IWE Matches That Soothe My Troubled Soul

                  (Written by jom)

     Have you guys seen that photo of Rusher Kimura with his massive collection of Louis bags? If not, here it is. You should check it out.

Kintaro Oki vs. Umanosuke Ueda (10/04/1980)

      Considering everything else I've discussed up to this point, this is the most obvious great match ever. Ueda and Oki go out and beat each other around Omihachiman Athletic Park for fifteen minutes and all is right in the world. In a way, it's almost hard to find worthwhile words for this match, because it really just gives you everything you would expect. Oki hits as hard as he ever did and rampages Ueda into walls and ring posts with his signature pissed-off fire. Ueda finds any and all opportunities to slap on cobra claws and utilize Foreign Objects, all while begging off and bumping huge for Oki's moments of rage. They tear down the building and drag anyone not quick enough into the onslaught, including the commentator who gets bumped hard and taken out in the latter half of the match. I will at least admit that, for as great as this is, it also never really goes beyond "great". I can't really explain why, either. I think it generally did a good job of delivering on the promise of Ueda & Oki in a singles match, but I also think it may have had more juice worth squeezing out. The violence was big, but it could've been even bigger with a little more time or a little more violence. This kind of argument isn't worth much salt, though. The match is great, and the match makes me happy in the exact right way this match should. No use in expending any energy on what-ifs when what we got is sick as fuck. 

Mile Zrno & Charly Verhulst vs. Ashura Hara & Jiro Inazuma (05/09/1979)

    More Zrno goodness, and more Zrno goodness with Hara! Both men have brought their friends with them, and what an assortment of compatriots. Charly Verhulst is another guy I've never heard of before, and you can tell he's from the Zrno sphere of pro wrestling just from how he moves in the ring. He's certainly not as quick and enduring as Zrno, but he's holds his own on the ground and knows how to throw uppercuts with the best of them. Jiro Inazuma, meanwhile, is a man I know much about, and a man I've somehow not included in any of these IWE write-ups until now. I wouldn't call this match the best showcase of his abilities, but he gets his moments to shine, throwing wild uppercuts at Verhulst and pulling off beautiful headscissors takedowns on Zrno. Of course, Zrno and Hara are the stars of the show, and they give us a lot more of the action they rocked Korakuen Hall with a few days prior. Zrno's such a tenacious worker, outright refusing to give up holds unless he has a very clear reason to do so (be that rope break or better vantage point). Hara, meanwhile, is one of the best at taking advantages of those little pockets of opportunity found between Zrno's barrages. This match also has both men laying in the strikes even harder than before, with Zrno's uppercuts landing flush on the jaw, and Hara's dropkick nearly detaching Znro's head from his body. Ignoring the sadly weird and sloppy finishing stretch between Inazuma and Zrno, this is more prime pro wrestling, and a fitting lower-key sequel to the borderline classic earlier in the tour.

Kintaro Oki & Kim Duk vs. Great Kusatsu & Animal Hamaguchi (11/28/1978)

     I simply cannot get enough of Oki going beast mode. This is one of the more tweener Oki performances of his IWE appearances, taking on the definitive babyface duo of Hamaguchi and Kusatsu with loyal goon Duk by his side. Tragically, this is also clipped to high heaven, seemingly less by the TV station and more by footage degradation, but what we get is very cool. This is the best Kusatsu has ever looked, as he locks on quick and flashy holds and gets a few chances to go toe-for-toe against the Koreans with standing strikes. Most of his striking is just perfectly fine, but he does turn it up out of nowhere in the latter half of the match, throwing hellacious jabs and uppercuts at Duk. I'm sure Kusatsu got more of an opportunity to show his stuff in the handful of cage matches I just haven't gotten around to checking out yet, but for a guy that's always come off as good enough, he certainly feels like a lot more coming out of this one. Hamaguchi mostly does what Hamaguchi does, bumping around well and pulling off one of his awesome airplane spins, but never doing too much of note. The Korean duo here stand out the most, especially Oki with his usual Oki headbutts and meanness, but Duk shows his own viciousness with some nice knees to the temple and an awesome Canadian backbreaker. Maybe if we had the full 18 minute version of this match it'd be something outright great. As it stands, we only have 6 minutes, but those six minutes are fun and worth a look. 

Rusher Kimura vs. Professor Tanaka (11/30/1978)

     Another IWE post means another Rusher Kimura singles match. Kimura singles matches are closer to being comfort food to me than anything else, usually simple and repetitive in their structure and narrative but full of the necessary heart and spirit to keep me enjoying the action no matter how many of them I watch. This match is, undeniably, par for the course for Kimura singles matches. As usual, he's placed across the ring from a big bad foreigner, this one being Professor Tanaka, a guy that looks so intimidating that he had an entire second career as a character actor for bodyguard and sumo roles in B-flicks. I guess you could say there's an extra layer here with Tanaka's existence as a gimmick Japanese man, but IWE puts less than zero effort into making that part of the match's story, and I personally feel no interesting in dwelling on it beyond this mention here. He's good in the role of intimidator + brutalizer, letting his general presence do a lot of the heavy lifting while pulling out some nice holds or quick jabs every now and then to keep the action from stalling out. Kimura matches up with him well too, as he's just as good at wrenching himself out of submissions and crumpling from Tanaka's cheap shots. Inevitably, Kimura fights back hard enough to require Tanaka to rely on a Foreign Object, and that leads to a bloody Kimura's final stand. I could've pulled out a piece of paper and mapped out this match's entire structure within 10 seconds of the bell ringing. I promise you, if you know the Kimura formula, you know what will happen here, and neither man does much of anything to divert expectations. Having said that, I love the formula, and I have no issue with them sticking to the usual script. Maybe not much for the average fan, but for the real Rusherholics, this is more of the good stuff.

Cage Death: Ashura Hara & Mighty Inoue vs. Terry Lathan & Paul Ellering (05/16/1981)

    Astonishing. I can't believe I missed this match when I went on my journey through the IWE Chronicles DVD set. This is the first time I've ever seen it and I'm completely blown away. I'll just come out and say it now: this is a strong contender for the best cage match IWE ever put on, at the very least among the matches we have on tape. This is Hara at his most emotionally-driven and Inoue at his most fiery and unrelenting, complimented by two white dudes willing to throw endless punches to the face and cheat to high heaven. Paul Ellering looks like a cartoon parody of a professional wrestler, complete with action figure-like body shape and the world's worst hairline. He throws bizarre punches that are as good as they are weird, and he more than makes up for any strange movements with just how much of a presence he has in the ring. Terry Lathan, meanwhile, feels like the biggest non-Japanese discovery of the whole project, a 'Bama boy with a propensity for biting at wounds and bumping like a madman. While Ellering does a damn good job of being Ellering, Lathan acts as the workhorse here, doing most of the big bumping during the babyface comebacks while also pushing the level of violence with his viciousness. They're a fantastic duo, one that matches up perfectly with two of IWE's best in their most prime forms. Hara really feels like the next guy up with his beautiful punching comeback and his massive superplex, but he really excels on defense as he stumbles around from Lathan's punches. It's a nice preview of Hara's work a decade later as he starts to figure out that signature Hara selling style that would put him head and shoulders above practically every other wrestler ever. Inoue, meanwhile, is fully realized. His pissed off and reckless comeback work in this match is the best I've ever seen from him, even greater than the comeback in the Ueda tag discussed last week. He's a punching and stabbing machine, throwing the ref around whenever he tries to get involved and refusing to let up on his assailants. This is spectacular, one of the last great matches from the final months of IWE, and a potential contender for IWE's best match ever.