11/20/24 AEW: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Darby Allin 13:46. This is the kind of match Claudio should have been having since he showed up in AEW, instead of being an enhancement talent hidden behind the incoherent mumbling slob Moxley, who would be lucky to find a local busboy he could actually take out. Claudio was actually portrayed as the monster strongman he is here, if only because Darby loves to be ragdolled. This was about the most obvious match you could book for either, Claudio being an amazing base, and Darby being a great daredevil underdog who wants to take wild bumps. It's amazing it took almost 3 years for Tony Khan to finally run this. It should have been on the PPV, so the PPV would have actually had something good, but also because they were capable of better without the commercials killing the momentum. In the end, this was more a collection of huge Claudio spots than a well laid out match that actually built. The match started with Darby using his athleticism to outmaneuver Claudio, but we didn't really get that much of this in general like we did in the Lio Rush vs. Swerve match. This was more of an 80's American style match where the bigger guy just destroyed the smaller guy. Claudio caught Darby out of the air doing the coffin drop to the floor, and kind of tackled him into the guardrail then knocked him over it with the running forearm. Claudio hoisted Darby up for a vertical suplex, and walked up the steps with him in that position, dropping him into the ring. After things died out for the commercial break, Darby came back with two topes and Claudio answered with an avalanche gutwrench suplex. Claudio used the giant swing into the ring steps then stood on one ringside table and did a massive press slam into another table, which didn't break. This essentially ended the match, which was good in terms of this killer spot not being yet another throwaway for a momentary pop and a social media share, but Darby ultimately never really did much, so it kind of felt like the match was missing the final act. Darby willed himself back in the ring, but Claudio just plowed him over with a running lariat for the win. ***1/4

11/13/24 AEW: Swerve Strickland vs. Lio Rush 10:03. These two have good chemistry, and everything was in step. Rush made the match, as usual. This was better than his match against Shelton Benjamin from 10/16/24 because Swerve mostly put him over, allowing Rush's exciting bursts to carry the day, while Benjamin reasonably needed to spend most of the match getting himself over since he was new to the promotion. I like how Rush was subverting expectations here, not simply running straight ahead off the ropes, dropping down when he should be jumping over Swerve, etc. Lio was consistently outmaneuvering Swerve, evading and countering. Rush took a few shortcuts, for instance holding on to the ropes to try to get the pin after countering big pressure, but he wasn't turning his back on his opponent every 2 seconds like these people that apparently have never had or watched a real fight are taught to endlessly do these days. This still had a little more dead time than I would have liked, but at least when they were doing something, they were going hard. Rush did the superstar spring off the ropes to offbalance Swerve. who was on the top rope. Swerve mostly did his athletic stuff here because that was the most reasonable way that Rush could find openings for his offense. Rush with nearly powerbombed into the post, but wound up jumping backwards off the steps into a poisonrana. Later, Rush tried to jump off the middle rope into the poisonrana, but Strickland countered into big pressure for the win. This was one of those matches where Swerve kind of just won when he got bored and decided to hit a single big move, but they weren't given a lot of time, so it didn't feel like the lazy Misawa formula. One could certainly argue this was terrible booking because Swerve was just your champion, and he was schooled by a guy who is barely above jobber level for the majority of the 10 minutes, but at least this was entertaining, and they should find something better to do with Rush because he's one of their only guys who consistently works entertaining matches. ***

7/7/90 WCW NWA United States Tag Title: Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane vs. Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong 18:14

