Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW, 4/15/00)

This was such a cool match-up, almost worked like a junior heavyweight match with Ogawa forcing Misawa into his style. Ogawa's a favorite and he was able to show off here, between his slick maneuvering and cheap tactics. He gets the most out of simple holds, like the way he hangs onto a side headlock or headscissors, or how he leaps onto Misawa's back with a sleeper hold to try and wear him down. He was able to deliver some great neck-focused chains of offense to set up the backdrop hold while managing to counter a lot of Misawa's offense. Subtle selling from Misawa, who looked a little perturbed at times that he's got this little gnat constantly buzzing around his head and on occasion, he's able to pop him with a few stiff elbows before finally putting him away in the end with the tiger driver. A simple but refreshing match.

NJPW "Dome Impact 2000" (4/7/00)

Don Frye vs. Koji Kanemoto

Don Fyre has such a good look, long hair or short, and he came off like a big badass here, but gave Koji Kanemoto enough to keep this interesting for the most part. Kanemoto isn't one to back down from a fight and I like that he stepped up to Frye, smacked in the face, and then immediately gets belly-to-belly suplexed down and put into a submission. Frye's limbwork was real grunty and calloused, which is obvious when you take a look at him, but Kanemoto's a sly cat and will grab a leg when he can. He lands a moonsault onto Frye's back off the missed spear and Frye lets loose a terrific F-Bomb when Kanemoto's got him in a leglock before he boots his way out the hard way. Then he clobbers Koji with a few elbows and submits him with a leglock.

Satoshi Kojima vs. Shinjiro Ohtani

Both entrance themes rule -- what a transition period 2000 was. I really liked the hot opening with the hard open hands exchanged and Ohtani going after the elbow/lariat arm and getting in some of his signature spots. But when Kojima takes over on offense, he more or less blows off the armwork and just shows off his dominance to the point where he attempts his own facewash...and fails. I liked the Koji Cutter spot off the missed spinning heel kick and Ohtani's reaction to the nearfall off the dragon suplex hold was great. Other than that, Kojima kind of stunk it up.

Kazunari Murakami vs. Takashi Iizuka

I love the visual of Takashi Iizuka running down the rampway toward the ensuing chaos in the ring...and then immediately getting pummeled and taken out by Murakami. Whenever Iizuka is able to get a submission hold locked on, it feels like a big deal and while the groundwork is rather simple, the struggle conveyed from both sides really adds to the gritty feel of the match. Iizuka being a dope on the ropes, not letting go and then pounding Murakami in the back of the head was great. I think this could've benefited from being shorter but whatever, we got Murakami trying to goad Iizuka back to his feet after blasting him with a kick, and the slack-jawed looks of Inoki and Fujinami at ringside. As the match heads home, you can really see the frustration in Iizuka's strikes and when he's able to get the choke sleeper on Murakami, it's huge. It's hard to put a rapid dog to sleep but Iizuka snags him off the ropes and finally puts him down. Good stuff.

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa

Slimmed up and shaved down Shinya Hashimoto is oddly reminiscent of Monster Morning himself, Manabu Nakanishi. This was pretty damn great in the way they were able to keep the lines blurred. Early into the match, Naoya Ogawa is being real shitty and brash with his knockdowns and then gets caught off guard with that Hash legsweep from the outside, which allows Hash the opportunity to lay into him to the point that Murakami has to come into the ring in Ogawa's defense. The reactions Hashimoto elicits from the fans with his takedowns are awesome as he keeps trying to cut out Ogawa's legs. I thought the STO struggle and escalation of impact was done really well, with Hash first countering with the DDT and then just kicking the shit out of Ogawa's leg in frustration before Ogawa is finally able to put him down after the choke sleeper > STO combo. Pretty awesome match.

BattlARTS (3/25/00)

Yuki Ishikawa & Naoki Sano vs. Alexander Otsuka & Kazunari Murakami

Kazunari Murakami and Yuki Ishikawa have such good chemistry together -- Murakami's always coming out rabid and swinging, and the cooler Ishikawa is just trying to get the takedown and submission. Murakami is one of the few guys out there whose sloppiness actually adds to the match and his charm. I love the way Alexander Otsuka maneuvers around the mat and floats around his opponent (with Sano here) as he's constantly looking for an opening to suplex or a limb to snag. The brawling on the outside was awesome with Ishikawa jacking Murakami with these gnarly elbow shots and rolling around with him on the collapsed chairs. And when Murakami kicks Sato in the butt after the big dive and commentary lols...precious. I thought Ishikawa's deadlift German to Otsuka as he's crawling to his corner was incredible, and of course, Otsuka answers with a nasty release dragon. Oh, and Otsuka makes the best saves. Really good match that flies right by, despite the 30:00 time limit draw. 

