The Nagoya-Osaka Offensive: Assorted NWD & NPW Matches From The Archive

                          (Written by jom)

     A few days ago, I was half-heartedly scrolling old local indie websites on the internet archive, when I stumbled across a goldmine of WMV files, somehow all preserved for over 20 years. All of the matches in question came from either the Osaka-based New Pro Wrestling (NPW), or the Nagoya-based Nagoya Wrestling Dreams (NWD), with most matches being from the multi-year rivalry between the two organizations. With such a big discovery made, I almost feel a duty to talk about this wrestling nobody has heard of on my blog, mostly in the hopes that there's some real gems in this new collection, but also just to shine a light on a part of the scene that's gotten practically zero coverage in english-speaking circles. Prepare to read a lot of names you've never read before. Let's hop in. 

244 vs. Masanori Kaneshima (NPW 12/17/2000)

     It's weird to see 244 even partially hinged. I'm used to watching him dancehis way to the ring and get into weird shoot fights with bookers, but this is NPW top guy era 244, so he's way more reined-in than he would be later in the decade. He's also a total CIMA idolizer (explains a lot), wearing his gear and doing his moves without a hint of shame. Kaneshima, meanwhile, is the prototypical local shooter, perfectly color-coordinated and ready to dish out an excess of middle kicks. If UWFi were more open to bringing in random job guys during their shows on tour, Kaneshima probably would've been a solid hand for a Kakihara or Kanehara to beast on. Here though, he's a big freakin' deal, with his own fan section that probably consists of his girlfriend and family who are louder than anyone else in the crowd throughout the whole match. I honestly love it a lot, more wrestlers need their own fan club to cheer or boo at the drop of a hat and project complete bias rather than being an "I love wrestling" tepid clapper like we have nowadays. A lot of this match is based around Kaneshima working down 244 with submissions on various limbs before turning to the bombs, and his limbs-targeting is quality work, especially when he tweaks 244's ankle and immediately puts a hold on the ankle. His bombs also deliver pretty well, especially his beauty of a missile dropkick. 244, meanwhile, is definitely lesser than Kaneshima in the execution department, but he does a stunner into a people's elbow at one point which got a nice chuckle outta me. Fun stuff as a whole, maybe not the kind of match you should drop everything to check out but it has its moments and makes me want to see more of both guys, so there's not much else to ask for.

Kenichi Asakawa vs. Macadamia Hattori (NWD 07/20/2002)

    Another local shooter against another slightly odd junior. Well, I don't mean to downplay either man. Asakawa is certainly more than just a local shooter: he also does moonsaults! My only experiences with Asakawa are seeing him get beat up on a RIKI OFFICE show by super rookie Masaru Kawakubo, and seeing him absolutely pwn a really fat fake Muta on a Lock-Up show (Lock-Up being the second or third rebrand of NWD within three years). Hattori, meanwhile, is making his debut here, a trainee of the Shibata Dojo ran by (shocker) Katsuhisa Shibata. Katsuhisa is probably most famous nowadays for being Katsuyori's dad, but his dojo was responsible for producing a handful of random indie stalwarts in the early 2000s, most notably the Kurokage that hangs out with Diablo a lot. That Kurokage also seems to be the best Shibata Dojo graduate, as most of them, Hattori included, never seemed to know how to work. Asakawa certainly tries his best here. He's a mean ass striker with great pacing and execution (at least two steps above Kaneshima on the "believable UWFi jobber" scale), and his aerial moments all look awesome, especially his springboards. The problem is that Hattori has no idea how to take any move ever, which leads to him nearly killing either Asakawa or himself on every bump. Hattori's own offense is good as he pulls out nice flashy kicks and llaves, but his work on defense goes beyond inconsistent and into the realm of genuinely dangerous at a few points. Ah well, Asakawa certainly left a good impression on me, so I'll be on the lookout for more of him.

Kenji Yoshioka vs. Hiroshi Toshima (NPW 05/19/2002)

    Can I get another local shooter vs. local junior matchup please? Truly, these kinds of matches were inescapable in the early 2000s. Minoru Tanaka and his consequences I suppose. Toshima is the least shooty worker to be given the "local shooter" title so far, but he's got some mean ass kicks that sound more brutal than any of the kicks the last two guys threw, so I'll place him in the category anyways. This match isn't the most exciting or action-packed thing in the world, but it's incredibly competent. Future NPW owner Yoshioka is kind of grossly talented at competent wrestling for a guy stuck in no-ring feds, with beautiful dropkicks and incredibly solid matwork. Toshima is solid in his own right, maybe a little too loose in the holds and too prone to slipping up on his moves, but full of the spirit and willing to dish out punishment. There's a really nice moment early on where the two seemingly mistime a corner attack, and Toshima recovers from the nothingness by chopping Yoshioka as hard as he possibly can, rather than try to redo the spot. I've seen people with more experience in more important places recover far worse in similar situations, so I appreciate Toshima's ability to make a good gut call whenever the fuckups happen. As a whole, it's just alright, competently worked wrestling and little else, but I can appreciate a solidly-worked match for sure.

