Shinya Hashimoto vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (NJPW, 6/1/94)

What a terrific little title challenge, with Yoshiaki Fujiwara trying to play defense against the increasingly aggressive Shinya Hashimoto. Hashimoto comes into this match with an injured left shoulder, a target for Fujiwara, and it isn't long before he has him on the ground in his patented armbar, making him work for the ropes. Love that Hashimoto gets pissier and pissier as the match progresses, starting with that nasty stomp to the head after forcing Fujiwara to the ropes with an armbar of his own. You get the feeling that Hash really wants to let loose on Fujiwara. Of course, Fujiwara is a dirty old man with the blatant chokes, the ref counting him off before he goes right back to choking Hash. He slaps him in the face, headbutts him, and keeps on choking. When Hashimoto ties him up in the corner, Fujiwara's sells it so well. Hashimoto keeps trying to kick him off but Fujiwara keeps catching or ducking the attempts, until Hashimoto kicks hard enough that he can't block it. He has to beg Fujiwara out of the corners and when he gets him in the front facelock, the knee strikes he uses to set up the DDT looked awesome. In the end, Hashimoto finishes him off with a nasty single-arm DDT, with Fujiwara nearly kicking out of it.

Giant Baba vs. Gene Kiniski (JWA, 8/14/67)

The atmosphere of this match is incredible, with the outdoor seating, fans puffing cigarettes and fanning themselves off as two dudes sweat for an hour inside a small wrestling ring. It’s the kind of match you put on in a dingy hip bar somewhere and let play without any context or explanation. The no good cheatin’ Gene Kiniski against the surprisingly more aggressive Giant Baba. On a whole, this match isn’t going to burn any barns down but there are a lot of neat nuances dashed throughout, like the way Baba uses his long legs to hammer the back of Kiniski’s neck while he’s got him in the leg scissors, repeatedly pushing his own knee into Kiniski’s face. The little extra mustard behind Baba’s kicks and stomps, or how Kiniski immediately puts his knees up after a scoop slam to counter the pin attempt -- cool shit bits like that. Baba wins the first fall with a dropkick, Kiniski the second with a diving knee drop, and during the third, the two unload on each other in desperation, with plenty of brain chops and big boots from Baba, sold really well by Kiniski. After time expires, they’re given five more minutes and the lanky Baba comes out dropkicking. Kiniski delivers a backbreaker hold and a diving knee but when he tries for the coup de grâce kneedrop, Baba rolls out of the way. Smelling blood, Baba attacks Gene’s leg, trying to submit him with the single leg crab before the match ends in a double time limit draw.

Giant Baba vs. Bruno Sammartino (JWA, 3/7/67)

Going way way back to 1967 -- a very solid contest with plenty of dedicated work from both guys down the stretch. Great first fall with Baba rolling around the mat, trying to shake Bruno’s arm control before turning the game around on Bruno. Sammartino has some nifty escapes and at times, nifty Logan-esque hair. At one point, he goes for an arm drag and Baba just deadweights him to counter, reasserting his control of Bruno’s arm. The crowd digs the sportsmanship as the two go back-and-forth targeting the arms, trying to weaken their opponent’s respective offense – Bruno with the bearhug and Baba with his giant chops. After Baba tosses Bruno around for a bit, he picks up the first fall with a knee drop. They stay with the arm work for the second fall as things settle down. The match feels sluggish and repetitive at times, and the execution isn’t quite as smooth as the early goings. Bruno starts with the bear hug attempts and Baba is quick to chop his way out of harm’s way. After evening the score with a running body press, Bruno starts unloading on Baba during the third fall. Good strikes from Bruno, especially with the knees. By the end of it, they’re both past the point of exhaustion, with Bruno desperately lunging after Baba with the bearhug attempts and Baba trying to end it with chops, but due to all that prior hard work, neither is effective as the time runs out.

Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe (BJW, 1/17/18)

I watched this match a few weeks ago, really liked it, re-watched this match last night, loved it. I mean, it's bati-bati in Big Japan, with Fuminori Abe putting on one of his best singles performances to date and, at times, overshadowing Takuya Nomura. Abe's awareness shines through early on, as he rolls through the snapmare to prevent the typical "I kick your back" spot that he did to Nomura -- loved that. His strategy is simple: keep Nomura on the ground. That's arguably Nomura's weak spot, his matwork, and Abe's able to stay on his leg, taking him to the ropes a couple of times. Nomura will get in a slap or a kick here, and he's able to catch an Abe kick and plant him with the capture suplex before going into the armbar. But just as Nomura starts heating up his strikes, Abe counters with a beautiful legscrew. In the last few minutes, they start laying in the hard strikes -- the punches, kicks, slaps, elbows -- both showing exhaustion as they stumble around the ring. I like how they lunge with into their strikes.  Nomura peppers him with a little flurry of palm thrusts, slaps on a calf hold by chopping out Abe's leg, but in the end, Abe is able to break out and trap Nomura in the manjigatame for the submission. Very cool match worked in a style that is, sadly, rarely worked these days.

Minoru Tanaka vs. Takehiro Murahama (NJPW, 4/20/01)

Takehiro Murahama had a pretty damn great debut year in 2000 Osaka Pro and by the following year, he's challenging dreamy New Japan junior ace, Minoru Tanaka, for the the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title. This was a really good match and a culmination of everything Murahama had picked up on during his rookie year. For the most part, the early goings were evenly-matched, with both dudes utilizing some neat takedowns and submission workarounds. Minoru has his working boots laced tight for this, with a little extra salsa thrown into his kicks. At one point, they are both struggling over a leglock, slapping each other in the face, until Murahama smartens up, ducks, and tries to take control of the leg but Minoru ends up taking him to the ropes. And then he proceeds to throw him with an awesomely scary Saito suplex.

When Murahama gets back into the ring, he looks like he's about to lock up with Minoru and then suddenly pops him upside the head with a high kick. His submission work looked good here, as he works through a double wristlock into an armbar, which Minoru tries to finagle his way out of. The crowd was super into the nearfalls in the backhalf of the match, which included a sweet snap German suplex by Murahama and Minoru surprisingly busting himself open off repeated headbutts. In the end, Minoru dumps with a release German and taps him with the armbar to retain. A great showing from Murahama and an impressive performance from Minoru.

Yuki Ishikawa & Carl Malenko vs. Kazunari Murakami & Naoyuki Taira (BattlARTS, 9/7/00)

The HATE between Yuki Ishikawa and Kazunari Murakami permeates throughout the whole match, whereas Carl Malenko and Naoyuki Taira are, more or less, left to their own devices, even into the finish, where Malenko has Taira in a crossface hold and Murakami's more concerned with staring down Ishikawa then breaking up the submission. Rewind, Murakami promptly jumps Ishikawa at the start of the match and Ishikawa catches him, deadlifting him into a German suplex like "what bitch?!" The work on the mat between them is aggressive, with Ishikawa clawing Murakami's face when he tries to block the headbutts. Meanwhile, last time we saw Taira, who was "way too oily" in RINGS and now he's coming into BattlARTS with spin kicks and shitty little smirks. The stuff between he and Malenko was a lot of fun, with Malenko showing off with takedowns and transitions, and Taira blasting him with knees and kicks for knockdowns. One thing I really like about Malenko is the way he sinks into submission holds. But then we're back to Murakami/Ishikawa, with Murakami kicking him out of the ring, scraping around the crowd, kicking chairs and shit, throwing his mouthguard at Ishikawa. Lovely stuff. They continue thrashing each other on the mat until Ishikawa catches him with an armbreaker on the ropes, which plays into their eventual awesome singles match later int he year. In the end, they're too busy mean mugging each other to care about Malenko's sweet submission finish. Lots to love on here.

Kengo Mashimo vs. Shinjitsu Nohashi (Futen, 4/26/09)

This kind of match...this is my bread-and-butter. A 12-minute ditty with Kengo Mashimo working like he's too good to be in the same ring as little Shinjitsu Nohashi, who puts on a fun underdog performance. The strikes are stiff, the matwork engaging, and the camera is...uh, adequate. Mashimo starts with these condescending bald head slaps before they scramble around the mat, with Nohashi trying to hold his own. After a good hard kick to the ribs, Mashimo muscles Nohashi up with a deadlift gutwrench suplex and keeps peppering him with the knees and kicks (including an ASS KICK) until Nohashi stops his momentum with a big headbutt. Mashimo is quick to recover, utilizing a crisp takedown into the double wristlock, but Nohashi is able to cut him down with a leg trip, stomping at his face and head before turning him over into the single leg crab. He transitions from the single leg>STF>rear naked choke but Mashimo's able to exert more pressure, turning the hold against him. Finally, Nohashi unloads with some absolutely nasty headbutts (including a running headbutt), bloodying himself in the process. He hits a backdrop suplex, an awesome top rope basement dropkick, and goes right back to the choke. But in the end, he can't hang on and after powering out, Mashimo hits the brainbuster and high kick to the head to KO Nohashi.

