a frantic pace, and while they never really slowed down too much, there were a lot of moments early on in which it became clear early on that they were struggling to make sense out of what they were doing. It was almost like they were trying to work four different matches at once. In other words, it seemed that having a 60-minute match was just way too long for them. Still, the effort was admirable. However, they completely started exceeding expectations once they got to the second half of the match. After about the first 12 minutes were shown, the footage skipped to somewhere around the 24-minute mark or so. One can only assume that nothing exceptional happened during the 12 minutes we didn’t get to see, not only based on the minutes leading up to the 12th minute, but also based on the presumption that they probably would have shown the footage if it was actually memorable. At 30:25, we got our first pinfall when Bloody scored the pin. 25 seconds later, Bloody scored the 2-0. About a minute later, Bloody scored her third win in a row. After about 19 minutes of footage shown, we reach the point in the match where there’s only 19 minutes remaining in the contest. Sakai was bleeding by this point. At 41:50, Sakai finally scored her first pinfall. Both women were clearly showing signs of fatigue. With less than 18 minutes to go, after the action spilled outside of the ring, there was a big table bump that had both workers fall through a table after both had started climbing up a mast. At the 45:35-mark, Bloody scored the 4-1 by making Sakai submit. Sumie Sakai quickly scored a couple of pinfalls (at 47:05 and 47:17), which means Bloody only is one pinfall ahead, as the score was now 4-3. Things became really exciting at this point, as things could go either way. And at 49:17, Sakai scored the equalizing 4-4. Bloody was so drained that she could barely move at this point. At 50:45, after Sakai scored yet another pinfall, for the first time in the match, Sakai was ahead with the score now being 4-5. The show went to a commercial break, and we returned with only six minutes left on the clock. The score became 5-5 at 55:25 when Bloody managed to pin Sakai with some help thanks to outside interference. Even Sakai’s tank appeared to be nearly empty at this point. With 24 seconds left, Bloody scored the final pinfall after showing a tremendous will to win. Again, the effort was heroic in the sense that it didn’t make sense for them to go 60 minutes in a singles match, yet they made the most out of it, and they displayed tremendous stamina. Also, if we look at some of the 60-minute matches in history, this match should truly be considered one of the more memorable ones. One of the most exciting aspects of this Iron Man Match was that there were a good amount of pinfalls. So this is exactly the antithesis of the disappointing WWF 3/31/96 Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels match that ended in a 0-1 score after overtime. Bloody and Sakai really delivered a match that exceeded expectations, as they really pushed their limits. ‘Only’ 36 of the 60 minutes they worked were shown, but what was shown was excellent. Especially once they reached the 30-minute mark, things really became more interesting, although near the end, the match action slowed down again, but that felt natural and realistic, as sixty minutes is very long. One could certainly make a case for this being more than four stars, based on the uniqueness of the match and the effort given. However, since things really started taking off at the 30-minute mark, and most of the work prior to the 30-minute mark was somewhat random and a bit slower, one can only come to the conclusion that they could have achieved at least the same level of quality in a 30-minute match instead of having to go 60 minutes, and this would probably have made the final stretch more lively. Either way, this was certainly better than expected overall, and the second half of the match featured some of the better Iron (Wo)man action out there. Excellent match. **** 

ML: Though I was never fond of the overall trend of outside interference in joshi that was popularized by Lioness Asuka & The Bloody in Jd', Bloody was nonetheless one of the quintessential joshi heels because she would push the pace and up the level of frentic offense more than almost any of the faces. This was one of the most action packed 60 minute matches we've ever seen, and that was largely due to Bloody, who was clearly the creative in ring force in Jd' at this point. Sakai certainly brought more of the actual high flying, but her focus was more on winning with one of her judo submissions, which allowed the match to slow down, without actually dragging because with Sakai, Megumi Yabushita, and Hiromi Yagi, Jd' was a place (until the fumbling Asstreses took over) where they actually showed interest in the grappling, and kept it meaningful and interesting. To some extent, this was kind of two matches, but their body control and ability to roll so effortlessly, allowed them to move from one to the other in very impressive ways. They got off to a really strong start, and I would suggest that what we saw of the first half hour was some of the better stuff here, due to