244 vs. Yuji Miyazaki (NPW 12/16/2001)

    It's funny to think that this heated interpromotional main event between two feds' top champions features two of the most notable FU*CK! rogues gallery members. Miyazaki is only a few years away from transforming into The Zack. It's very weird to see him as a serious and petty worker knowing that he's destined for funny eyebrow raises and People's Elbows. This is far and away the best match discussed so far, mostly because of how interesting it is. 244 and Miyazaki are probably the least capable of the bunch (obviously excluding Hattori), but they have a much better grasp on their own individuality, and the match benefits a lot from that. Miyazaki is a house of fire and not at all afraid to break rules, dragging 244 around the venue to slam him into walls and hiding illegal chokes from the referee. 244, meanwhile, gets his receipts whenever he can, throwing nasty chops and kicks while mostly working Miyazaki's arm with full-force stomps to the elbow. This match once again falls into the armwork pattern that has somewhat dampened the energy of all the NPW matches before it, but that armwork is at least more spirited and bitter than the armwork in 244/Kaneshima. The match really rides that bitterness through thick and thin, making up for the occasional botch or slow period whenever either man gets the chance to throw a bomb. Once again, not a great match, but of everything we've talked about thus far, this one is certainly the closest to that point.

244, Hiryuu, Kenji Yoshioka, & Masanori Kaneshima vs. Kenichi Asakawa, Kensuke Komatsu, Koichi Sone, & Yuji Miyazaki (NWD 11/24/2001)

    Yeah, this is the one. The NPW and NWD forces collide in a big chaotic brawl where everyone finally lets loose and the promise of greatness is delivered. At least, that's what enough of this match is to warrant calling it great. It's also a lot of not so good stuff! This match is loooooooooong. Like 20 something minutes long, way longer than a match with a hot start and three minutes of arena brawling should be. It's not like they maintain that fast pace, either; they return to it at multiple points, but at least half of the proceeding match is slower and more heat-heavy. I appreciate the heat work for the most part, as both teams do a good job of cutting the ring in half and finding ways to beat down the weaker links of the teams, but I couldn't help but get a sinking feeling in my stomach when I saw Miyazaki start a legwork segment on Kaneshima. Limb targeting has been absolutely inescapable throughout all this footage, and while I always appreciate a good "pick a limb, tell a story" kind of match, I've been overexposed to somewhat acceptable forms of it for the last two days, and I just don't wanna see any wrestlers controlling the match with arm wringers and key locks for the rest of the week. Again though, there's enough potshots and dastardly fouling to keep this one chugging along, from Miyazaki's chair DDT to NPW's relentless apron kicking. Hiryuu, the god damn BLUBBER MONSTER, leaves a real lasting impression and proves why I'm a complete idiot for not covering any more of his matches, mostly through hitting gross lariats and beasting smaller men around the ring like it's nothing. He's easily the standout amongst the crowd for me, but Asakawa's flying armbars and Yoshioka's dropkicks to the jaw do a lot of heavy lifting of their own. Hell, 244 and Miyazaki even get into a few punch exchanges, and they look great in 240p. Everyone impresses for the entire run of the match, and they end it nicely with one of the crazier finishes I've seen from this period. It's a match that knows itself enough to get much right, and while the faults certainly keep it from entering even higher territory, this is still the best match of the new collection for sure.

The Voices Are Back. They Beg For IWE.

                          (Written by jom)

     I took a bit of an IWE break recently, mostly because I was just busy but also to refresh myself with other wrestling. Sadly, I have conditioned my brain too far. I couldn't help but watch and think "where are all the referee bumps?" or "why isn't there a 9ft tall cage around the ring?" I'm like a sick dog, ready to be taken behind the shed and sent to the angels. Until that happens though, I'll remain here, in my chamber of IWE. 

Rusher Kimura vs. Nick Bockwinkel (10/05/1979)

     Bock. Is. Back. Nick Bockwinkel returns to the IWE blog posts and once again delivers a really great match against one of the stalwarts of the company. Rusher feels like a great compliment to Kintaro Oki in that sense, similar in build and mobility but different enough in both the grounding and standing game. As usual, this match starts with nearly ten minutes of old school grappling, and I'm just in love with everything that happens. So much of the grappling portion is based around Kimura putting on side headscissors, and it works so well thanks to both Kimura's dogged determination and Bock's wily escape tactics. Watching them battle it out on the mat, I couldn't help but think that these kinds of matches feel almost similar to double acts from old vaudeville comedy, with each guy filling their own roles to work off one another. Rusher Kimura is the straight man, stiff and rigid in his work and entirely grounded. Nick Bockwinkel, meanwhile, is the banana man, flailing around wildly and crafting weird holds and escapes to get control over Kimura. It's a comparison that may not land all the way, but I hope my ramblings at least make some sort of sense. Everything beyond the grappling is great and exactly what you would ask for from the pairing. Bock is an incredible seller and Kimura is an incredible giver, and everything feels just so well done for the pairing. Truly, this is the perfect match that these two could give, down to the wonderful bullshit finish. Another strong non-brawling performance from Kimura, and another great match from Bock.