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Katsumi Usuda

A lot of stiff love, with Usuda opening the match with all these shitty little headbutts before trying to choke out Ikeda. Then he starts snapping off kicks, landing a couple of headshots to Ikeda, who stumbles around until he runs into a shot that knocks him flat. Really great hard kicks from Usuda throughout. Of course, Ikeda dishes it back, waylaying Usuda with a big right hand before clobbering the fuck out of him with a lariat on the ropes. Usuda spends some time going after the arm, doing a good job of maneuvering around Ikeda's escape or counter attempts to stay in control. Loved when Ikeda freaks out on him with his punts, stomps, and kicks. Really liked the finish too, with Ikeda grabbing the arm, rolling around into a Fujiwara armbar, and then laying on him with the choke sleeper until Usuda's eyes go white. Too bad this was clipped because this ruled. 

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Satoshi Kojima (NJPW, 3/19/00)

Although it's missing six or seven minutes of action, this is such a great match with a concise and engaging story, good selling from both guys, and an exceptional performance from Satoshi Kojima. It opens with Kojima hitting a diving elbow drop onto Sasaki, slickly countering a lariat attempt with a Koji Cutter, and then hammering on Sasaki's knee with some grunty legwork, which includes these awesome diving chopblocks. After he delivers an awkward Koji Cutter off the apron, Kojima hangs Sasaki in the tree of woe and lariats the fuck out of his knee. Then he hits a top rope Koji Cutter -- I mean, they're coming from every angle. My favorite moment of the match comes after Sasaki withstands Kojima's lariat and straight up punches him in the face. Chono and crew jump the apron like "What the fuck, ref?!" but Sasaki doesn't care and punches Kojima again. He starts to build some momentum, hitting a frankensteiner and locking on the sasori-gatame but he can't maintain it due to the knee damage. They ragdoll each other with back-and-forth German suplexes and one count lariats. Kojima's able to counter the Northern Lights Bomb with an armbar takedown but when he tries to go back to the leg, he just collapses in exhaustion. So good. He then tries for his own Northern Lights Bomb but can't do it, so Sasaki shows him how it's done and then polishes him off with the short-arm lariat. Recommend!

Takehiro Murahama vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa (Osaka Pro, 3/25/00)

I do love little shitkickers and Takehiro is a terrific little shitkicker, already showing so much fire and ego three months into his pro-wrestling career. This match is fought in rounds, like Murahama's debut match, and Murahama is just so much more aggressive out of the gate than Hoshikawa, avoiding most of his strikes and laying into him with kicks, punches, and knees. The only real offense Hoshikawa's able to get in the first round is a series of freakout slaps to the grounded Murahama. The second and third rounds are mostly defensive, with some strikes exchanged and groundwork that doesn't go anywhere. In the fourth round, Hoshikawa immediately takes Murahama down with a suplex and tries to cinch in a choke, knowing his only chance to best Murahama is on the mat. The German suplex off the ropes with Murahama struggling to hang on was awesome. When Murahama delivers his own German, Hoshikawa is able to grab an arm upon impact, going from a double wristlock into a jujigatame and nearly scoring the submission before the round ends, saving Murahama's ass. In the final round, Murahama comes out swinging for the fences and pummels Hoshikawa down, stomping away at him while he's on the ground. He's relentless here and Hoshikawa definitely gets brutalized, despite getting a few shots in, before he goes down hard. Pretty awesome fight that felt different than most "shoot-style" affairs.

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Masanobu Fuchi (AJPW, 7/18/91)

I heart both of these guys and I heart this match like I heart a good cup of coffee in the morning. A little sugar from Fuchi on the mat, a little cream behind Kawada’s kicks. Unfortunately, this is clipped but when it picks up, Fuchi’s going after Kawada’s left leg with the old man stomps. He lays into a leglock, transitions into an STF, and then just starts cranking on the leg. When Kawada gets pissy, it’s one of the better things in life, with his baby headbutts and punting Fuchi out of the ring. Even when he’s lying on the ground, he’ll still try to take out Fuchi with a low kick. But Fuchi takes advantage of a prone Kawada with a nasty looking stomp. He avoids the powerbomb, backdrops Kawada, then slides into a facelock, forcing Kawada to take a breather out of the ring but goes right back to it when Kawada re-enters. Kawada finally clobbers Fuchi and uses his own facelock, which produced this fantastic visual of Fuchi scrambling to get out of it until Kawada applies the body scissors and submits him. Really fun stuff.