8/17/92 JWP: Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Cuty Suzuki 24:54
PA: This was JWP's bizarre TV debut. TV Asahi had the idea to do a one off special that aired live from the studio from 1:30am – 5:00am. There were about 100 people there, and the presentation was like studio wrestling. The studio was like any TV wrestling studio you'd have seen in the territories in the 70s and 80s, which made it a unique presentation for women's wrestling. They had about 30 minutes of commercials between the matches, and there was even a feature on LLPW (which was hosting their opening show 12 days later). With the benefit of being able to skip all of the commercials, this is probably the most enjoyable JWP show of the year as a top to bottom card. It didn't have any 4 star matches, but all of the matches were good, even the battle royal they ended with, and it has better production values than the commercial tapes, which also helps. This opening match was the best by far. They sent there four biggest stars out there and let them tear the house (or the studio) down. Everyone interacted well together, and they went with teams that were going to provide a better match, rather than the more regular teams we'd been seeing on the JWP shows (where Cuty and Ozaki were the tag team champions). The control segments were done well. They were constantly working and building, with a few brawls outside. The first control segment saw Kansai demolish Ozaki and tear up the guard railing, whilst Devil press slammed Cuty on the announce table in front of her old rival Chigusa Nagayo, who was doing commentary. Kansai and Devil built to their confrontation. Kansai won it in the ring and hurt Devil's shoulder, so Devil retaliated with a chair on the outside. That led to an excellent final portion where Ozaki and Devil were trying to put Kansai way. She finally managed a desperate lariat on Devil, then she had to tag out, leaving Cuty to try her luck with Devil. She had no chance, but she survived, and even almost scored a flash pin, hanging on long enough for Kansai to get a breather. Ultimately, it ended with Kansai returning after Cuty had hit a fallaway slam. Ozaki armdragged her way out of one Splash Mountain attempt, but fell to a second attempt. The only problem was Cuty missed her queue, so Devil was just standing in the corner watching her partner get Splash Mountained, but at least Cuty got there in time to prevent her from interrupting the pin. ***3/4

5/1/90 WCW: Steve Armstrong & Tracy Smothers vs. Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane 5:40
ML: I'm enjoying the shorter Midnight Express TV matches more because they don't have time for a lot of the usual face in peril storyline that's fine in moderation, but incredibly tedious when it's every tag match done in the entire country. In these, they just try to be exciting, delivering an action-packed sprint. I would definitely have liked to see a little more of this, but in general, this is the Midnight Express I like most with the quick tags, double teaming, and Eaton coming off the top rope. Southern Boys showed some nice teamwork as well. They hit their elevated dropkick, but the ref was distracted by Cornette. Midnight Express came back whipping Smothers into the ropes to set up the flapjack perhaps, but Armstrong tackled Eaton from behind, then Smothers pinned Lane with a high cross body. This is probably too short to even rate, but it was fun stuff while it lasted.

8/15/92 AJW Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue & Mariko Yoshida vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda & Cynthia Moreno 15:40
PA: Exciting, fast-paced Zenjo six woman tag, with a good injection of lucha. Kyoko and Yoshida provided the best spots. They basically split the lead role for their team. Mita was the workhorse of the match overall, and she gave a strong effort. She did most of the work for her team, handled Yoshida without too much hassle, and gave Kyoko a run later on before Kyoko put her away. The other three were just in and out, and contributed a few things here and there. The highlight of the match was Kyoko doing about 30 revolutions to Cynthia with her giant swing. ***1/2

8/15/92 AJW Fuji TV Tag Tournament Mid Summer Typhoon '92 Final: Bull Nakano & Aja Kong vs. Akira Hokuto & Toshiyo Yamada 19:22
PA: Hokuto stomped Yamada during the pre-match interview just in case we needed a reminder they couldn't get along. The monsters hate each other too, but they put aside their differences, buddying up to actually win the thing. These teams were more even than you might think, Hokuto had just beaten Bull in a cage match, and Yamada pinned Aja to win a tag team title match, so everyone knew it was possible for them to lose. The match was going to come down to cooperation, and that didn't look good for Yamada and Hokuto. Aja and Bull just mauled them to start, working as a team, while Yamada and Hokuto simply worked as singles and watched the other get worked over. After a thrashing on the outside, Hokuto wanted to use her bokken, but Yamada refused to allow it, so Hokuto instead went after Bull's knee, and used vicious heel tactics, although no outright cheating. Yamada also went after Bull's leg with a barrage of kicks and a stretch muffler. Bull was able to tag Aja and get out of there though. After another round of Hokuto getting beaten on, highlighted by Bull's great shotgun lariat spot, she got the bokken again and assaulted Aja with it, leading to Yamada stopping her. The were about to start fighting, but they had bigger problems because Aja hit them with a plancha and Bull followed up with a tope. Another thrashing outside followed with Aja piledriving Hokuto through a table. Yamada did come back in to save Hokuto, but continued to be too concerned about the bokken, intercepting it, while Aja didn't care and nailed both with her oil can. Back inside, more fighting between Hokuto & Yamada leads to Aja cracking them both with trash can shots. Yamada even short armed Hokuto on the tag, refusing to get in, and making Hokuto go alone. Hokuto dropped Bull with a Northern Light's Bomb and almost got the win. She would have if Yamada had prevented Aja from interrupting the pin instead of continued with her hissy fit. They actually did get on the same page after that, but Yamada accidentally took Hokuto out with a flying enzuigiri. Bull hit the guillotine legdrop, but Yamada broke up the pin, and just to hammer the whole point of the match home, Bull got Aja to do the guillotine legdrop to get the win. Great dissention story with quality wrestling to back it up. And the best post-match on this show with the two monsters embracing and celebrating to a huge pop, while Hokuto and Yamada brawled to the back. And before Aja reminded Bull that she was coming for the WWWA World Single title. ****1/4

