Assorted IWE Matches That Tickle My Fancy

                 (Written by jom)

     IWE back-to-back?? Yeah bitch!!! The thunk of Kintaro Oki headbutts call to me like a siren's song. I also genuinely cannot find it in myself to write about anything else because IWE is one of the only things in wrestling that interests me currently. I could power through an article written about a random schmuck working in basements, but I don't really want to. All I want to do is put more words to the page about why Rusher Kimura was one of the best top guys in the history of Japanese wrestling, or why Mighty Inoue should've gotten a top heavyweight run in AJPW regardless of his actual size. As always, here are five matches from the IWE archives, some of which I already adore while others I fully intend to adore. IWE is not a perfect place, but the shape of its spirit fits perfectly into my soul.

Gypsy Joe vs. Kintaro Oki (07/01/1980)

      A tragically clipped affair. The version we currently possess has nearly 10 minutes cut off from the start, which I can only assume mostly consisted of Gypsy Joe beating Oki's ass. We come in with Oki firmly in control and never see anything else, but this functions well as an Oki agenda piece. He's such a physical wrestler, an early template of the nasty stiff brawlers that would become more prevalent in the late 80s and early 90s. The influence on a guy like Fujiwara is blatantly apparent, down to the similar headbutt form, but to call him a prototype of Fujiwara would be an insult to both. Oki, for as talented at matworking as he was (just see the Bock match from the last post for proof of that), cared much more about the striking and bigger drama more often than not. He spends this whole match throwing chops at the throat and turning his own brain into mush with the nastiest headbutts of the era. Joe, for his part, is as receptive as he should be, taking said headbutts by wandering into the crowd like he's forgotten where he is, tumbling over tables and the like. It breaks my heart that we have none of his work on offense, but it's cool to see him doing everything he can to get over Oki's headbutt as a weapon of mass destruction. Nothing vital, but if you want to see Kintaro Oki beating ass, it's a good six minutes of that. 

2/3 Falls: Ashura Hara vs. Mile Zrno (05/06/1979)

    I've never seen Mile Zrno before. I know that close friends have pushed the agenda for him for years, but he's somehow stayed outside of my radar for the eight or so years I've been in this sphere. I can't believe it's taken that long because Mile Zrno is astounding. He's probably the closest anyone from this period of wrestling has ever come to feeling like the French Catch guys of the 40s & 50s. He's a total monster in this match, working the mat with excellent execution and beating Hara down with nasty uppercuts and dropkicks. His work constantly teeters the line between beautiful and vicious, at some points pulling off the most fascinating armbar transitions you've ever seen, and at others grinding Hara into the dust with grounded elbows to the head or kicks to the face. Hara, for his part, puts in his best juniors performance I've really ever seen, showing his strength in the bombs category while also proving himself equally capable in the grappling portions. He pulls off an incredible drop toe hold counter to a single leg early on and looks like a beast wrenching hammerlocks on the ground. More than anything else though, this match really finds itself in the smallest of moments just as it does in the biggest. The moments before the takedowns or suplexes feel almost more important, as these two masters square each other up and try to bait one another into making a mistake or giving the smallest opening needed to advance. It's a clinical affair, one that even gets a massive boost in the ending portion with one of the most ahead-of-its-time finishes I have ever seen. Once again, IWE blows me away with one of its more scientific matches, reminding me that there's a lot more to International than the blood-and-guts brawling (even if I love that stuff oh so much).

Kintaro Oki & Kim Kwang Sik vs. Alex Smirnoff & The USSR (10/08/1980)