Strong Kobayashi vs. Lars Anderson (09/26/1973)

    As I've stated before, the usual Strong Kobayashi match format doesn't go entirely well with my sensibilities. I can enjoy a good bit of slow-burn grappling, but the slow crawl pacing of many of his matches is just a bit too slow for me. So you can imagine my excitement when I was skimming one of the early 70s compilation DVDs and stumbled across what appeared to be a Rusher Kimura-esque bloody brawl featuring Kobayashi! I have no interest in Kobayashi being Kimura, but I was just interested in seeing what Kobayashi would do in an environment like this one. And yeah, he's pretty good at this whole brawling thing. He's a little less active than Kimura is in his matches, more prone to just letting himself get beaten down, and his strikes definitely land with less oomph (especially the Hulk Hogan style chairshots), but he's certainly able to harness the spirit of a pissed off ace, throwing mean shots to the midsection and eventually taking out his frustrations on the referee. Lars Anderson, for his part, is fine enough too. He's pretty good at what he does here, which is mostly punching and kicking Kobayashi in the face, so he slots in nicely as a dollar store Blackjack Mulligan. I still anxiously await the Kobayashi match that'll blow me away, but this is a nice detour from snail-like matwork and an interesting look at another of Kobayashi's faces.

Rusher Kimura & Great Kusatsu vs. Danny Lynch & Butcher Lynch (01/07/1975)

    The quacking Humpty Dumpty duo returns. Last time we saw the Lynch Brothers, they gave us a very special Kimura bloody brawl featuring the very first instance of someone bleeding more than Kimura himself. Well, here they are once again, and they're game for another big Kimura bloody brawl, albeit one that's way more in line with the usual expectations. This match actually has one of Kimura's grosser bladejobs, as he spends the entire last half of the match with blood all over his head, arms, and torso. The Brothers Lynch are strong in control with their usual bizarre offense, complete with Danny Lynch throwing reach-around tummy punches and Butcher Lynch basically running across the ring to land uppercuts. They're great on defense too, bumping like lunatics around the ring for Kusatsu and Kimura, and Danny Lynch cranks it up even farther during Kimura's big comeback as he starts hitting backflips on every Kimura punch. It's selling that goes beyond the point of parody, but I love it very much. Certainly not one of the best tags from this era or matches from this genre, but a fun little time that makes me happy we have more Lynch Brothers footage.

Ashura Hara vs. Nelson Royal (10/05/1979)

    This is a pretty infamous match, less for the content and more for the ramifications. The long and short of it is that Nelson Royal's NWA Junior Heavyweight title defense wasn't considered authorized, and both NJPW and AJPW contacted the NWA to protest about the belt being defended in a non-NWA organization. This would result in Royal giving up the title and retiring, making this his last match (until he would un-retire four years later) and leading to the creation of another junior title because of more NWA in-fighting spawned by this. All of that is to say that most people don't remember this match for the match itself, which I think should be rectified. This is great! So much of Hara's late '79 run has been him proving his capabilities in as many facets of wrestling as possible, and this is his best showing when it comes to the slower minimalist grappling that dominated the Japan main event scene. Unlike the swift and complex matwork of Mile Zrno, Royal's brand of wrestling is concentrated on headlocks and sleeper holds, doing his best to trap Hara back into the chokes any time he would find a way to escape. Hara is great on defense, scrambling on the mat to escape Royal's clutches and selling Royal's knee strikes to the body like his appendix burst. The work is slow, but it's well-practiced, and the struggle is kept interesting enough to never lose me. It all builds to a great finishing stretch involving big suplexes and even bigger counters, the exact kind of ending this type of match deserves. I certainly wouldn't call this better than either of the Zrno singles matches, but it still stands out as a different kind of great technical match than what I'm used to seeing from Hara.

Mighty Inoue & Great Kusatsu vs. Mad Dog Vachon & Gypsy Joe (02/27/1977)

    Wild, wild fun. Honestly, I don't have a ton to say here. The biggest problem I have with these kinds of matches from a writer's perspective is that they leave little room for aggrandizing, and aggrandizing is, in a sense, my business. This tag wears its heart on its sleeve and spends no time at all attempting to apply subtext or hidden meaning or any of that other bullshit. What you see is what you get, and what you get is an unstoppable frenzy of Korakuen violence. These are four immensely talented brawlers being given the floor to brawl, and they do basically everything you'd want them to do in that situation. Gypsy Joe keeps finding assorted objects to attack people with, ranging from actual blades to big bins. Vachon repeatedly nearly kills fans with his crowd rampaging and gets into little fights with Inoue & Kusatsu multiple times. The home team throw their usual nasty strikes and get big comeback pops. It's textbook stuff from the four in question, and the execution is great all around. No need to try and think too hard about a match like this. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Waiter! Waiter! More IWE Please! Thank You :)

                         (Written by jom)

     I wonder how much we have of the IWE guys on excursion. I'd kill a man to see the Rusher Kimura USA and Canada tapes. CAGEMATCH says a Kimura/Dory Funk Jr. match from 1970 ended up on TV, so if anyone knows where that one is hit me up. 