Yuki Ishikawa, Munenori Sawa, Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda, & Super Tiger (BattlARTS, 7/26/08)

Awesome six-man elimination match, which you don't get too often in a hybrid shoot-style environment. This is the kind of shit that got me back into pro-wrestling -- the frantic, almost relentless matwork, trying to hold onto a submission long enough to do enough damage before somebody runs into the ring and shitkicks them. Everyone is constantly following up on their attack, going from submission hold to strikes back to a submission hold, not leaving much breathing room. I mean, for a 45-minute match, the pace they’re working is incredible. This felt like the BattlARTS version of a classic All Japan six-man, with everyone playing up their respective roles: Sawa, the wild child, Usuda, the aggressive little shitkicker, Ikeda provoking everyone from the apron or break up holds, Otsuka the suplex machine, and Ishikawa the dad that has to come in and save his kids. Oh yeah, and Super Tiger, whose tripping all over himself trying to land kicks.

Otsuka and Usuda were the two standouts of the match, in my opinion. Otsuka's always grabbing limbs, transitioning from hold to hold, trying to find an opening for a submission, while creatively maneuvering around the mat. And of course, he throws awesome suplexes. Usuda has great strikes, between his slaps, palm thrusts, kicks...but I also really liked his counterwork, grabbing Sawa’s arm on the figure-four attempt and putting him in a keylock, or catching the Shining Wizard with a kneebar. He’s really stiff against Ishikawa, landing some brutal looking high kicks and a lunging headbutt. But then Otsuka eliminates him after dropping on his neck with a German and then on his ding dang head with a dragon suplex.

In the end, Ishikawa’s the lone survivor against Tiger and Ikeda. I loved the sequence where he’s got Tiger in the Indian Deathlock and every time Ikeda comes in and knocks him down with a kick, it exerts all that pressure onto the submission hold. Tiger’s able to get a couple of knockdowns with his kicks but once Ishikawa’s grabs hold of the leg off the spinning heel kick, he taps him out with the heel hook. The final comes down to Ishikawa and Ikeda and, as always, just about everything they throw is as stiff as day-old catshit. Punches, lariats, kicks – I mean, at this point in the match, with time slipping away, the desperation and exhaustion are major factors, and Ishikawa especially is relentless in trying to submit Ikeda before the time expires. Check this one out, guys and gals.

Jun Akiyama vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW, 2/27/00)

When I think of Jun Akiyama, I think of the Blue Thunder of Furikan High, Tatewaki Kuno! (if you get that reference, thumbs up). This is Akiyama's big moment in the rising sun, challenging the final boss of AJPW in Mitsuharu Misawa, and the relentlessness in which he comes at Misawa and stays on him throughout is incredible. I loved the opening stretch building to Misawa's apron elbow, with Misawa especially looking spry and energized. He's got to make sure Akiyama's ready for the challenge so he throws him a few snug love tap elbows. But Akiyama's more than ready, alluding Misawa's dive as he crashes and burns on the guardrail, setting up some extensive and aggressive neckwork. An apron kneedrop, a piledriver on the floor, a fucking Exploder '98 on the apron with a wonderful shot of Misawa's face before the execution, and some gnarly neck cranks back inside the ring. Misawa's selling is terrific here, and Akiyama doesn't let him build much momentum, dropping kicking him out of the ring and escalating the attack on the neck with a badass cradle tombstone piledriver and Exploder.

Misawa's veteran comeback toward the end begins with him busting open Akiyama's nose with a nasty knee drop to the face. Then he frog splashes him, hits a couple of German suplexes and tiger drivers, but Akiyama won't lay down, can't stay down. The fighting spirit Exploders were the perfect transition point heading into the finishing stretch, with the fans rallying behind Akiyama as he blasts Misawa with the jumping knee in the corner and follow-up Exploder. When that doesn't work, he spikes Misawa with a brainbuster and when it's still not enough, the wrist-clutch Exploder earns him his victory. Such an fantastic match, and Misawa's final epic before leaving All Japan.