them being fresh and doing a lot of nice rolling counters that we don't see everyday. The match definitely seemed worse for having 24 minutes edited, as they weren't wasting time or meandering like we see in all the BS Road style "epics". The tenor of the match changed considerably when they skipped ahead to the 36 minute mark, as now they were making a concerted effort to sell body parts due to all the submissions applied, particularly The Bloody was selling her left knee, but this was never an excuse to just lay around like a Punk or prevent us from being able to take the match even remotely seriously due to endless 3-year-old cornball spasms and gyrations like MJF. I liked that once The Bloody finally got a knockout half an hour in with uraken, she was able to then immediately get another fall with a moonsault. Realistically, once you KO the opponent the first time, in most cases you should be able to get as many falls as you want against a largely defenseless foe. That's why real fights are actually stopped, but pro wrestling insists on never modernizing in any logical manner, instead perpetually subscribing to the neverending concussion theory, so we only ever see these multiple falls in these Iron Man matches. Sakai also got two falls in a row later on to get herself back into the match, but was still trailing 4 to 3. There was a crazy spot where both were climbing the back wall, and fell off through a table, but for the most part there weren't set pieces here, it was just every hold that they could think of, but thankfully Bloody is really creative. The lone bad part of the match was after Sakai finally got her first lead of the match going up 5-4 and had an overlong armbar, Fang Suzuki took Sakai out, leading to a free match tying pin for Bloody. Sakai was at the peak of her conditioning here, with incredibly low body fat before the crappy American fast food diet kicked in on her US tours, and more importantly, at the pinnacle of her ability, as she was arguably a top 10 joshi worker at this point. Anyone who is, reasonably, underwhelmed by her work in the US against Barbies 'R Us should investigate her work in Jd' when she actually had opponents that were properly trained and had actual athletic ability. This match seems to run into the same issue as was typical of the best workers of that generation, Momoe Nakanishi & Azumi Hyuga, in that they were workrate machines, but after a certain point, just adding X more minutes of excellence doesn't necessarily put the match over the top, or even make the match better really. 60 minutes wasn't necessary in the sense of the story they had to tell, because there wasn't a whole lot of story, but I have tremendous admiration for all the effort they put into this, and as purely a test of endurance, this was some of the best stuff we've ever seen. It was essentially "just a spotfest", but it stands out because they were able to sustain it without padding it or having it become dull. ****

AAA TripleMania XXXI 7/15/23 Tijuana, Mexico, AAA Mega Title: Hijo del Vikingo vs. Kenny Omega 18:52.
DC: Hijo del Vikingo and Kenny Omega were originally supposed to face off against each other for the first time on 12/4/21, but due to Omega being injured at the time, the match was cancelled. They eventually ended up wrestling each other in a great match on the 3/22/23 TV episode of AEW Dynamite, and Omega defeated Vikingo in that non-title match. This time, at AAA TripleMania XXXI, Vikingo’s Mega Title was on the line in their much anticipated rematch. The execution was quite excellent throughout this match. Even when Vikingo would occasionally not hit a move exactly the way he wanted to, he would adjust himself and react accordingly. Vikingo gave the spectacular performance expected from him. Omega was quite vicious and brought a different dynamic to this match. Omega was a bit more playful (in a heelish way) in this match than in the AEW match, which helped make this match stand out on its own, as opposed to it merely being a sequel to their previous meeting. Omega dominated for several minutes in a row, but this made sense in the context of the story they were telling, because Omega had quite the size and strength advantage. Some of Vikingo’s matches tend to focus a lot on spots, and thus the setting up of those spots becomes a story. The good thing about this match is that this didn’t feel like one of those matches thanks to Omega’s ability to incorporate his knowledge of how to work a complete and full story-telling match. When Vikingo fought back, the match sped up about four times, as Vikingo relied on his speed and his ability to arguably be the most spectacular wrestler in the world. Vikingo went for an Eddy Guerrero-esque frog splash, but Omega moved out of the way. This match was basically what the Forbidden Door match between Omega and Will Ospreay should have been. Omega was definitely more in fight mode here than at Forbidden Door. Compared to the Vikingo vs. Omega match from AEW Dynamite, this TripleMania match felt more like a full and complete match (while the AEW match felt like a spectacular spotfest). While that is on one hand an advantage, it also turned out to be the reason this match didn’t quite feel as great as