Great Kusatsu vs. The Stomper (11/04/1979)

     The (Mongolian) Stomper makes his debut in the Kokusai zone. I deeply respect Kusatsu's commitment to getting over all the top act foreigners in late stage IWE, usually at the cost of his own credibility as a main eventer. Here he is bumping like a beast for Stomper, getting beaten down and choked out while letting Stomper get over all his bigger moves and, more importantly, his character. Kusatsu certainly isn't a weakling in this match though; he pulls off some of his usual big spots, like the always great counter cobra twist and the figure four leglock, and he even hits a massive suplex on Stomper that shakes the ring. Still, Stomper is a real animal of a worker, frantically hunting down Kusatsu and always applying the pressure. He has Yasu Fuji hovering around him as well, ready to jump in and interfere any time Kusatsu gets a little too deep in control. Grading this in the "great match" way feels almost wrong, because this match actually does exactly what it sets out to do and does so excellently. Stomper is now a credible top guy, ready to take on Rusher and Oki and whoever else he'll need to stomp all over in this tour. Good stuff and a well-done debut match.

Mike George vs. Kintaro Oki (04/26/1980)

    Good stuff. Mike George is a Mid-South guy, so I honestly assumed he would fit like a glove, and he kinda does? Maybe it's just by the nature of this match, but while he definitely works well, he's not doing as much fighting as I would've expected. This is primarily a grappling match by design though, so maybe that's not the best option for studying the Mike George capabilities. This follows a pretty basic structure of Oki dominating on the mat, George pushing back with fouling, and Oki making the big comeback with chops and headbutts. It's the time-tested formula for most IWE main eventers, and it's one I usually enjoy no matter what. This match is no exception, albeit it's certainly not trying to stand out from the pack. Oki's armwork is cool and feels very unrelenting, as he constantly hunts for grounded armlocks from any and all positions. George's fouling is more than competent, and features the first white boy cross chop I've ever seen. The Oki comeback, as always, rocks. Not a match that elicits much discussion, but a perfectly fine outing indeed.

Rusher Kimura vs. Umanosuke Ueda (04/20/1979)

    For some, this might be the most anticipated matchup of the IWE voyage. IWE's greatest hero takes on its most notorious villain with the IWA World Heavyweight championship on the line. Just for a bit of historical context, these two's first singles match came in 1976, where Ueda beat Kimura and actually won the title (a tragically lost piece of wrestling as far as I know). They'd have a rematch a month later that would end in a no contest, and then Ueda vanished from wrestling for half a year, vacating the belt before Kimura could ever win it back. Now, here we are, three years later. This match starts with the very rare appearance of Thinker Kimura, as Rusher actually tries to out-wrestle Ueda to cancel out Ueda's bullshit fouling. It's a fascinating strategy for a guy like Rusher to use. He's a wrestler who thrives off of passion, and it's almost bizarre to see him use his brain instead of his heart for his decision-making, but it's an awesome wrinkle in the match for sure. Of course, no amount of hammerlock hunting can stop Ueda from engaging in his fouling ways, complete with an infinite number of headlock punches and foreign object jabbing, and a man can only take so much. It isn't long before Kimura abandons the measured approach and lets the raging beast loose, turning the match into the frantic bloody brawl it was always meant to be. Chairs and ring bells are smashed over heads, referees are ignored, and the ring itself is torn apart. I can't imagine there was ever any doubt that the Ueda/Kimura singles would rip, but it truly passes with flying colors. The wonderful IWE violence we're all here for.

Mighty Inoue vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (11/25/1978)

    Well, hey there Jumbo. I've talked a bit about the IWE/NJPW feud of 1979 and 1980, but I've somehow yet to talk about anything fromthe IWE/AJPW feud that took place during the preceding years. This is from 1978's Japan League, where Jumbo repped Zen Nihon as he skipped the tournament blocks period and jumped straight into the single elimination stage. Inoue is a perfect dance partner for Jumbo, as Inoue pretty much fulfills the same role of revolutionary young gun. And wouldn't you know it, these two very clearly have a great match in them! This is not that match, but it's a very nice preview of what's possible for the pairing, and a very good match in its own right. The early portion is that old grappling that has become lifeblood for me, full of interesting little counters and complex entries into basic holds. Inoue is a fiend for an armlock and Tsuruta does a great job of countering with big arm drags and more subtle movements like dropping a knee on the stomach to prevent the sequence from going all the way back into an armlock. It isn't as engrossing as it certainly could be, but it's competent at worst and genuinely pretty great in a few moments. Once both men start dropping more bombs, this match moves the closest it could possibly get to greatness, with Inoue especially showing out with some truly awe-inspiring counters. Give these guys five more minutes and let them go wilder earlier into the match and you'd have yourself one of the best matches of this ilk from the 70s. As it stands, this is still a ton of fun and worth watching if you're a fan of either man.

