FU*CK! 08/03/2008

          (Written by jom)

Takaku Fuke vs. Kinya Hashimoto

    Such a powerful mindset Tsubasa Shiratori must have to book a show to start with genuine MMA pioneer Takaku Fuke taking on a parody Shinya Hashimoto (complete with black tape on the side of his face to emulate Shinya's famous sideburns). Truly, maybe one of the most fun ways a show could start is a parody of a fake shooter getting dogwalked by a very real shooter. Just to get across how this match was seemingly gonna flow, Fuke not only ignored Kinya's handshake offer, but hit him with one of the hardest side-eyes I've ever seen:

    Of course, this was very much controlled by Fuke, with him absolutely laying into Kinya with some disgusting knees and kicks (at one point throwing a knee so hard at Kinya that it knocked his wig off). Fuke's really one of the more under-appreciated shooters of his era, and a lot of his work on the Kansai sleaze scene really goes to show that he could absolutely destroy anyone in the ring with him. However, Kinya actually got some of his own offense in, and his offense was actually pretty damn good! He threw some sweet kicks and actually had a mean german suplex on him, culminating in the awesome bridging german shown below.

    As expected however, no matter how great Kinya's german suplexes and kicks were, they were no match for Fuke's legitimate ass-kicking cred, and he ended up getting the win shortly after this with a deep fujiwara armbar. I went into this match thinking it would probably not be much to talk about by the end, but I was pleasantly surprised by just how good Kinya did. A really hard-hitting match and a great way to start off the show.

Rating: B

Hideki Shioda vs. Mambo Shintaro

    After the last match, I personally wouldn't wanna be one of the two people that have to follow up such a killer opener. The ones here to do that are Hideki Shioda and Mambo Shintaro. Shioda has been around for a while and has worked in a ton of different places, from BJW to DDT and of course on the Kansai sleaze scene. Shintaro meanwhile is totally an unknown here, I tried to do a little bit of digging into him but found only that he apparently worked as a referee for the most part. He was however on a pretty absurd tape I watched with some friends, where he and Mamoru Tanaka had a "Car Crash Deathmatch" in the middle of an empty parking lot, beating each other up using a Toyota bB until Shiratori started trying to run them both over using the heavily damaged car.

    While the last match surprised me by how high the quality of the wrestling ended up being, nothing could have prepared me for just how bad Shintaro would be. I am not exaggerating when I say that I've never seen someone quite as bad as Shintaro on any FU*CK! shows. This is immediately shown when, after Shioda is sent to the outside early on, Shintaro does this suicide dive:

    After this, both men brawl around the outside of DDT Dojo (where this show is taking place) and some pretty crazy shit happens. Shioda and Shintaro trade slaps while sitting on top of the front gate, Shioda puts Shintaro in two absolutely horrendous boston crabs on the outside that get Shintaro absolutely covered in soot, and Shioda tries to suplex Shintaro only for Shintaro to accidentally DDT himself on the concrete. Eventually they head back in and the match goes into overdrive with Shintaro doing some of the worst parody moves I've ever seen, including some terrible dragon screws, a combination of janky Misawa forearms (I almost forgot to mention that Shintaro came out to Spartan-X which is vital information in my opinion), maybe the worst shining wizard I've ever seen, and finally, the crème de la crème of this string of offense. I present to you... the worst backslide I have ever seen:

    Soon after this, Shioda is finally able to get some offense back in and absolutely cracks the hell outta Shintaro's jaw with a spinning wheel kick, before locking in a Kimura for the victory.

    Now, after reading all of my negativity and seeing just how bad Shintaro was, I'm sure you expect a grade like a D- or even the first ever F on the blog. Well, you would be DEAD. FUCKING. WRONG. You see, when something is this bad, when a piece of wrestling is this horribly done, I honestly think it wraps around into becoming pure art. Of course, if something is bad because of a lack of effort, that is an entirely different story. That wasn't the case here. Shintaro isn't someone who came in and didn't try, so please don't walk away from this thinking that. From everything I can tell, Shintaro was trying his god damn heart out here, and the fans were in love with everything he did, no matter how well he actually did it. By the end of the match, I was in love too. Mambo Shintaro may not be a ring general or a true king of the ring, but if there was ever a man deserving of the title of "People's Champion", it would be him. I stand by my decision and am willing to fight to the death over it, and I'm extremely excited to see any of Shintaro's other work.