8/15/92 AJW IWA World Women's Title Hair vs. Hair Match: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Manami Toyota 19:45
PA: Yamada came into this match fatigued, which offered all the drama they needed before you even consider the hair vs. hair stipulation. Yamada just needed to take down Toyota as quickly as possible and stop Toyota from blowing her away too early. Toyota tried to pounce right away with a Japanese Ocean Suplex, but Yamada quickly scrambled to the ropes. The opening exchanges were sloppy and frantic, and they weren't going to bring either any advantages, forcing a rethink. Toyota still tried to burst down Yamada, while Yamada took control on the mat and was able to wear down Toyota with some holds. Later, she unleashed her kicks, and it was clear that she had overcome her disadvantage. Between the barrages of kicks, Toyota tried to mount a comeback, resulting in really awkward counters, as the two didn't seem to be on the same page. Toyota went for a cross chop which it appeared Yamada was supposed to take, while they couldn't get a Manami roll spot together, resulting in a weak powerbomb. There were plenty of things that went wrong in this match, that exchange being the biggest example, but unlike their match on 1/4 where this sort of thing wrecked the match, here, they never tried to follow through on whatever they had planned and make it look worse, they just moved on, so it didn't detract much, and at times made it feel more urgent. At the 10-minute mark, Toyota avoided a dive and followed up with her dropkick spam. Now, she was able to get on a roll and would no longer be contained. Yamada either had to match her now, and do it fast, or she'd get blown away. The remainder of the match was big move after big move, hot near fall after hot near fall, with every one feeling bigger and being brought to a logical conclusion at the end. There was really no story here they were telling; they just went for every big move they knew and tried to win, while avoiding the finishers. They barely slowed down, but they did take a brief moment to sell the toll of the match, and it was much welcomed. They'd already had a ton of hot near falls, but once they sold just a little, you knew the end was coming. The best spot they did was Yamada's brain kick; it was her big chance to win but Toyota managed to roll out of the ring. Yamada hit a plancha, but it still gave Toyota the brief recovery time she needed. Soon after, they did a great finishing sequence where Toyota got out of the Reverse Gory Special and won with her Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex. The famous post-match followed. Yamada accepted her defeat and prepared for the haircut. Toyota had been sitting in the corner, regretful, realizing what she'd condemned her partner to do because of her own hot-headed competitiveness. This was supposed to be a punishment for your most hated rival, not your best friend. Toyota grabbed the scissors, cut a piece of her own hair, and bowed, showing respect and love to Yamada, which is where Yamada broke down herself. They hammered the point home by having Toyota try to stop the haircut and being restrained by a bunch of people, which was a bit over the top. ****1/2

2/7/90 WCW, NWA United States Tag Title Tournament Semifinal: Flyin' Brian & The Z-Man vs. Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane 7:03
ML: Energetic sprint. This is a good matchup for Pillman because he has ample opportunity to show his athleticism, and Midnight Express are happy to wrestle his fast-paced style. Z-man, or Zemen as Terry Funk kept calling him, was showing a lot more of the Rick Martel fire in this one. He was better here than in the 5/19/90 match, though not a lot was required of him in either, at least in this one he was more or less able to match Pillman's spirit. Pillman's offense was still fairly basic here, but he was really excited about it, and Eaton was, of course, making it all look better. The match is ultimately kind of thin because it's so short, but the faces in particular were really into it, and it's a fun little match largely because there's a joy to their performances. The crowd was really rocking when Z-Man kicked out after the tennis racket shot. Z-Man kicked out of the rocket launcher too, then Pillman hit Eaton with a diving body attack for the win. There's not a lot of big spots here per se, it's still more in the vein of 80's dropkick high flying, and obviously it's quite brief, but I'll take an exciting short match over a dragged out long one. ***