     I miss when wrestling had shit like "The USSR." I take pride in the fact that one of the bigger deal indie stars in my region is a dude named Vladimir Koloff, who spent years really milking that Cold War heel heat (even if nowadays he's more of just a generally very good worker). The USSR is actually longtime WWF jobber Charlie Fulton, dressed up in one of Smirnoff's spare singlets and wearing a black mask that just says "USSR" on the front. Not enough people talk about IWE's revolutionary and ahead-of-the-times approach to integrating political strife into wrestling storylines, because who else was booking Korean War revenge matches like this? This match is incredibly fun, and works as a pretty great display of all four men's talents. Smirnoff and USSR are great heaters for the babyface with Smirnoff doing most of the heavy-lifting. He's a wonderful scumbag, happy to interfere in the match and throw hidden closed fists or use a Foreign Object. USSR is clearly one of the least talented workers of this time period, but the bar for talent is so high at this point that he still shows an innate understanding of working that puts him head and shoulders above a lot of guys today. The Koreans are by far the stars of the show though. Kim Kwang Sik, who I didn't realize until after the match is Oki's shoot younger brother, comes off as Oki's personal Teranishi. He's an athletic specimen who flies around the ring so gracefully while also throwing headbutts with incredible viciousness. Seeing Kwang Sik work here just makes me yearn for the 80s Korean wrestling tapes that must exist in some Seoul uncle's basement. And of course my guy Oki delivers the Oki-ism in droves. Tons of headbutts, tons of personality, he's just the best. Wrap all of that together nicely with a "referee Lou Thesz antics"-colored bow and you have yourself one of the most enjoyable tags in all of my IWE viewing. It's not as serious or as climactic as some of the more flat-out great tags from the promotion, but seeing Kwang Sik use himself as a wheelbarrow to pull the Russians into Oki headbutts is an experience like no other. 

Rusher Kimura vs. Ron Bass (10/11/1980)

     I think one of the more interesting aspects of all this IWE watching has been figuring out what works best for Rusher Kimura. I've seen as many good Kimura singles matches as I've seen bad ones, and I think it has a lot to do with Kimura's status as one of the original Stoic Japanese Men. Kimura commands a presence entirely through muted emotions, chopping down opponents with a stone face and only really changing that expression in the rarest circumstances. As such, Kimura's best work in singles action almost always comes against wrestlers that pop out of the screen in big and borderline cartoonish ways, whether they be foreign monsters (the Ox Bakers of the world) or complete chickenshit heels. Ron Bass comfortably sits as one of the best of the latter category, as he puts into a wonderful cowardly performance here. His facial expressions are great, fluctuating between absolute fear of Kimura's chops and Grinch-like deviousness while plotting his fouling. He begs off like a madman and hunts for the ropes every single time Kimura puts on even the most basic hold. He is, in every single way, a coward, and his cowardice is his weapon against Kimura. Gimmick brother Don Bass (which I constantly pronounce in my head as Donbas) also does a good job of fouling it up, especially when Kimura goes outside and gets caught in a storm by the brothers. It all leads to a textbook Kimura comeback and a big finish, wrapping up nicely as an easy crowdpleaser. I have no interest in pretending that this is some life-changing piece of work, but it's a strong performance from both men that knew their roles very well. As feel-good as it ever was.

Cage Death: Animal Hamaguchi & Mighty Inoue vs. Yasu Fuji & Umanosuke Ueda (11/14/1979)

    I would say this is probably my fifth time watching this match. My feelings on it have fluctuated a lot over the last couple of months. The initial viewing in April mostly met my expectations, albeit I didn't think it went beyond being great. The second viewing a few weeks later left me feeling about the same, albeit I did find myself appreciating the heel heat portions more. The third viewing in July marked a major turning point, as my eyes opened and I came to love it as maybe my favorite IWE match. August came around and I finally watched the full version of this match (I had only watched the clipped IWE Chronicles edition up to this point), which further cemented my feelings on this being a strong contender for #1. Now, here I am, five months removed and five watches completed, telling you that I... don't love this as much as I did after the last watch. I think there are undeniable negatives to some of this work, even if it pains me to say that. The first half of this match is good, with points that go into the territory of "very good", but it's also a little bit of a slog at times. Most of it is heel fouling which is something Ueda and Fuji excel in, but the Ueda choking clinic can make the mind wander, especially compared to how chaotic and unrelenting the second half of the match is. The complete lack of Ueda crowdbrawling also does kind of hurt the soul, even if its absence is necessary because of the stipulation. The bits of Ueda crowdbrawling we get after the match mostly make up for it, but comparing this match to the other big Ueda matches of his IWE stint makes it clear that having some crowdbrawling probably would've made that first half a little bit more energized. Having said all of that, this is still one of the best IWE matches ever. For as long as the first half can feel, it's also jam-packed with great fouling and some of Ueda's best Foreign Object usage. Yasu Fuji bites and kicks at wounds and hits a nasty piledriver while also bumping huge for the babyface comesbacks. Hamaguchi and Inoue both get chances to show that viciousness beneath the surface that has been bleeding out in all of their tags against Ueda, and Inoue once again impresses more than anyone else in the second half when he gets his hand on a buckle and goes wild. All of my complaints pretty much exist to say that this isn't the best IWE match, but it's certainly still in contention for the top 10, let alone when we just focus on the IWE cage matches. An incredibly compelling and cathartic match, even if I no longer think it's the greatest thing IWE ever offered up.