Tatsuo Nakano vs. Genichiro Tenryu (WAR, 5/26/96)

Genichiro Tenryu wants nothing to do with Tatsuo Nakano. Here, Nakano comes out like he’s in a shoot and Tenryu’s hunched over, hands on knees, looking like a Little Leaguer at short stop. Nakano snaps off one kick and Tenryu immediately pummels him into a corner with hard sumo slaps. One of the reasons I love Nakano is his unwillingness to let up. Even when he's clearly outsized, Nakano keeps kneeing and kicking Tenryu in the head. At times, Tenryu doesn't quite know how to react to him, or the blows he's receiving. I loved Nakano's rear choke with the headbutts, pounding on Tenryu long enough to German suplex him, then floating right into the armbar. He manages to get the full extention on the armbar but this is Wrestle and Romance, not RINGS, so Tenryu doesn't immediately tap out...or at all. Nakano continues to rush him with kicks, with Tenryu able to slap him off momentarily before Nakano comes right back with more high kicks. Finally, Tenryu decides he's done taking kicks from Nakano and takes out his leg, submitting him with the single leg crab in under five minutes. A weird pairing but pretty awesome spectacle to say the least.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjoh (UWFi, 7/3/91)

This match is great. Kiyoshi Tamura is already so good early into his career, having only wrestling eight or so matches prior to facing Yoji Anjoh. He's slick as catshit, utilizing his speed to his advantage -- I mean, it's hard to even keep track of him at times. Anjoh can't do too much on the mat without Tamura managing to slip out and away. He'll grab an arm and Tamura will maneuver his legs around to get back to a vertical base, controlling Anjoh with a front facelock. While Tamura keeps going back to the rear naked choke, Anjoh targets the leg throughout to set up the finish. But there's just so many cool little moments in this match. At one point, Tamura rolls through with an armbar attempt and Anjoh catches the leg but Tamura simply stands up out of it. When Anjoh isn't going after the leg, he's throwing knees. He repeatedly knees Tamura in the back of the head but Tamura doesn't let go of the arm, slipping out to his feet and smacking Anjoh. Tamura's front necklock counter with the go-behind into the rear naked choke was a thing of beauty. Then he just starts stomping the back of Anjoh's head, putting the fear of God in him. By the end, things aren't quite as silky as they're both fighting over holds and avoiding takedowns. The referee doesn't do shit when Anjoh grabs Tamura's hair as he's trying to turn him over into the crab hold. In the end, all that legwork pays off for Anjoh as he's able to crank on a sick single leg crab hold for the submission victory. Go watch this.

Vader & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (AJPW, 2/20/00)

Love Vader preempting the match with a double bird “Fuck you!”. The first half of this match was solid enough, with Williams half-rolling around the mat with Akiyama, and Akiyama and Kobashi working over Vader’s knee. At one point, Kobashi has Vader in the half crab and Akiyama dropkicks the knee a couple times -- good subtle selling from Vader throughout. The match picks up as Akiyama gets put on the rocks and suplexed around by Vader and Williams. Even when Kobashi gets the hot tag, he’s only able to get in so many chops before he finds himself in a bit of trouble. I thought Williams connected with some good stiff clobbering blows and the final minutes of the match heading toward the finish was full of big boy bombs, including Exploders from Akiyama, powerbombs and powerslams, and Vader landing the Vader Bomb onto Kobashi for a terrific nearfall. Kobashi’s able to level Vader with a lariat but Williams sneaks in, ducking the spinning backdrop and dumping Kenta on his head with a brutal dragon suplex, which allows Vader to chokeslam him for the win. Good stuff.

Rick & Scott Steiner vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW, 5/31/91)

This was a STEINER BROTHERS tag team match, with little finesse but lots of discomfort for the opposition. To open, they’ve got Kensuke Sasaki on the rocks, slamming and suplexing and clobbering away, slanging their meathooks in between fresh tags. When Kensuke’s finally able to turn it around, does he make the hot tag? Hell nah, dude, he puts Scott in the Scorpion Deathlock! And then he gets dropped with a tiger driver and one of Rick’s ugly slams. But when Hase does get that hot tag, oh baby, he runs straight into a tilt-a-whirl slam and a Samoan drop off the top rope.  He’s able to deliver a uranage and the Northern Lights suplex hold but Rick breaks it up and it’s all downhill from there, as Scotty hits a Doomsday DDT and botches a frankensteiner for the win.