Ashura Hara vs. Gypsy Joe (11/07/1979)

    As I've mentioned a few times previously, I originally started this IWE journey privately months ago, mostly going through the IWE Chronicles DVD releases while randomly watching matches posted to the Channel 12 account that has littered my blog since turning this into a writing thing. Back then, this match comfortably sat at the top of my list as the very best of what IWE ever offered. Well, it's been a few months since then, and things have changed. I've found matches that speak to my soul just as much as Hara/Joe did. I've found others that may reach me on an even deeper level. But, here I am, months later and one fresh rewatch removed, ready to tell you that this match still hits just as hard, if not harder. This is IWE at its most cruel. More specifically, this is Gypsy Joe at his most cruel. In the Rusher Kimura cage match, I pinpointed him as a Dracula-esque blood drainer, but the Gypsy Joe here feeds more on suffering than blood. The way he tortures Hara around the ring goes beyond the scope of anything seen before, dragging him by the hair and face to throw him into the metal beams on the cage and finding all opportunities to punch him as hard as he can in the nose and jaw. Hara certainly tries to fight back, wildly throwing punches and chops into the air, but always gets cut off and dragged back into hell, convulsing as he goes. Joe's violence would be enough on its own for sure, but Hara's disgusting jerky motions and gasps for breath take his struggles and transform them from an attempt to fight back into an attempt to live. Hara really only gets his comeback through sheer force of will, picking the right moment to put everything he has into one final momentum-shifter, and it starts the most harrowing babyface revenge segment I have ever seen. Ashura Hara, after 10+ minutes of torment, gets it all back in blood by scrambling Gypsy Joe's brains into a mushy mess. I mean it when I say that I don't think it would fly nowadays, at least not in any of the major American or Japanese companies. It's scary, but it's also entirely fitting as a punishment on Joe for his abhorrent actions leading up to the comeback. This is a match of consequences, and the consequences are graver for Joe than any other man. One of the most compelling pieces of work from IWE's catalogue, and one that more than holds up as one of the best IWE matches ever.

    ...But where exactly does it land on the list??? Considering the occasion of this being the 10th IWE post so far, I thought I'd release my IWE ranking list. This list only includes matches I've covered on Dragon Screw, and I'll release a new list every now and then so the people can know what it's currently looking like. I already know of a few matches that I've already seen that'll probably make it into the top 15 once I cover them (and a few I haven't seen but have high hopes for), but I do feel pretty confident in the top 5 being pretty unshakeable. Behold!!!

    Thank you to everyone that has been tuned in for the IWE reviews so far. I'm planning to slow down the posts for the next month or so, just because I want to chill out from making blog post announcements every three or so days. That being said, I already have the lineups figured out for the next few posts, so who knows. Maybe there'll be a new one ready within two days of this. Regardless, thanks again for checking this stuff out, and go watch some IWE bro.

More IWE Matches For The True Believers

                        (Written by jom)

     My apologies. I don't mean to immediately go back to the personal collection well, but I've been incessantly watching these new tapes and WOW. There's just too much here worth talking about that I can't help but push it to the front of the line. Next post will be exclusively matches available for free on YouTube, I promise you that. 

Gypsy Joe vs. Mighty Inoue (04/27/1978)

     Dirty, nasty, brutal. Mighty Inoue gets a big-time singles match against Gypsy Joe and unleashes inner demons like never before. One of the biggest revelations coming from the IWE voyage is that Mighty Inoue is a complete psychopath. All it takes is a little bit of a push from a malevolent force and Inoue will happily ramp up the evil from zero to a hundred in a second, transforming from the chipper showstopper junior with the somersault sentons and big shoulder tackle into a spiteful and ravenous bastard. Gypsy Joe, of course, does not give him a little push, instead delivering a shove with the force of an NFL linebacker. He's dead-set on eating Inoue's face only a few seconds into the start of his fouling brigade, cracking him over the head and neck with hammer fists and throwing closed shots to the jaw every time he can get a chinlock on. Inoue, in turn, responds with 90% punches directly to the face, before eventually picking up the cannibalism himself with his own face-eating tactics. They rip each other's hair out, kick each other in the dick, and even bring a solid metal cigarette bin into the equation. I don't think I would put this in the tippy-top tier of IWE brawls (too much ring time and not enough blood for that spot), but it's undoubtedly circling around the 2nd to last floor. Wonderful piece of chaotic pro wrestling, my favorite kind indeed.