Rating: A+

Ultraman Robin & Hideki Shioda vs. Lucha Master Takemaru & Kancho Nagase

    This was actually meant to be a singles match between Robin and Takemaru, but as Robin makes his entrance Nagase jumps him from behind! Takemaru and Nagase put the boots to him but here comes Shioda for the save! After some brawling on the outside all four guys get in the ring and we now have a tag match on our hands.

    Honestly, there isn't much to say about this match in terms of a story or match flow or anything like that. This was just a really well-worked match featuring four guys who have the ability to really go at it in the ring. Nagase's interactions with Shioda and especial Robin were great, with Nagase bringing some fury behind all his strikes and grappling, and Robin was definitely the best at responding to that.

    Takemaru was able to hold his own as well for sure. He was pretty damn athletic compared to everyone else on the show, doing a nice kip-up into arm drag spot and generally showing himself to be a good hand in the ring. Eventually, the match culminated in Robin hitting an awesome avalanche gutwrench suplex/powerslam hybrid move on Takemaru, before hitting him with a crossbody for the win. Again, there wasn't a ton that made this too special or anything, but it was worked well by all involved and never really outstayed its welcome.

Rating: C+

244 vs. Keita Yano

   One of Keita's rare FU*CK! appearances! Honestly, I feel like this is a place that would fit Keita well especially nowadays, but he sadly hasn't worked there a ton. He's facing 244 here, and before the match I do need to share a very important piece of information about 244. From the beginning of the show, he's been sitting at a table with Shiratori, helping out with handling the faulty sound system they're using for the show. He stays there up until it is time for this match, at which point... 244 crouches down and seems to try and hide from the audience, to then appear and make his entrance. Honestly, I deeply respect this attempt and from the get-go was ready to be a fan of his.

    Wouldn't you know it, this match was pretty damn good too. Keita was in full bully mode here, just disrespecting 244 with slaps to the back of the head and grinding his knee into 244's chin while grappling. Keita threw in a lot of little touches to his work like that, and it really gave it so much more life than just doing the holds. 244 was able to hold his own on the mat too, at one point actually getting the better of him (although Keita would quickly reverse it and go back to cruelly beating him down on the mat). It was also around this point that I noticed that future IWGP and AEW world champion Kenny Omega had taken a seat and was now watching this match. Hopefully this is just some long-term storytelling and Omega is currently working out a plan with TK to bring Yano in for a couple matches with the Blackpool Combat Club.

    The grappling eventually gives way to more contemporary wrestling, with 244 and Keita trading some mean strikes, leading into bigger and bigger attacks from both men. This culminated in this pretty sweet little moment from both guys towards the end: 

    Soon after this however, Keita fully took the advantage and tee'd off a hard combo before locking in the always amazing Yurikamone for the win. Overall, the match ended up being pretty damn well-paced and featured some awesome stuff from both guys, especially Keita who got to play the bully heel role so early into his career and did great at it. 

Rating: B

Pre-QA Blue, Pre-QA Yellow, Pre-QA Pink, Pre-QA Green, & Pre-QA Red vs. Ken Ohka, Konaka = Pale One, The Zack, Magnum Oedo, and Kenji Abe

    I'm not even going to try and talk much about this match, because a lot of stuff happened, I was very confused, and honestly I can't be bothered to try and figure it all out. It's currently 12:53 AM and I am too tired to dissect what the hell Pre-QA even is (I think an idol group parody? idk Shoichi Uchida and Takaku Fuke are wearing wigs and dresses and I'm not entirely sure what's going on).

    The most notable part of the match to me is definitely the one, the only, The Zack. He's a parody of Dwayne "The Fortnite Character" Johnson, and my lord is he good at what he does. He pretty much has the Rock stomps down to an artform, doing that weird leg shimmy Rock does before actually stomping and doing it really damn good. The best part of his offense was definitely his People's Elbow though, which I'm just gonna leave below because my god is it awesome.

    The only other notable part in my opinion is the moment that eventually leads to the finish. Konaka grabs Pre-QA Yellow(Takaku Fuke) and drags him into a back room. Both are gone for about 7 or so minutes before the door swings open. Out runs... hold on a second. What the hell? WHAT THE HELL? THAT'S... THAT'S...

    THAT'S TAKAKU = PALE ONE!!! Takaku = Pale One the cleans house with throat thrusts before getting the win for his team with a jumping senton. While the ending was actually pretty funny and all the stuff The Zack did was fun, overall the match was kind of a drag. I definitely don't understand the appeal of the Pre-QA gimmick (I guess dress & wig = funny or something) but ignoring that it was still just a meandering match with not much going for it. Oh well, at least it gave us Takaku = Pale One.