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kazunari Murakami (NOAH, 6/8/07)

Every Kazunari Murakami match has blood in it -- I mean, how else are you going to get him to lick it up? From a visual standpoint, it works. When you look at Murakami, with his wicked smile, you expect him to bust somebody open, possibly himself, and revel in it. Before Marufuji can even make his grand entrance, Marukami has already bloodied him. He takes him down to the ring and rams him headfirst into the ring post before showing off the carnage to the fans and licking the blood from Marufuji's forehead. What a nutjob. He tries choking Marufuji with a chair but once Marufuji gets a hold of it, he cracks it over Murakami's head a couple of times before getting him into the ring, where he starts paintbrushing him with slaps in the corner and choking him with his boot. He dumps him with a couple of German suplexes and they go back-and-forth with the slaps as the match momentum shifts into the next gear and Marufuji heats up on offense. He lands a couple of superkicks with the crowd behind him but...then Murakami hits back-to-back STOs and a lariat and it's over. Anti-climatic finish but a fun match while it lasted, with a post-match bonus beatdown from Murakami.

Kengo Mashimo vs. Seiken (Futen, 7/18/11)

This was a cute little slugger of a match, with the formally overrated Kengo Mashimo (currently underrated) and a guy I was unfamiliar with going into this match, Seiken, who only wrestled two or three matches for Fu-Ten before skipping dimensions. He's a pretty heavy striker, coming out of the gate strong and taking Mashimo down into a front mount before pounding away at his face with forearms and elbows. Mashimo has to take a minute on the outside to re-consider his current situation (to a bit of laughter) and when he returns, he's able to get a takedown, going from a double wristlock attempt into a front mount, where they both start smacking at each other. I loved Kengo's counter to Seiken's wheel kick attempt, swatting it down, then proceeding to stooge around with Seiken's kicks. But the next wheel kick catches Kengo square in the jaw and Seiken follows that up with a shotgun blast solebutt to the midsection. Something clicks in Mashimo at that point, and he goes on the final offensive, dropping Seiken with a few suplexes, buckling his knee with a brutal low kick, and then unloading with some nasty kicks to the head, KO'ing him with the buzzsaw. Really good sub-ten minute scrap. I'd like to see Seiken's other matches in Fu-Ten.

Naoki Sano vs. Wayne Shamrock (PWFG, 5/19/91)

When Wayne Kenneth Shamrock was wrestling in WWF as the “Most Dangerous Man”, I wasn’t watching. My only exposure to him prior to this was in Pancrase and UFC. That being said, this has to be one of Shamrock’s first matches wrestling the shoot-style and what I enjoy about Shamrock is how exciting he makes the groundwork look as he slides around the mat and snaps off takedowns. Shamrock, along with Minoru Suzuki, both here and in Pancrase, are really good at incorporating a strong quickness to overwhelm their opponents. Naoki, on the other hand, doesn’t do a whole lot on the ground – in fact, it’s more or less him grabbing an arm or a leg and holding it there. This is noticeably evident late in the match when he has control of Shamrock’s leg and doesn’t do shit with it.

After picking ankles and trying to roll through into armbars or kneebars, they take the fight to a vertical base and start swatting at each other with open hands. Sano spikes Shamrock with a shoot DDT and Shamrock pops those hips with a beautiful takedown on Sano. The struggle conveyed, whether they’re on their feet with heated open hand exchanges, or on the ground fighting for a hold, was really well done.  While some of the matwork wasn’t all that captivating, when it was on, it was on. I really liked Shamrock using the headscissors to try and get control of Sano’s arm. At times, his striking looks watered down, especially the knees and elbows, but he has some of the best takedowns here, including that awesome German suplex transition off the mat. The finish was brutal, with Shamrock catching him hard with a slap and a knee, and then Sano promptly destroying him with a dragon suplex to set-up the wakigatame submission.

Akira Maeda vs. Dick Leon-Vrij (RINGS, 5/11/91)

Dick Leon-Vrij has one of the best villainous appearances in shoot-style, looking like he was pulled straight from the cast of Cyborg. Not only does he look like he a heel, he acts the part too, which is interesting for a shoot-style promotion to have such an obvious heel. He’s an absolute dick to Akira Maeda (heh) with his shitty face slaps, blatant chokes, and snarling provocations. He tries to intimidate Maeda with his big action movie roundhouses but he’s also nippy with his kicks and his reaction time is on par with the legendary Jack Burton.  He’s able to snatch a foot mid-kick and get a quick takedown. On the mat, however, Maeda’s more skilled and he supplements his groundwork with a couple suplex throws, including what looks like a capture buster. In the end, he catches one of Dick’s kicks, taking him down with a calf hold before transitioning into a single leg crab for the submission victory.