the AEW match, because the urgency wasn’t quite as high as in the nearly non-stop action-packed AEW match. Also, while Omega did a good job of showing intensity, the middle portion of the match where he’s more or less in full control, doesn’t really feature too much interesting action other than Omega just giving Vikingo a beat down with Vikingo selling accordingly. Still, what they did here was definitely high-end stuff overall, and it was easily a top 5 match of the year so far. The match gradually became more of a back-and-forth affair, with both workers still having stretches of momentum that gave the illusion that the finish was near. Vikingo was superbly spot on when it came to hitting his moves cleanly. Omega was superb at being always there at the right time with the right action and/or reaction. Vikingo’s super reverse rana was a great example of the chemistry these two have. In the end, Vikingo retained the title cleanly via pinfall. After the match, the great Negro Casas congratulated Vikingo on the big victory, which made for a great visual, as it was arguably the greatest Mexican pro wrestler ever congratulating arguably the greatest current Mexican pro wrestler. Excellent match. ****¼

UFC on ESPN 50 8/5/23: Billy Quarantillo vs. Damon Jackson 3R UD
ML: The typical good very back and forth and competitive Quarantillo match where he gets down early, but the combination of his tireless pace and stamina allows him to just pull it off in the second half. Jackson used his unorthodox striking in the first round to set up the takedown and was able to control Quarantillo for more than half the round. In the second, Jackson was again looking to dominate with his wrestling to keep Quarantillo from ever getting going, but Quarantillo was able to avoid the takedown and start punishing Jackson for clinching with a lot of good body punches. The first half of this fight wasn't great, but once Quarantillo got separation in the second half of round two, things really picked up with Jackson tiring and Quarantillo working his high pace stand-up game, trying to sap Jackson's energy and keep him from ducking into a takedown attempt by giving him a steady diet of body shots. Quarantillo really dominated the second half of this round, sucking tons of energy from Jackson with his high output body attack. This made it a round each going into the third, but Quarantillo is known to be a strong finisher, while Jackson was a shell of the fighter who started the match. Jackson had his chance a minute and a half into the third, ducking into a good take down attempt, but Quarantillo stuffed it. Quarantillo bloodied Jackson's right eye with the Jab, but Jackson found some energy knowing the finish line was near, and he was not going to reach it first. Jackson landed a weak high kick and got a single leg takedown reversing Quarantillo's clinch. Quarantillo finally got off his back with 13 seconds left, and swung big until the final bell. Quarantillo won a unanimous 29-28 decision. Good match.

UFC 292 8/19/23 TUF Bantamweight Tournament Final: Brad Katona vs. Cody Gibson 3R
ML: A classic all action war, with over 300 total strikes landed, putting this in the top five all-time in the bantamweight division. These two really fought like it mattered. There was no sense of having already made it (again), that they did enough by getting to the final on the PPV. They didn't fight like they just assumed they'd get a contract win or lose, good or bad showing, although that is likely the case. This was all out, no backing down, no assuming they'd done enough. Gibson is a tough fighter to deal with, possessing a 71-in reach in the 135-pound division. This particularly presented problems when Katona tried to use the clinch knee, as he just wasn't getting the knee up high enough to reach the big man's chin, and was leaving himself open for the uppercut counter, which is why his corner told him to stop doing it, but Joe Rogan misunderstood and thought Katona's knee was injured. Katona is the younger fighter by 4 years, and his only two losses came in his first UFC run, which shouldn't have been enough for him to get cut given he won TUF and the 1st loss was to Merab. His problem may just have been that he was considered a dull fighter, and that is a reputation he has been out to erase. Gibson was really keeping a super high pace, and quickly created an ugly swell on Katona's right cheek. Gibson's strategy was to walk Katona down, and he did it the entire 1st round, with Din Thomas calling early that Gibson was backing up the complete disrespect he showed for Katona on the show by showing absolutely no fear of his stand up and no worry that he was going to actually succeed in dropping down into a takedown, which is the strength of Katona, and his advantage in this fight, although we never saw it tonight. Katona raised his hand at the end of the first round as if he'd actually accomplished something, but you'd have to be a complete idiot, or in other words a licenced and perpetually working MMA judge named Chris Lee, to actually give this round to him. Gibson's disrespect for Katona was getting a bit much in the second round in the sense that he was becoming a bit too willing to just take a shot from him