Rating: D+

HARASHIMA vs. Killer Master

    The main event of a very strange and very special show features one of the most strange and special appearances in FU*CK! history. HARASHIMA is, at this point, considered by most to be one of the best wrestlers in Japan, and it's hard to deny that. He's got a ton of talent and even as he's gotten older he's lost very little of it. Here, he's possibly in peak condition, and he's been tasked with taking on FU*CK!'s Killer Master. Unlike the ominous and threatening name, Killer Master just kinda looks like a dude. Nothing too stand-out in terms of gear or attitude, but he does come out to Iron Man by Black Sabbath so that's pretty sweet.

    What we ended up getting from the pairing of these two ended up being a pretty solid main event encounter. Similar to the opener, HARASHIMA was decidedly above Master and wasn't afraid to show it, completely brushing off Master's strikes for a good portion of the first half of the match and really going into him with his own. He also spent a lot of this match putting on an absolute clinic of back targeting, including this nasty bow and arrow stretch:

    That's not to say that Master didn't get any offense in. Far from it, when Master was able to get any amount of control he really took advantage of it to bust out some pretty awesome offense. He did a really nice running shooting star press, hit a gross missile dropkick straight to HARASHIMA's stomach, and even busted out this really good sequence when he was really starting to make his comeback:

    However, the result of the match was always clear, no matter how much of a comeback Master would be able to make. HARASHIMA eventually took back control completely and dumped Master directly onto his head with a gross implant DDT. That wasn't enough for HARASHIMA though, who did the spot of the night by doing pull-ups on a support beam on the roof before hitting a mean double knee drop to Master, leading into an extremely high angle single leg crab that got him the submission victory.

    Honestly, this was probably the perfect match to end the show. While it wasn't as good as Keita vs. 244 or as insane as Mambo vs. Shioda, it was an awesome display by Killer Master and a great powerful force performance by HARASHIMA. After the match, Master got beaten up a little by Shiratori but ended the show together in the ring, thanking everyone for coming out and supporting FU*CK!. A fitting end to a very crazy show.

Rating: B-

The Comprehensive CMA Gym

            (Written by jom)

    In 1993, two of the strongest killers in pro wrestling history made their debuts: Kei Tsukada and Takeshi Miyamoto. Tsukada first made his debut on June 10th for W*ING (unless you count the legit boxing matches he had on NJPW shows in the late 80s), defeating Ryo Miyake. Only 3 months later, Miyamoto would defeat Keisuke Yamada at an Oriental Pro show on September 16th. Both matches were contested under Different Style rules, with Tsukada being a boxer and Miyamoto being a karateka. Around this point, these two would seem to develop a kinship over their bond of being martial artists in the world of sleaze pro wrestling, and in 1994, the two would found the Chunkyo Martial Arts Federation, or CMA Gym.

    It was also in 1994 that the two of them would start to be pit against each other, which would very quickly be found to be an amazing idea, as both guys would absolutely brutalize each other in their matches. Tsukada fought like a prototype of Thanomsak Toba, throwing insane punch flurries and blending in some pretty insane highspots based around finding creative ways to break Miyamoto's face. Miyamoto, meanwhile, came off like the hardest fucking karateka to step into a ring. He unloaded some of the grossest kicks I've ever seen, and even had some unexpected grappling game which rounded him out to being a total destroyer no matter if he was standing or on the mat. They became famous on the sleaze indies for their brutal fights, with the feud spanning multiple promotions and coming to be known as "Indy's Favorite Counting Song" ("counting song" being a term seemingly used for long-spanning rivalries) among fans. Eventually, they would start to fade out from the pro wrestling world, with both seemingly gone entirely by the end of 1998.

    In the first Comprehensive series on the Dragon Screw blog, I'll be reviewing as many taped matches featuring Miyamoto and Tsukada as I can, and hopefully by doing this, I'll be exposing more people to the legend of the CMA Gym.