IWE Matches That Make Me Smile :)

               (Written by jom)

     I love IWE. I love the homegrown guys that made up the regular roster. I love the random foreigners brought in as Rusher Kimura & Strong Kobayashi stepping stones. I love the constant presence of special guest referee Lou Thesz. I love the cage match design that barely goes higher than 10 feet. I love the ring design. I love the logo. Really, I love basically everything about the company. Over the years, it certainly had its not-so-great moments. I'd need more than two hands to count the number of boring, worthless Rusher Kimura singles matches. I've seen more than my fair share of disappointing cage matches, ones that answer the question "what if you had a cage match but pretended the cage wasn't there". Still, in all of my IWE watching, I've definitely come away from it thinking I like IWE a lot more than I don't. For the sake of talking more about the wrestling I like, which is, truthfully, all the wrestling I would ever like to talk about, I've grabbed a handful of IWE matches that all make me very happy. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I've enjoyed writing about them.

Mighty Inoue & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Kintaro Oki & Umanosuke Ueda (10/05/1979)

      Wonderful chaos. The entire Ueda IWE run is filled with these kinds of legitimately shocking brawls, matches where it almost appears that Ueda is legitimately trying to make his opponents angry so they take the brawling to new heights. Mighty Inoue was possibly his best partner in that regard, easily one of the most explosive members of the roster who really got the chance to develop a mean streak when in the ring with Ueda. Inoue is actually the one to kick off the violence here, bumrushing Ueda before the bell and throwing a table at his head. The Inoue & Hamaguchi duo is a well-oiled machine, seamlessly blending together energized limbwork with lots of chest chops and dropkicks. Ueda and Oki, however, are perfect disruptors. Oki's mastery of the headbutt is second to none at this point in time, really putting out great innovations in the fledgling genre of Headbutt Pro, and he uses that chrome dome of his to completely flip the match's momentum on more than one occasion. Of course, Ueda is far and away the star here. He's got foreign objects aplenty, little regard for the safety of wrestlers or fans alike, and a killer instinct nobody else can match. The way he jabs the edges of chairs into the clavicles of Inoue & Hamaguchi is sickening, and his actually unidentified Foreign Object usage is superb. It's a wild ride, the kind of brawl that makes you realize that we've actually known how to do really great wrestling since the very beginning. Also a Kintaro Oki fan snuck their trumpet into the venue and really had a grand ole time with it the whole match. 

Goro Tsurumi vs. Isamu Teranishi (03/12/1981)

    This is probably the closest thing to a throwaway TV studio classic that IWE ever put on. It's the kind of match that finds itself seated among the sick ass Ronnie Garvin squashes and randomly awesome WCCW lucha matches. While this match, like most of IWE, is distinctly Japanese in structure and execution, this is one of the more lucha-adjacent matches to come out of the company, complete with Tsurumi putting in a wonderful stooging base performance to compliment Teranishi's incredible athleticism and fantastic execution. The bigger spots like Teranishi's amazing sunset flip counter out of a failed monkey flip certainly wow the most, but the smaller stuff like Teranishi's punch sequence really does a lot for me, especially when Tsurumi is putting in a hell of a job selling it all. Tsurumi also gets his receipts in great ways, from throwing punches to the jaw during a chinlock to chopping Teranishi's throat while he's laying on the ground. Add onto all of this one of the more awe-inspiring finishing stretches I've seen come out of this period and you've got yourself a real hidden gem.