in order to continue going about his business of walking him down and backing him up with relentless pressure. Though fatigue should have been setting in on Katona because he was the one taking the more difficult backwards steps, he is simply the better condition fighter, and that really made the difference here. In fairness to Gibson, part of his problem is that he's a full-time school teacher and part-time fighter. Katona finally landed a big left hook midway through the second. Gibson continued to outland Katona in this round, but was getting more and more sloppy with his footwork and balance, and just seemed to be throwing without much thought to anything beyond his own offense. Katona finally wobbled him with a right hand with a minute left. This mostly stopped Gibson's forward pressure, and when he was instead standing in front of Katona, he was a fairly easy target. Katona stole the round with the late damage and accuracy, and that was ultimately the difference in the fight. Katona had a lot more left in the tank for the third. Gibson landed a big right straight a minute into the round though, and that got him back into his previous strategy of endless pressure, after continuing to look bad early in the third when he was allowing Katona to dictate. Gibson eventually pulled ahead in this round, but was just enough slower now that Katona was now able to land punches and body kicks while Gibson was closing the distance. Katona's punches injured Gibson's orbital 3 1/2 minutes in, and it was swelling fast. Gibson was clearly behind now, again due to the primary scoring criteria of damage, but because of the eye injury, felt forced to suddenly try for the takedown. Katona won a unanimous decision 29-28, 29-28, 30-27. In doing so, Katona became the first man to ever win TUF twice. Excellent match.

PFL 9 8/23/23 PFL Lightweight Semifinal: Clay Collard vs. Shane Burgos 3R
ML: This was the exceptional war it sounded like on paper. Collard is one of the best and most relentless offensive boxers around, and that's basically what he brings, strong consistent boxing offense to all quadrants and good boxing defense, which means upper body and head movement. Collard landed 193 strikes in this match, 178 of which were punches. Burgos is a warrior as well, and he was not surprisingly willing to stand toe to toe with Collard, often to his strategic detriment, absorbing the initial barrage in order to land his own counters back. Collard was the more aggressive of the two, but anytime Burgos had a chance, he took advantage of Collard's poor kicking defense and beat up his legs. Burgos landed 49 out of 57 leg strikes, and by the third round Collard could barely step. Collard doesn't have great movement to begin with, but his game still relies on being able to enter and exit efficiently, especially so he can work his body punches. Even though the opponent knows that Collard is just going to come in with a punch combo, it is much more difficult to defend him than it sounds because he mixes quadrants so well, and is one of the best body punchers in MMA, often starting his combinations with one or two punches to the body. Although Collard is a volume striker in terms of overall activity, he isn't a Diaz sort of slapper, he really digs in, especially on the body punches when he is able to combine them with forward movement. Collard hurt Burgos with a left hook late in the first round to seal that round. In the second round, Burgos began to fight smarter by throwing the low kick and then exiting, which forced Collard to come to him. Collard's best striking was stepping forward with the body hook, but now that Burgos was doing a better job of controlling distance, Collard was forced to use more jabs because he was finding himself out of range a lot more often. The fight seemed to be trending in Burgos' direction after Collard did a backward roll away for the second time in the fight after taking a big calf kick. Dan Hardy suggested that the reason Collard hadn't switched stances was that his back leg may also be in bad shape. Collard came right back with a left hook knock down though, which I think shows the value of all his body work because he was down low like he was perhaps going to the body again, but instead came right over the top to the chin, and Burgos couldn't do anything about it because he was already committed to his own counterpunch. Burgos was now down two rounds, and that forced him more into a desperation mode where he was standing toe to toe with Collard even more often, rather than forcing Collard to use what was left of his legs to come to him. Burgos began finishing all his combinations with the inside leg kick, and at this point Collard wasn't really able to fire back with much because he couldn't really move forward. Collard just had to kind of fake it, throwing jabs on the outside and waiting for Burgos to come to him again. Collard was still gutting it out though, eating a jab while hopping into range if Burgos didn't "cooperate". Burgos was much more accurate and effective in the 3rd round because Collard was either stationary or very slow closing, but unfortunately for him, simply winning this round wasn't enough, and he lost the decision 29-28. Excellent match.