Rusher Kimura, Ashura Hara, & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Masa Saito, Mr. Hito, & Umanosuke Ueda (04/19/1979)

    There's absolutely nothing wrong with tags designed to be crowd-pleasers. Far from it — there's real value in matches built to give the people what they want. It almost feels stupid to say that out loud, but seeing as how so many people have always despised the lucha legend tags where the old heroes and villains would go out and do their spots to the adoration of the crowd, it's apparently an agenda worth fighting for. This match is another one of those people pleasers, as it's three invading villains doing their usual sort of heel heat while the babyfaces make repeated miraculous comebacks, all to build towards an Ueda/Kimura title match the next day. Nobody's trying to reinvent the wheel here, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. Mr. Hito is the most interesting part of the match to me, not only because it's one of the few Hito IWE matches we have on tape (and, for that matter, one of the few Hito Japan matches as well), but also because Hito is such a great bump guy for the heels. He looks like a Masa Saito mini-me and wrestles with a similar level of viciousness, while also being the only guy on the heel team willing to bump around for the babyfaces, which he does a great job at. I have no complaints about Saito and Ueda being protected to high heaven here, especially considering Ueda's impending title challenge, but the circumstances really do force me to appreciate Hito's talents as a bumbling fouler. Everyone else here does well, too. Really, if you know the type of work these guys do, it's business as usual. Not a great match or a match that feels like a big deal in any capacity, but not really a match designed to be that way regardless. House show main event that passes with flying colors.

Animal Hamaguchi & Great Kusatsu vs. Big John Quinn & Gil Hayes (06/29/1975)

    I don't know what the first fall of this match is like, as we jump straight into the second fall. I also don't know who John Quinn and Gil Hayes are, as I have never even heard of them before, let alone seen them. From a cursory glance at their wikipedia pages, both were long-time mainstays of Stampede wrestling in their native Canada, with Hayes spending almost his entire career up north while Quinn worked basically everywhere in the world at some point. Really, none of that needs to be known here, because all that matters is that Hayes and Quinn are the two most evil wrestlers alive. I've slowly built up this belief throughout all of the IWE watching that IWE was the one promotion in Japan to get the closest to southern-style territory rasslin', and this is the first match I've seen that feels almost designed to prove that argument. Within 30 seconds of where we join into the match, Hayes takes Hamaguchi outside and slams him face-first into a table. Thirty seconds after that, Hayes and Quinn get Hamaguchi back in the ring, and Hamaguchi is losing actual buckets of blood. What follows is one of the most uncomfortably gruesome angles in Japanese wrestling history, as Kusatsu tries his best to protect a completely limp and bleeding out Hamaguchi while the Canadians attempt to sneak around him and land shots on Hamaguchi's corpse. I truly cannot remember the last time I've seen something even remotely close to this from a Japanese company. It is entirely foreign to the makeup of that country's wrestling style, more reminiscent of something out of Memphis or Puerto Rico. I'm half-convinced that Dusty Rhodes was booking for IWE via snail mail. This is something special.

Great Kusatsu & Mighty Inoue vs. Pierre Martin & Mad Dog Martel (12/02/1975)

    As usual, two of IWE's beloved native workers take on two dastardly foreigners in the unforgiving steel cage. Martin and Martel are devious French Canadians known as THE COMBAT, with Martel actually being the older brother of Rick Martel. I'm still not exactly sure who is who, and I refer to them in my notes as "Combat Bald" and "Combat Hair," so that's what I'll be sticking with here. They're the traditional bunch of fouling white boys, prone to scratching and biting but also pretty amazing punchers, especially Combat Hair. Combat Hair comes off as almost a Canadian Satanico in this match, both in appearance and in his general in-ring style, full of nasty punches and incredible face bumps. Combat Bald is good too, albeit his best trait (his selling) only comes through once the early heel heat portion morphs into something much bigger. After two minutes of basic and solid fouling, the cuts cuts away for some clipping and comes back to Mighty Inoue bleeding harder than I've ever seen him bleed at any other point in his career. It goes beyond just a crimson mask and nearly becomes a crimson chest and torso as well. Inoue once again takes this torturing as his excuse to unleash hell upon the white boys with the nastiest chair shots of the 70s. Kusatsu is more than happy to dish out equal punishment too, including breaking a glass something against the ring post and repeatedly stabbing Combat Hair in the face with it. They beat The Combat up and down the ring with cage slams and big punches and everything you can imagine. While other IWE brawls have felt like culminations of violence, this is the first to feel more like a celebration of violence. Inoue and Kusatsu give the people what they want by pulling out anything and everything to destroy The Combat with. Maybe the most fun I've had with a match this entire project.