9/10/90 WCW, NWA United States Tag Title #1 Contendership: Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane vs. Steve Armstrong & Tracy Smothers 8:29
ML: Truncated TV version of the 7/7/90 WCW MOTY is still one of the promotions better offerings of 1990 despite being a rushed screwjob. Midnights are great at bumping for the opponents, and also have interesting offense. They are such a huge upgrade in every regard over the ordinary Freebirds, who the Southern Boys had two forgettable matches with at Clash 11 & 12. This match obviously isn't as spectacular as their Great American Bash match, but goes by very fast. It's fast paced and energetic. The Southern Boys were tagging more frequently than the Midnight Express, with Eaton staying in until Smothers outdid him in the martial arts, prompting the tag to Lane for the duel. Lane mostly used his feet in this one. The majority of the quality came from Smothers and Eaton, but the other two were good when they were in. This really just didn't get enough time. Finish saw Freebirds double DDT Armstrong when the ref was distracted to set up Eaton scoring the pinfall. ***

5/19/90 WCW, NWA United States Tag Title: Flyin' Brian & The Z-Man vs. Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane 20:20
ML: Jim Cornette was locked in a cage at ringside, so after being clotheslined by referee Randy Anderson, leading to Pillman and Zenk locking him up, he wasn't able to ruin this match with his corniness like he did the vastly overrated Rock 'n' Roll Express match from WrestleWar '90 2/25/90. This match got going quickly once Cornette was out of the way, whereas that match durdled for the entire first half. It's nowhere near the class of the Midnight Express vs. Southern Boys '90 WCW MOTY from Great American Bash '90 7/7/90, but certainly a lot more substance and a lot less stalling than in the RnR match, with a lot of good early work from Eaton and Pillman, including Zenk slingshoting Brian into the ring for a double lariat on the Express. Pillman has a lot more quickness and explosion on his counters, and is far more creative, but despite Zenk's bad reputation, he's perfectly fine generally. He's unremarkable, but certainly competent, though his final hot tag lacked a desirable amount of fire. Pillman and Eaton do a nice job of pitting their quickness and reactions against one another. They steal the show as you'd expect. There's lots of nice teamwork from the Express, as always though, and Lane always holds his own and contributes a lot more than Eaton's earlier partners did. The key spot was Pillman taking his classic bump off the apron onto the guard rail, but they didn't talk about all the throat surgeries he endured during his youth. Midnights stayed on the neck to some extent, but the heat was disappointing, as was Jim Ross' surprisingly uninspired call of the action. Zenk's 1 on 2 segment after Pillman finally made the hot tag was brief, and Eaton nearly pinned him after the rocket launcher. The announcers missed that Lane loaded his boot for the "savate kick" (enzuigiri in this case, though Lane really didn't get up high enough to reach the head), leading to Eaton getting the pin off a small package. The match felt a bit one-sided considering the faces didn't get that great of a comeback, or the win, but Pillman got off to a good start since the MX were supposed to be lost without Cornette, and was pretty competitive during the heat segments. ***

10/13/24 Diana: Momo Watanabe vs. Haruka Umesaki 14:43
ML: A proper old school heel vs. face match with the invading veteran STARDOM fiend Watanabe looking to put Diana's only hope for a future in her place. Nothing too complicated or fancy, but they played their roles well, understanding how to pace things to make the match dynamic without it being too outlandish. The main problem with modern heel wrestling is there's no sense that the heel is getting over on their opponent, they are just stalling while trying to get over with the crowd, but it usually doesn't work because they don't actually do anything to the opponent to warrant any reaction beyond yawning. Watanabe tried to slow the match down because her opponent wanted to win with her speed, but Watanabe was still actually wrestling like she was trying to win, taking advantage of her opponent when she was prone, rather than doing the nonsensical modern heel wrestling where they just do a half-hearted stomp every 30 seconds in between continuing to get there daily walk in. Watanabe normally wrestles that aimless wandering heel style in STARDOM, where Tam Nakano and the like have insured the match will stall out to the point of insufferability. Umesaki made brief but exciting comebacks, countering then having a burst until she crashed and burned. There weren't many people in the building, but the match got good reactions because you knew who you were supposed to be rooting for, and were moved more by the transitions than the moves themselves. Umesaki was good. She has energy and charisma and is exciting enough while staying within her current capabilities. Watanabe controlled most of the match, and won with the peach sunrise, but Umesaki got enough offense to impress. This isn't going to top any match of the year lists, and would be better on the midcard rather than being the main event of what's ultimately another one match show, but simple can still work when it's done effectively. ***