Reviewed Matches (in Chronological Order):

Kei Tsukada vs. Takeshi Miyamoto (Union Pro 10/16/1994) - B

Kei Tsukada & Ryo Miyake vs. Takeshi Miyamoto & Masahiko Takasugi (Go Gundan 12/21/1994) - B+

Kei Tsukada vs. Takeshi Miyamoto (Union Pro 12/25/1994) - B+

Isamu Teranishi & Takeshi Miyamoto vs. Masahiko Takasugi & Kei Tsukada (Tokyo Pro 02/23/1995) - B-

Kei Tsukada vs. Takeshi Miyamoto (Go Gundan 01/16/1996) - A

Takeshi Miyamoto vs. Ho Des Minh (Samurai Project 04/17/1996) - B-

Comprehensive CMA Gym #1

           (Written by jom)

Kei Tsukada vs. Takeshi Miyamoto (Union Pro 12/25/1994)

    Starting off is a straight singles match between the two men in question for this series, and my lord does it go hard. Maybe the best way to express how great this rivalry was is the feeling out process of this match, which consists of both guys taking potshots at each other just to see what'll work and what doesn't. Tsukada lands one or two blows to the face and Miyamoto lands a few cracking leg kicks, and we've got ourselves this match's story. Tsukada is a wrestler that really falls perfectly into that category of "based glove punchy guy" that is also occupied by Toba and Shinjuku Same, most of his punches don't come off as one-hit killers but he goes so absolutely nuts with combinations that it seems like any string of punches he throws could stop the match right there.

    Meanwhile, Miyamoto fought like he was on a mission from god to destroy Tsukada's leg. He dished out some fucking insane kicks all over Tsuakada's body, but whenever he shot at the leg it seemed borderline cruel, with every single one of them producing a sickening noise that really has to be heard to be believed. He didn't just throw outside leg kicks either, as seen right here when he throws a truly evil kick to the inner thigh that pretty much took Tsukada's mobility away for the rest of this round.

    The finishing stretch of this match was just fucking amazing too. Really wrapping the story together, Tsukada went for a crazy windup punch but Miyamoto just barely caught him with one more kick to the inner thigh, which just cripples Tsukada right away. Tsukada was able to get a few more killer shots in on Miyamoto after this and even got Miyamoto down to a 7 count, but the end result of the match was pretty much known after that thigh kick. A couple head kicks and a real stiff side headlock are all it takes for Miyamoto to get the win.

    This is probably all you would want from a straight "Karate vs Boxing" match. Both guys threw caution to the wind and held back nothing with their strikes, resulting in some awesome action. Definitely check this one out if you enjoy this type of wrestling at all, you won't regret it.

Rating: B+

Isamu Teranishi & Takeshi Miyamoto vs. Masahiko Takasugi & Kei Tsukada (Tokyo Pro 02/23/1995)

    This was a very different match from the last one. While the last was a different style fight with a karateka and boxer going as hard as possible, this was more of a fun undercard tag, but Miyamoto and Tsukada still were able to make the best of it with their own brand of violence, while also showing that in the last two months, both guys had gotten significantly more pro-wrestling in their arsenals.

    Just to get it out of the way, Teranishi and Takasugi did next to nothing in what was shown, so I won't be really talking about them at all here. Tsukada was much more like Toba in this match than he was in the last one, still peppering Miyamoto and Teranishi with punches but also throwing in some awesome diving punches like the one seen below.

    Miyamoto meanwhile was way more vicious than the last match, at one point dragging Tsukada outside the ring to attack him with a chair. He also incorporated more grappling into his moves, like this pretty damn good german suplex he hit Tsukada with near the end of the match.

    Very soon after this, the match ended with Miyamoto rolling up Tsukada for the three count. This was definitely a step down in terms of overall quality compared to the last match, but it absolutely served its purpose well and showed that both Miyamoto and Tsukada had been developing themselves into becoming more suitable as wrestlers than solely being different style fighters.

Rating: B-

Kei Tsukada vs. Takeshi Miyamoto (Go Gundan 01/16/1996)

    I'm not even going to give a preamble or anything. This match was fucking phenomenal. Miyamoto and Tsukada both had a perfect understanding of how best to blend pro wrestling and martial arts at this point, and the crowd at this show were red hot for this match, resulting in one of the best different style fights I've ever seen.

    Tsukada was absolutely on fire here. At this point in his career he's integrated spinning backfists into his moveset and jesus christ they're disgusting. He's also still doing the diving punches which the crowd love, as well as throwing some of the hardest punches I've ever seen him throw, busting Miyamoto's nose open with the combination shown below.