Rusher Kimura vs. Mad Dog Vachon (03/26/1977)

    Writing these little reviews makes me feel like an IWE Paul Revere. I just want to scream to high heaven that the Rusher is coming, so everyone can be prepared to witness Rusher kino. This is a strong candidate for the top spot in Rusher Kimura's Ultimate Bloodletting Classics list, and actually usurps the Mulligan match for the crown, at least for now. Mad Dog Vachon gives us the second best tone-setter in IWE history by spitting in Kimura's face only seconds into the match, and maintains that vile energy by spending the entire match fouling. No joke, about 80% of his offense is just cheating, ranging from eye pokes and claws, to chokes, to biting, to anything else you can imagine. He rips at any open hole on Kimura's face like he's trying to remove his skin. He gets his hands on a chain and begins putting Kimura through the closest thing to Hellraiser torture he can. The thing with Rusher Kimura, though, is that he gives back what he takes, and he gives it back twofold. It's similar to the Mighty Inoue policy of taking any provocation as a sign to press the nuclear button, but Kimura usually goes about it in a more heroic way, albeit just as brutal. Rusher Kimura is a reaction: if you give him a little, he'll give you a little more back. If you're a guy like Mad Dog Vachon, who gives Rusher the beating of a lifetime, then you'd better grit your teeth for the Rusher comeback run. Chain torture evolves into ring post slams which evolves into closed fist brawling among the crowd. Everything goes to hell and everybody dies, including the referee (which fulfills the long-dreamt prophecy of an IWE match where every single person in the ring bleeds). The entire finishing stretch of this match is up there for the best of Rusher's entire career. Calling this IWE fireworks feels like an understatement. This is an IWE atomic bomb, a dangerous and blood-soaked explosion of the pro wrestling spirit that probably left an indelible impression on the psyches of everyone in attendance. Easily one of Kimura's best matches thus far, and most likely one of his best matches ever.

Primordial IWE Matches To Turn You Into Dust

                       (Written by jom)

     I have been on the planet Earth for a reasonable number of years now. These matches precede me by over double my age. It is baffling to me how much of this is in reasonably high quality, and I keep catching myself staring in amazement at the crispness of the Strong Kobayashi hammer fists. I just don't feel like we were meant to be able to see Rusher Kimura's early bloodletting spectacles in higher quality than the later ones. There has been some grave error in the fabric of the universe, and we can only use it to our own benefit. I ain't complaining though. Old ass IWE makes me happy :). 

Asataro Sano vs. Sankichi Fuji (10/29/1969)

     The very first IWE match on tape. It'll always be weird seeing matches from the 60s, especially from Japan. It's almost even more shocking that we have this match specifically, considering how few IWE young boy matches we have. We don't have a single bit of Masahiko Takasugi, Kodo Fuyuki, or Apollo Sugawara, but we somehow have an Asataro Sano match. Sano would be gone from the business by 1971, while Fuji would leave IWE for a life of working in the states, only returning years later for a short tour as Yasu Fuji (where he would have one of the promotion's best cage matches ever). Just by virtue of how fascinating this match is as a historical relic, it's worth checking out. The action itself is just about fine, though. Everything is weirdly stagnant and the progression of the match feels stilted but that comes more from the time period than anything else. Asataro Sano knows three moves and can't bring himself to string those moves together in any varying ways, but his dropkick is cool and he throws punches to the gut. Fuji is actually a very solid heel for someone so early into their career, catching Sano with punches to the jaw in headlocks and sticking his thumb in Sano's throat when the ref isn't looking. He also randomly hits a bodyslam on the floor which gets zero pop from the crowd but a big pop from me. I can't say this is anything more than perfectly fine when it comes to the in-ring stuff, but it's definitely something I think people should watch, just to see how much wrestling has changed in the last 50+ years.

Rusher Kimura vs. Billy Robinson (06/03/1974)

    Strong chance this is the biggest footage tragedy in IWE history. Bigger than Wahoo/Kusatsu, bigger than any of the other 8mm film I've seen so far. Arguably, the only one of greater magnitude is the original IWE cage match of Rusher vs. Dr. Death, and that one feels like less of a tragedy and more of an inevitability considering the circumstances around the match's broadcast. We have a little over a third of this match, and no audio at that, and even with so much missing I think there's a high likelihood that this is one of IWE's greatest matches ever. Kimura is a hammer and Robinson is a scalpel, and those two truths come to define the match. Both men get a chance to show how well rounded they are early on, with Kimura doing some great wristlock work on Robinson in the early portions and Robinson responding with nasty elbows and uppercuts, but the idea becomes set about halfway in that Rusher has Robinson entirely beat in a standing strike battle, and Robinson is forced to use all of his brain to avoid getting caught in a Rusher onslaught. I've never seen a wrestler so willing to block like Robinson. Especially nowadays when guys are totally fine with eating a strike to respond back with their own, Robinson stands out for how hard he tries to not get hit. When blocking isn't viable, he tries to eat Rusher alive with unrelenting strike combos, and that strategy is proved to be a double-edged sword when Rusher eats it all and tsuppari strike's him to hell. This is a battle of masters, two of the very best deep within their zones, and it delivers on all fronts. If we ever get the full version of this (which I have to assume doesn't exist anymore), I'm sure it'll stand out as a top 5er at the very least. It's able to land in the upper echelon just as it is now.