10/21/23 TNA: Will Ospreay vs. Mike Bailey 17:59
ML: Ospreay wrestled a handful of matches with TNA during their 2016 UK tour, but this was his 1st match with the promotion in 7 years, and his US Impact debut. Bailey was stealing the show here at every turn. Even though both guys kind of used the same moves they always use, Bailey always finds new, interesting, and energetic ways to incorporate them that keep his big matches fresh and exciting, while Ospreay kind of seemed to be replaying the old program here. That's not really the case though, and this would have been better as his usual top this matchup of babyfaces. Instead, Ospreay was essentially playing heel here even though he wasn't cheating. Ospreay did some well executed strikes, and some power moves, but Bailey was the one that got the bursts and pulled out most of the exciting counters, while Ospreay maintained a much more even pace. Ospreay still did a bunch of things, but he predictably didn't excel at setting the opponent up or making any of it make sense. The most bizarre segment saw them decide that one Ospreay chop did more than three kicks from Taekwondo black belt Bailey. Bailey was excellent here, being the more spectacular and energetic of the two, partly because he's the home promotion wrestler and they went by the face/heel structuring, even if more loosely, so Bailey got the bursts and hope spots, and Ospreay never really understood how to usefully to adapt to his role. He did his routine, and one could argue that at times he came close to matching Bailey with it, but at best this was Will being Will, while most of the time I was wishing he'd actually be more Willish and just do his usual top this. It never pulled me in, even by the standard of what something that's just great as a spotfest needs to. The lengthy fast-paced opening sequence was impressive, but once they left that choreography, it kind of stagnated in the middle apart from Bailey's highlights, with no real story beyond Bailey being the underdog who has lost three in a row after winning their first match. There's no denying the level of athleticism that comes with the spectacle on display, but Ospreay was in very generic form, settling for his TV stables such as the pescado and AJ Styles swandive elbow, while Bailey added a twist to his quebrada counter. They pulled off their stuff very well and kept you entertained, but it felt empty and never quite reached the level of great fun. This was clearly better than their good but disappointing RevPro match from 8/20/22, but it also didn't really ever come together given their amazing capability. Bailey excited me here, but Will rarely did. Bailey had a nice huracarrana counter for the stormbreaker and a jumping double knee counter for the Oscutter. Bailey got a big near fall with the meteor rain, which is similar to an avalanche Spanish fly, but hooking one leg like a fisherman buster. The match got a lot better in the last third when Ospreay was doing more spots and less strikes, with them finding quite a high pace and busting out all their finishers. Eventually, Ospreay sunset flipped out of Bailey's flamingo driver finisher and hit a run of finishers, culminating in the stormbreaker for the win. ***1/2

10/20/24 MLP AEW International Title: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Josh Alexander 29:31
ML: This was more or less the opposite dynamic than Takeshita's main event last night with Mike Bailey because here Alexander was the solid one and Takeshita was the spectacular one, such as it was with these two. This isn't the role Takeshita plays as well, but he's capable of doing different styles of matches, and always adapts well to the opponent. Alexander, who was channeling Bret Hart with his outfit, brings more desire and capability to do technical wrestling than most active stars. Alexander certainly isn't the most exciting wrestler, but he can do the NWA/WCW technical grappling with a few more head drops. This really only came to fruition in the early portion though, and then he just switched to doing random suplexes and the ridiculous ankle lock. There were a lot less big spots in this match, but they weren't really telling a story either, and the big spots didn't seem particularly meaningful. I mean, it was more that things were well spread out than that they we're gaining a lot of momentum with anything dangerous they did, or making you believe any of the stuff was leading to victory. This match held my attention, didn't drag despite being nearly half an hour because they weren't doing all the stalling that passes for "epicness", but it never really pulled me in. Alexander used a bunch of German suplexes on Takeshita in a row, including a German suplex on the ring apron before Takeshita stopped the German suplex on the outside, and hit a brainbuster on the ramp. According to Mauro, no one has ever kicked out of the C4 spike, but Takeshita managed to get his foot on the ropes. Alexander German suplex Takeshita into the turnbuckle. Alexander then went for the superplex, but Takeshita countered with the lariat off the top, hit 2 running knees, and finished with the raging fire. This was definitely more comparable to Bailey vs. Phantasmo in quality than to Bailey vs. Takeshita the previous night. ***1/4