    Miyamoto absolutely responded in kind however. He blasted Tsukada throughout the match with his signature kicks, mostly targeting the stomach this time around and probably giving Tsukada digestive issues for the rest of his life. This culminated in an amazing moment where Miyamoto was seemingly down for the count and Tsukada turned away to start celebrating, before Miyamoto did this:

    Miyamoto at this point had also introduced powerbombs into his arsenal, and my lord was he destroying Tsukada with those powerbombs. Most of them were borderline deadlifting too, which really goes to show how insanely powerful Miyamoto was. Eventually, the match ended with Miyamoto hitting a final disgusting powerbomb, only for the bell to ring before he could get a 3 count, ending the match in a time limit draw.

    I said it at the beginning but it bears repeating, this match was fucking wonderful. Possibly the best match these two ever had, a perfect example of the pure violence these types of matches can produce and more proof that CMA Gym was filled with killers.

Rating: A

West Japan 06/21/1995

           (Written by jom)

Masahiko Kochi vs. Kenichi Kawasaki

    West Japan starts out their only Korakuen show right with a batch of rookie matches. Kawasaki is a complete unknown, I tried looking into him but couldn't find any info at all. Kochi is a personal favorite of mine, a really solid worker in his prime who could throw some really hard kicks and had an amazing spinning wheel kick. However, this was not even a full year into his career, so I honestly wasn't expecting much.

    It's pretty good I came in with that expectation because this match was nothing. While the whole match was about 12 minutes long, this was clipped down to not even 2 minutes (the beginning of a show full of mostly unnecessary clipping). Kawasaki was fine, doing a cool roll-up at one point, but that's really his only contribution worth noting. Kochi was also mostly fine, he actually threw some of those kicks I was talking about and even did a wheel kick, but it wasn't done that well. The match ended after Kochi reversed a small package into his own small package.

    Again, this wasn't bad or anything, but overall what we got made this out to be a very nothing match.

Rating: C

Toyonari Fujita vs. Diablo

    Now here is a match I had some hopes for. Fujita is of course the future Magnitude Kishiwada, taking on fellow future Osaka top heel Diablo. Both guys are very early into their careers, with Fujita having debuted less than 2 years prior to this, and Diablo being only 8 months into professional wrestling (while also wearing some very different gear than what we'd come to recognize him for). Even though both guys were definitely still getting their acts together, I did have some confidence this would be good.

    Luckily, I ended up being right about that, at least based on what we saw. Diablo sadly wasn't shown getting much offense in, however of the few things he did, they pretty much all rocked, especially this great diving headbutt by him.

    However, the real star of the match was definitely Fujita. The way he worked here was in sharp contrast to how he would end up working only a few years later, as the wrestler Fujita was at this point was more akin to the IWA Japan juniors guys than anything else. He hit some great dives, nasty suplexes, and capped it all off with a pretty gnarly powerbomb. 

    Eventually however, both of the competitors were unable to get a pinfall or submission before the 20 minute time limit ran out, resulting in a draw. The fact we were only shown three fucking minutes of this match is pretty annoying, but at least the three minutes we got to see were pretty damn solid.

Rating: B-

Doku Gas Mask vs. Crusher Takahashi

    Crusher Takahashi is one of my favorite guys on the sleaze scene, a worker with his heart on his sleeve and an undying love for Terry Funk, capable of throwing punches and selling in a way that would almost definitely make Funk himself proud. Doku Gas Mask is of course the one and only Survival Tobita, playing the gimmick that introduced him to the world of flamethrowers, a world that he would embrace for the rest of his career. To truly cement that, here's Mask's "pre-match promo", which is just him walking up the Korakuen stairs with flamethrower in hand:

    While the match overall didn't give me much to say, this was just so much fun. Takahashi is a wonderful babyface with a great punch who can sell his ass off for anything and everything Mask throws at him, and Mask is great as a monsterish force of nature, throwing some really gross headbutts: 

    There were some nice interactions involving Mask's mostly ineffective manager, some person in all red with a big stick. Neither guy really did anything notably great in terms of moves, but the way this was worked and how invested the crowd got made this a total blast. Eventually, Mask won by reversing Takahashi's spinning toe hold into a small package.

    After the match, Mask attempted to incinerate Takahashi with the flamethrower, but Takahashi was able to catch his arms, fighting him off and just chucking the flamethrower out of the ring. Mask tried to throw a chair at him from the outside but Takahashi caught it and threw it back, and Mask's manager attempted to do the same but his chair ended up hitting off the ring post and flying back at him, to the glee of the audience.