Rusher Kimura & Mighty Inoue vs. Danny Lynch & Butcher Lynch (01/06/1975)

    So, the Lynch Brothers (no relation to Jeff or David). Two of the strangest looking fellas I've never seen anyone talk about before. As far as I can tell, both of them come from the UK, which means their hobbit-like frame at least makes a little more sense. They look like the middle form in the Pokemon evolution chain going from Trashman to King Kong Bundy. They also work as oddly as they look: Danny does kung fu strikes while making Donald Duck noises, and Butcher goes for pure Britwres handstands and headscissors. They feel more like Saturday morning cartoon characters than gritty pro wrestlers, which makes the match in question feel even more surreal. This is the first Kimura bloodbath I've ever seen where Rusher isn't the heaviest bleeder; Danny Lynch gets some of the gnarliest juice in IWE history and spends half the match sporting a crimson mask. His blood is so coagulated too, splattering around the ring like Nickelodeon slime, especially during the points where Kimura literally stomps the blood out of his head. Kimura is pretty ruthless all around, chopping at the wound and even throwing a low blow at one point. Maybe he didn't appreciate Danny's attempt at Shaolin style martial arts, or maybe he just doesn't like people that look so round. Mighty Inoue falls more in line with the wacky fun that the Lynch Brothers imply with their inherent goofiness, mostly pulling off cool counters like one of the best back body drops I've ever seen, but he also gets in with the grittiness when he does a 1975 chair shot to one of the brothers and chokes the other with a cable on the outside. It's all such a bizarrely compelling affair, like turning on Wacky Races only to watch Dick Dastardly get waterboarded halfway into the episode. Definitely worth checking out to witness the passion of the Lynch Brothers. Also Rusher Kimura goes uber rage mode following the fuck finish and brutalizes referee Osamu Abe and booker Isao Yoshihara, so that's awesome.

Animal Hamaguchi vs. Mighty Inoue (09/26/1973)

    Absolute blast right here. This is spiritually much closer to the types of young boy matches you would see today compared to the Fuji/Sano match, albeit neither of these men are actually rookies. Hamaguchi and Inoue give Korakuen Hall a wonderful lightning-quick technical match, one full of techniques mostly foreign to the scene at this point. It's an amazing showcase of how talented both men are at this kind of relentless workrate action, and it's a great preview of not only their future work, but also the future of wrestling in Japan in general. I'd go so far as to say that this is the closest 1970s IWE ever got to hosting a spotfest, albeit the kind of spotfest is very different from the ones happening in the decades to come. I think the biggest boon of this match is just how good both men are at integrating struggle into their work. The execution is absolutely flawless, but the picture-perfect motions never sacrifice the realism of the work. Hamaguchi and Inoue fight over arm drags and cravates and every other hold they put each other through, all while finding more intricate ways to go about putting themselves into winning positions. This is supreme pro wrestling, and definitely stands out among the IWE crowd. It's a total heartbreaker that this would be the last time these two would face off in any capacity on tape until the Ishin Gundan invasion of AJPW in the mid-80s. This is a singles pairing that could've rocked the world.

Strong Kobayashi vs. Rusher Kimura (07/09/1973)

    The one. IWE's new ace versus the man who will become the true ace only a few years later. This is the first native-only title match in Japan in over a decade, and it has that big fight feel in droves. The crowd is super amped up before the bell even rings, and Kobayashi and Kimura know exactly how to play into that, crafting one of the better slow and deliberate title matches of the era. Similar to the Robinson match discussed earlier, this plays out partially as a striker against grappler sort of deal, with most of Kimura's big comeback moments coming from his nasty chops and Kobayashi taking back control with some of his best grappling I've yet seen. A lot of it is both creative and brutal, from the leg crucifix where he kept trying to squash Kimura's head like a grape to the body scissors with tailbone-shattering slams. It's certainly not the most exciting work at some points, but for most of the match, it's just active enough to keep you locked in. Kimura also does a great job of fighting out of the holds, mostly through chopping Kobayashi to hell while on the ground. The more energized moments of the match feel like great payoffs as well, especially the all-out brawl near the end of the first fall which I've posted to Twitter at least twice now. I think that the third fall would probably be the fork in the road for most people, as everything up to that point is pretty great, and the way they approach finishing the match either cements the match's status as great or knocks it down a peg depending on personal preference. For me, I think it's a fitting end to one of the most important title matches in IWE history, even if I also think there's a better version of the finish out there in another timeline. Regardless, this is more great stuff, maybe not either man's best work but something worth mentioning when discussing both men's strongest assortment of matches.