10/20/24 MLP: Mike Bailey vs. El Phantasmo 16:18
ML: A more traditional junior heavyweight style match between two of Canada's better juniors, who one would presume would be regulars for MLP as long as Phantasmo can conquer his tumour. These two don't have as good of chemistry as Bailey & Takeshita. It's only their 3rd singles match (1st in Canada). It was a good effort, but certainly not the all out effort we saw from Bailey the previous night when he was in the main event. Obviously, with Phantasmo going through various cancer tests and being diagnosed around this time, he's not feeling his best, and would have had every right to be distracted and off his game, but he was good and kept getting better and better as the match went on. This was largely the standard, always highly impressive Bailey stuff. The winner was pretty obvious given the result of the previous night's main event, and there wasn't quite that extra push to make it dramatic or memorable, but for a midcard match the night after Bailey's featured all out match, this was still better than it should have been. The one odd choice was to flirt with a shin injury storyline when Phantasmo was never going to actually attack Bailey's shins (which definitely wouldn't have helped at this length), just get his knees up or avoid Bailey's moonsault double kneedrops. ***1/4

7/9/92 JWP Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai 25:11
PA: This was their second singles match of the year after their 5/13 match. There, Ozaki was fearless but overmatched. However, she learned a few things along the way that she'd build upon in the rematch. They built up great tension before the match even began. Ozaki tried taking it to Kansai at the start, but couldn't hold her for long. Her next tactic was to bait Kansai into a test of strength and kick her the face. Four of those and a one legged dropkick to the face did some damage, enough for Ozaki to start working over the arm, which along with opening up the potential submission, would be the key to her counter for the Splash Mountain. Kansai regained control, and launched a brutal barrage of kicks. The kicks were nasty enough, but Ozaki getting in fetal position and trying to cover up, only to have Kansai continue kicking her in the head made it look so much worse. Not just that, Kansai also hurled into the guard rail, trashing the ringside area, and after the brutal exchanges she'd grind down Ozaki with holds. Ozaki got annihilated for a third time. She might have been better equipped to wrestle Kansai, but those kicks were just too powerful. She managed to ground Kansai when Kansai took her foot off the gas, and this time, she tried to tear Kansai's arm off with a wakigatame, putting it on a dramatic angle that had Kansai screaming. Suddenly a submission seemed not only possible, but likely. Kansai further injured her arm while powering out of Ozaki's hold, and Ozaki remained relentless, stomping on her, and even getting some revenge for the earlier assault outside the ring. The way Kansai sold the arm was excellent. She couldn't hide the pain she was in, selling as if it was dislocated, but was never helpless, nor ceased looking dangerous. It was enough to make it a more even fight now. When Kansai re-entered the ring, she showed how dangerous she still was, snatching Ozaki up in a nasty powerbomb, and unleashing another barrage kicks, but this time she was slower due to the damage on shoulder damage. It was just enough for Ozaki to get enough of a reprieve and dump Kansai outside when she ascended the ropes. Ozaki hit her springboard dive, but Kansai caught her in mid-air while attempting a cannonball to once again snuff out Ozaki's charge. In the final segment, Ozaki had answers for two of Kansai's big moves, the Splash Mountain, which Kansai went for first was countered with an armdrag. The Northern Light's Suplex was countered into a DDT. The latter gave Ozaki the chance to fire everything she could at Kansai, but Kansai had answers of her own. They ended up fighting over a suplex, which saw Kansai thrust kicking Ozaki when she slipped behind her, leading to her second Splash Mountain attempt, but on the second one, Ozaki was able to turn her armdrag into a pin and get the win. The finish was so well built up that it didn't feel like Ozaki got lucky, as you do you with most flash pins, it felt like she thoroughly deserved the win. The only other plausible Ozaki victory would have been by arm submission, but I like the finish they went with. It was unique, and left more intrigue. One of the reasons it worked so well was because they didn't fill the finishing run with too many big moves. They did just enough. Had they overdone it then Ozaki's win would have felt like a fluke. This was an excellent slow burn match, and though putting on a long, gruelling match was part of the story, some of the segments may have taken a little too long to get going and could have been improved had some of the filler been trimmed from it. I liked that they kept repeating things that worked though, and building on them with everything paying off in a satisfying way. What they did here worked to the point of legitimizing Ozaki through the match alone in a plausible way, and making her a credible rival for Kansai going forward. ****