Rusher Kimura vs. Ox Baker (06/23/1979)

     I know that I started the blog post by referring to Kimura's many boring singles matches, but this is certainly not one of them. Ox Baker was almost undoubtedly the best foreigner in IWE's history, save for maybe Nick Bockwinkel (who worked there significantly less) or Alexis Smirnoff (who was Baker's regular tag partner too). For a fed with such a penchant for brawling, he was the perfect fit, a massive lumbering heel with a presence that screamed danger. In most of his matches, his work more closely resembled Resident Evil's Mr. X than anything else. He's a creeping death, slowly following his opponents around the ring and putting them through the torment of clubbing blows whenever he gets close. Some people would probably say that it borderlines on cheesy, but I would disagree - it's actually very cheesy, which is why it's so great. I mean, look at Ox Baker. He is the most villainous man to walk the face of the planet. Of course he's going to wrestle more like he's a slasher villain than a professionally trained worker. Kimura also always does his best work in these kinds of bloody and violent fights, and he does a damn good job of not only fighting back valiantly, but also eventually really taking the fight to Baker with nasty chops and headbutts. It's slow and plodding, but it's also a gruesome chain match. If there was ever a match that would benefit from that kind of pace, it's this one. 

Isamu Teranishi & Ashura Hara vs. Katsuzo Oiyama & Goro Tsurumi (01/30/1980)

     It hurts my soul that we have so little of the Oiyama/Tsurumi duo on tape. I mean, we barely have any Oiyama in general, but every time I've seen them team up, it's been magic. In a way, Independent Gurentai were the heel answer to Hamaguchi & Inoue: young and energized, able to seamlessly work together, but also fueled by malice with a penchant for fouling. They do a good job of taking it to Hara and Teranishi in this one, with Oiyama pulling off some awesome headbutts (especially the rebound one) and Tsurumi throwing great punches all over Hara's body. Oiyama also gets to show out with his weapon usage, trying to bisect Teranishi on the outside with a chair before trying to beat him to death with it while Tsurumi has him in a saw trap-like situation. Hara, for his part, in way more of an all-rounded dynamo than the lumpy shitkicker he would become only five or six years later, and it's really cool to see him working the mat with such high ability. And Teranishi rules, obviously. He feels like such a revolutionary figure compared to everyone else, a man displaced from time by at least four or five years. More of a popcorn match than something entirely substantial, but god I love myself some popcorn.

Rusher Kimura & Mighty Inoue vs. Joe LeDuc & Umanosuke Ueda (09/09/1979)

    Outstanding. Is this Ueda's best work from his time in IWE? Maybe so. The singles against Kintaro Oki and his cage match against Hamaguchi & Inoue are really the only two matches that stand a chance of besting this one, and I'm currently leaning towards it being better than the Oki singles at least. What we have here is Ueda at his meanest, his smarmiest, his most willing to punish and most unwilling to be punished. This is Ueda The Coward as much as it is Ueda The Tormentor. Seeing him turn on a dime from an unrepentant fouler throwing hidden closed fists to a crying yellow-belly begging for mercy borders on being a religious experience for me. It also helps him that he has Joe LeDuc, another biblically accurate IWE foreigner, as his big muscle, throwing massive clubbing shots and fully following behind on Ueda's fouling antics. Inoue, much more of a victim in this match than in the previously covered Ueda tag, fights his heart out as he's stabbed, choked, and treated with no regard for his livelihood. His big revenge moments are full of his own fouling, from low blows to chokes to even one of the craziest weapon moments I've seen in all my IWE watching. Inoue never even attempts to portray himself as a "hero of justice" - Mighty Inoue is a man getting fucked on by Umanosuke Ueda, waiting for the moment he can strike back with the same kind of violence. Rusher Kimura, somehow, ends up being the least notable guy here, while also delivering one of his best house of fires ever, punctuated by an incredible LeDuc "timber" sell. This is the kind of match I wish I could bottle up and take sips of for the rest of my life. This is the kind of pro wrestling that shakes me to my core and keeps me in this godforsaken hobby. If you watch anything from this post (and you really should watch everything), let it be this match. This is everything to me.