    This match was again clipped down to just around 2 minutes, but the overall match was only about 8 minutes long so this really didn't hurt as bad as the last two. Both guys played their roles really well and the crowd were so into everything they were doing. Just a great fun old school match featuring two guys who are genuinely great at delivering that type of match.

Rating: B+

Black Hole & Fumio Akiyama vs. Hopper King & Koichiro Kimura

    As you can see from the title of this match, this one is actually on YouTube, courtesy of the wonderful IndyPuroresu channel. This match had a ton of potential just from the names, as it features four dudes with awesome attires and fucked attitudes going at it in a "shooting style" tag match. This was probably the match I had the most hope for on the whole show, and my lord did it deliver.

    Akiyama was great here, fighting with a real ferocity to everything he did, at one point sweeping out Kimura's legs and just going nuts on him with strikes. Pretty much everything Akiyama did felt so legit, he really felt like he was fighting for his life against Rider and Kimura for the whole match. Black Hole was great too, acting as like a weird space alien judoka version of Vader. For a lot of offense thrown his way, he would just absorb it with his big fuckin belly like a god, and he threw some real stiff clubbing blows in combination with some absolutely beautiful throws.

    Kimura was an absolute beast during his times fighting. He had some absolutely awesome moments like ducking a head kick from Akiyama to pick his other ankle, or when he just started brawling with Akiyama and Black Hole. Hopper King (aka Super Rider) was probably the best part of this whole match however. He threw some fucking amazing punches and kicks, absolutely obliterating whoever he was in the ring with at any time, while also doing some awesome grappling on the mat. 

    Eventually, the match ended in one of the best finishes I've seen in a long time, which I honestly won't even say since you should really go out of your way to check this match out. It's less than 10 minutes long and absolutely worth your time. Just an insanely stiff fight, real sleazy bati-bati featuring four of the best at working a style like this.

Rating: A-

Hiroshi Shimada, Kenichiro Yukimura, & Shigeo Okumura vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka, Masaru Toi, & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa

    Following up that insane intergalactic shoot-style match, here we have a who's who of the 90s sleaze scene. Shimada is a big fucker with some great athleticism, Yukimura is a solid juniors worker, Okumura is a pretty nice rounded wrestler, Hatanaka is an absolute bruiser, Toi is a pretty sweet juniors guy, and Kikuzawa is (at this point) another solid all-rounder.

    This was pretty damn good, albeit not reaching my expectations but still being a pretty fun watch. Everyone had a moment to shine or two, with Shimada probably putting in the best performance. He was an absolute beast here, just chucking Toi and Kikuzawa around like they weighed nothing while also having a really awesome segment where he used Kikuzawa and Toi against each other like they were human battering rams. Kikuzawa was able to put on a great performance too, getting some revenge on Shimada later in the match with this absolute beauty of a suicide dive:

    Around this point, the match breaks down, with tons of brawling on the outside. Hatanaka is able to get in the ring with Yukimura and while Yukimura is able to get some nice offense in, he's no match for the absolute monster that is Hatanaka, with Hatanaka's onslaught leading to this borderline unprofessional beatdown:

    After this, Toi hit a crossbody on Yukimura for the win. Overall, I think the match was pretty solid stuff, however it did feel kinda disjointed and some people like Okumura and Toi contributed far less than I would've liked them to have.

Rating: B

Flag Deathmatch: Mitsuteru Tokuda vs. Ho Des Minh

    Just like the shooter tag match, this match has also been uploaded to YouTube by IndyPuroresu. The rules of this match are pretty simple: to win, you have to pin your opponent with their flag on top of them. Ho Des Minh is the weird Chinese militant gimmick of Poison Sawada, coming to the ring with a god damn combat knife like he's planning to murder Tokuda. Tokuda at this point was the top guy in West Japan, and it seems that he and Minh had been feuding for a while up to this point. 

    Honestly, the best way to describe this match is that it just fucking ruled. Tokuda and Minh brawled like mad all around the arena, throwing each other into chairs and going nuts with some awesome spots, like Tokuda doing an amazing judo throw on Minh while Minh was on the top rope. They also were both able to do some crazy table spots, such as this absolute beauty of a DDT by Minh:

    Or this genuinely insane suplex by Tokuda:

    This may be surprising, but I'm actually going to leave talking about the match at this. The whole match is less than 10 minutes just like the insane tag, and some of these spots just have to be seen to be believed. A top-tier hardcore brawl with an insanely hyped up crowd, this is a career performance from both Minh and Tokuda. Definite recommendation that you check this one out ASAP.

Rating: A