7/15/92 AJW All Japan Title Match: Sakie Hasegawa vs. Mariko Yoshida 15:56
PA: Yoshida had just wrestled in a 15 minute match directly before this, defending the All Japan tag titles. Yoshida did another great job of leading Sakie through a really good match. It was better than their Japan Grand Prix match in that sense, and also assisted by being half the length, which suited them. Yoshida made all aspects of the match with her selling and flashy burst offense. Both went for the same targets as last time, Yoshida's shoulder and Sakie's leg. Sakie did some good work to Yoshida's shoulder, her holds were good, and she was throwing savate kicks to it. She had intensity. However, her lack of offense was more apparent here, and she was out of control with her savate kicks, either completely missing them or potatoing Yoshida, which resulted in Yoshida's mouth getting busted. That extended to the finish, which wasn't so great either, as Sakie won with a single rollng savate kick, which was overshot, that came not so long as Yoshida had survived five of them. Despite this, it was another memorable match for them. ***3/4

7/15/92 AJW CMLL World Women's Title Match: Bull Nakano vs Akira Hokuto 11:59
PA: Notable pre-match with Mima Shimoda invading the ring during the introductions, getting on her hands and knees begging to join Hokuto's group. Hokuto didn't seem much interested in this but let her join, and with that, the Las Cachorras Orientales, LCO is born for real. Hokuto was coming into this match with injured ribs, and it's a shame this match was derailed because Bull was properly motivated for the first time since the Aja match in April. They just went all out at the start, but it only took one bump off a lariat about two minutes into the match for Hokuto to reinjure her ribs. Bull tried to buy her time, and looked vicious enough while she was doing it while Hokuto writhed in pain. Hokuto did mount a comeback, and used a bokken to assist her. Hokuto hit a tope, then her somersault plancha, first off the apron and then off the top turnbuckle, but her run ended up fizzling out a few moves later when she went for a dive and crashed into Bull's knees. Bull was merciless, powerbombing Hokuto then hitting a guillotine legdrop. Hokuto kicked out, so Bull attempted to kill her off with a moonsault, but Shimoda jumped in, trying to hold Bull off while Mita protected Hokuto. The doctor called the match off. Hokuto gave an impassioned promo afterward and burst into tears wanting the match to continue, but Bull wasn't having any of it and dismissed her, telling her she loves pro-wrestling, to take care of herself and try again when she's healed. I don't know how good this was as a match, but they got everything they could have out of it, and then some. It was one hell of a drama, and gripping all the way until it was called off. This led to the cage match they'd have on 7/30. ***

7/15/92 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue 15:09, 5:51, 12:30
PA: Aja didn't have her Bison anymore, so she needed a new tag team partner, and picked Kyoko. Kyoko wasn't expecting that, but she jumped at the chance. Aja even held the ropes for her to enter. Kyoko and Aja couldn't decide who was going to start, so Toyota jumped them both to get things underway. They tried to have Kyoko and Aja work as the heels during this, but it was never going to work, so there was no heat in the heat segments. Aja was getting popular anyway, while Kyoko was the most popular wrestler in the company, and people love oddball tag teams. Loose ring ropes caused all kinds of havoc, with just about every move off them being blown. In spite of this, it was still a really good and enjoyable match with lots of fun spots, like Aja doing a rapidfire combo that felt like it was about 50 strikes, and a good build in the first fall, which saw the superior teamwork of Yamada and Toyota appear to have the first fall locked up until Kyoko saved Aja from the avalanche double backdrop. Aja and Kyoko winning after a diving elbow/body press combo on Toyota. The second fall had a lot of sloppiness, but was a good, short fall where Aja and Kyoko's lack of experience together ended up costing them, with Aja accidentally taking Kyoko out when she dove off the apron. Toyota took them both out with a sloppy quebrada, and Kyoko was at Toyota and Yamada's mercy with Toyota securing the pin with her Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex. The third fall was the best, with some brawling, Aja going after Toyota's taped up ribs which had been ignored all match and really brutalized her. This was a good heat segment, and Toyota's selling was actually good enough that she got a Toyota chant while she was in Kyoko's crab. They once again built up a good finishing run, but the finish with Yamada and Toyota getting Aja on the top rope for the backdrop wasn't well done, and Kyoko took out Toyota, leaving Yamada to finish the move herself, so it was somewhat anticlimactic. Still, for all the issues this was a really good match. The post-match saw the interpromotional rivalry era get underway with Shark Tsuchiya and Crusher Maedomari from FMW running through the crowd making a challenge to Toyota and Yamada. The angle was really well done, and felt chaotic and real, with Bull coming straight out to confront them. This set up the first interpromotional match that would take place in FMW on 9/19/92, although that would end up changing to Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto vs. Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda. ***1/2