Vader vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW, 1/23/00)

I dug this a lot. Loved Akiyama’s opening rush, blowing off the ref and hyping up the crowd as he takes it  Vader. Vader tries putting him in the corner and peppering him with these nasty little forearm shots but Jun fights for a German, with Vader hanging onto the ropes until Jun chops the arms out and delivers the big ole suplex. Both these guys were big bumping around, in and out of the ring. Vader chokeslams Akiyama onto the timekeeper’s table and then follows up with a powerbomb onto the floor. The midsection of the match is Vader-dominant, with splashes and clobbering blows and even a dang Fujiwara armbar. Akiyama tries going after the knee, zeroing in with a top rope dropkick, but Vader, more or less, blows it off. But he’s slower climbing up top, so Akiyama’s able to powerbomb him down and hits an Exploder for two. I liked Akiyama countering the cover off the chokeslam with the desperation armbar but it doesn’t do much and Vader launches him into the sky with a German suplex and then chokeslams him again, this time, pressing all that choice Vader beef onto his legs and shoulders to keep him pinned.

Hiroshi Hase vs. Mitsuharu Misawa; Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW, 1/9/00)

Hiroshi  Hase vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW, 1/9/00)

There is a lot to love from Hiroshi Hase in this match, from his awareness to his determination. Clearly, Misawa is not as slick as Hase on the mat so he has to rely on his primary form of offense, the elbow. Knowing this, Hase takes the obvious route and proceeds to annihilate said elbow in the form of extensive armwork. He takes him down, tangles him up, and rolls all over the canvas with Misawa in tow, working the arm like a full-time job. Misawa doesn’t do much in terms of escaping or countering – he mostly lays there and takes the punishment, though at times, he seems desperate to get away. Then again, he’ll often say “fuck your armwork, Hase” and throw a couple of elbows but Hase brushes them off and takes him back down to his realm of holds. I love that Hase immediately brings the focus back to the arm following much of Misawa’s offense, first with the overshot diving body press and then off the German suplex hold. “Ask him, come on, give up!” says Hase before he dumps him with a big ole uranage and follows up with a cross armbreaker. 

Misawa’s selling of the arm, or lack thereof, didn’t necessarily bother me -- I mean, I love Misawa's stubborness to keep using the elbow, knowing he can't take Hase on the mat and coming to realize that Hase has an answer for most of his other offense. The elbows obviously don't have the same impact on Hase so he has to keep on battering him, switching to the other elbow at the end to get some good shots in, before finally downing him with the running elbow.. Sure, he could’ve done more to sell it but it’s Misawa, he’s the ace, so Hase staying in the driver’s seat for so long is more than most get. 

As Hase continues snagging the arm off of Misawa’s signature offense (tiger driver, frog splash, etc.), you finally see him start to crack with desperation. There’s a great visual of Hase almost hugging the arm, a look of real frustration on his face as he’s trying to get him to submit. But no matter what he does, Misawa’s throwing those dang elbows. So Hase himself says “fuck this armwork” and drops Misawa with a dragon suplex, back-to-back uranages and a Northern Lights suplex hold. When that doesn’t do the trick, he tries for a second Northern Lights and Misawa knees out of the attempt, throwing elbows from both sides before finally laying him out for good with the running elbow. I wasn’t a big fan of Hase’s relatively quick demise following all that dedicated work on top but again, it’s Misawa. You take what you get, and what I got was a lot of cool shit from Hase.

Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW, 1/9/00)

Really good stuff and an easy watch, with Yoshihiro Takayama firing heavy early on with his big boots, knees, and kicks. But Jun is too slick for that shit and dropkicks Takayama’s knee out from under him to set-up the limbwork portion of the match. I love Akiyama when he’s working the hell out of a body part and here, he snares Takayama on the guardrail and delivers a killer dropkick from the apron. He goes through the gamut of leg holds, from the Scorpion Deathlock to the STF to the figure-four leglock, but Takayama finds an opening to exploit Akiyama’s weakness in the taped left elbow. He ragdolls Jun with a couple of suplexes and pulls out a beautiful double arm suplex hold before going into a facelock, transitioning into the over-and-the-shoulder hold to further damage the elbow. Okay selling from Takayama, better from Akiyama, whose able to dropkick the knee again to turn the tide. I liked that he targeted the bad knee to block Takayama’s German suplex attempt and then rolled him up on the second attempt.