7/30/92 AJW Cage Match: Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto 14:04 of 18:16
PA: Classics version of this match is the one to go for here, it shows 5 more minutes than the TV version did. Bull passed the torch twice in 1992. Aja eventually got the big prize, but Hokuto beat Bull at her own game, the cage match. This is another excellent cage match. Bull gave a great, stiff beating, and Hokuto brought so much urgency and intensity to the match, fighting the wild aggression she needed to be able to overcome Bull. The early exchange had a few lariats and other moves in there, but was mostly focused on the two grinding each others head into the cage to draw blood. They were both successful. Hokuto was a force, any opening Bull left for her she relentlessly pursued, and she was happy to introduce a bokken into the mix to grind down the monster. Bull was never down for long and was able to control Hokuto, that's all she had to do and she would eventually grind down Hokuto so she couldn't come back anymore. Bull wasn't particularly concerned about Hokuto's injured ribs, she didn't need to target them, but she did a lot of damage to them when she delivered two powerbombs, after which she seemed content to exit. Hokuto wasn't gong down so easily, and frantically pulled Bull back in. Bull continued her assault, but Hokuto kept firing back. Hokuto delivered three missile dropkicks that did almost as much damage to herself as they did to Bull. Hokuto climbed the cage, but Bull pulled her down and hit the guillotine legdrop, then Bull went for it all with the big one from the top of the cage and missed. That spelled her end. She was at Hokuto's mercy. Hokuto could've just escaped, but she wanted to defeat Bull, she didn't want Bull to defeat herself. She delivered two Northern Light's Bombs. Bull couldn't do anything except clutch onto Hokuto's leg, but Hokuto just gave her a third. Hokuto could have escaped, but that wasn't good enough either because Bull made it up to her feet, so she went for the big dive herself, a missile dropkick from the top of the cage, which knocked Bull out, and Hokuto escaped to win. This was Bull's 5th and final cage match, and the most action packed of all of them. It just never gets talked about because until recently, the only version available showed about half of the match, and doing five cage matches in less than two years was probably too much. It seemed the Matsunaga's realized that also because this was the last cage match until 1997. ****1/4

8/9/92 JWP 2 Count Fall, JWP Tag Title Match: Cuty Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Sumiko Saito 18:37
PA: Sumiko Saito was a really promising young girl from JWP who looked sure to be JWP's star once her experience caught up. Sadly, she retired in early 1993. This was a fun, high quality JWP tag team match. Ozaki and Kansai were good as always, and picked up where they left off from the their singles match. Cuty was good later on with her run ins and being the bitch heel against Saito. Whenever she was in with Kansai, it couldn't be competitive, so she just got worked over, but she could be useful as the illegal partner assisting Ozaki. While the early portion had some good action, the match didn't really pick up until the long heat section on Saito, which saw Ozaki and Cuty give her a good working over, using double teams and good cut off spots. It built into a hot finish that saw Kansai receive enough damage that she had to tag out. Cuty and Saito went for near falls, and while it wasn't Cuty's best day execution wise, it was enough to get the crowd chanting for Saito. It ended perhaps, a little quick with Ozaki switching and finishing her with a Tequila Sunrise, which left Kansai fuming again. ***1/2

8/10/92 AJW Bull Nakano & Bat Yoshinaga vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota 20:03 of 22:09
PA: Very good Bull tag that worked the basic formula. Bull was motivated and delivered a good, stiff beating, particularly to Toyota. Those two worked well enough together that it would have been interesting to see another singles match between them since Toyota was more credible than she was in 1990, but the only other match on tape is a 5 minute butchering of a match they had in 1994. Bat got more offense than she normally does when she tags with Bull, so she was able to make a good contribution. Yamada and Toyota provided hot bursts in between them getting worked over. Toyota got busted open hardway, and her getting beaten on was probably the best part of the match until the final portion. It was well-paced with the usual hot final five minutes. Toyota hit her hot moves and used Bull's nunchakus at one point. Yamada and Bat had a good run against each other. Toyota ended up pinning Bat with a moonsault. ***1/2

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