RINGS " Mega Battle Tournament 1992: Semi-Finals" (12/19/92)

Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto

The best worked rounds match in RINGS thus far, with Yoshihisa Yamamoto showing off future Yamamoto on the mat, dominating the first three rounds by grabbing the shit out of limbs with armbars, kneebars, face...bars...locks. Kakuta can't do much to counter it either. He has zero chance on the ground so in the fourth round, he starts whipping out the hard kicks to take Yamamoto out at the knees. Into the fifth, he really starts rocking him with shots to the head while still targeting the knees. After some confusion, they give them a final round and it's mostly Yamamoto on the run from Kakuta's leg kicks.

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Sergei Sousserov

Oh boy, Sergei Sousserov could fill the void left behind by Willie Peeters in 1992. He's the Soviet version of Guile from Street Fighter. He's all about 80's jumping roundhouse kicks and suplex slams, throwing uranages and cravate suplexes and going right into the submission attempt. There's not a lot of info on Sousserov -- it seems like he was probably trained by Volk Han and his only MMA fight was against Peeters in 1997 Rings Holland. And he lost. Nagai, in true scrappy underdog fashion, comes flying in with these big wheel kicks, completely missing the mark. He mainly hangs on Sergei's leg throughout the match, taking him to the ropes a few times. Loved his shoot STF. This definitely could've been a 10 minute classic but it drags out sluggishly to 17:29. Sergei's takedowns aren't as effective and Nagai continues going after the leg before going to town with the knee strikes, kneeing Sergei in the face for the KO.

Volk Han vs. Sotir Gotchev

This was little more than a Volk Han exhibition but it was a fun one, and while Gotchev isn't near Han's level on the ground, he does throw in a few surprises here and there, including a few cool suplex slams. But he's mostly trying to avoid getting snagged. When Han takes over on the mat, he gets to show off why he’s Volk Han. He snags him with a beautiful leg-trap armbar, an inverted facelock, and then wrings the arm and blasts him with that rear facelock>elbow combo. At one point, Gotchev is able to catch him in a choke sleeper off a missed attempt but Han works his way out of the hold and transitions into like a stump puller hold. The back end of the match isn't as compelling but Han is still able to pull out the flying legscissors and his final submission was neat -- almost like a cravat with the arm trapped alongside Gotchev's head and neck.

Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han (RINGS, 10/29/92)

This match is a lesson in why you don’t piss off Volk Han. Sure, he’s mostly mild-mannered and gracious but Akira Maeda wasn’t his friend in there for this match. Han opens with the spinning backhand and you know he’s about to get to work on the mat. Maeda continues to show off his own improved mat skills. When he’s not defending against the relentless Han with his flying legscissors, he’ll get fancy with an arm drag into a head scissors or grab a single leg crab, in which the crowd collectively lose their shit. When Maeda starts in with the kicks, Han mostly weathers the storm trying to play catch…but Maeda keeps kick kick kicking at Han’s leg. All those kicks to the leg finally piss off Han, who says “cut it out” by smacking the shit out of Maeda. With Han spent and pissy, the match becomes a sluggish war of attrition but the finish was something else. Maeda shakes Volk’s hand just before he high kicks him in the head for the TKO. What a dick. Not quite at the level of their second match but a strong way to cap off their series.

RINGS "Mega Battle Special: Ishizue", (8/21/92)

Grom Zaza vs. Shtorm Koba

A swanky Grom Zaza exhibition, with plenty of headscissor usage, cool takedowns and transitions, and...well, shitty striking but that's okay, because everything else works. Koba doesn't quite have Zaza's finesse but his rawness works well against Zaza. I mean, at one point, he press slams him into the turnbuckle. The action heats up heading into the finishing stretch, with Koba using a neat armwhip takedown before Grom dumps him with a throw and cinches in a terrific full nelson hold for the submission.

Volk Han vs. Dick Leon-Vrij 

Loved this match. Such an awesome dynamic between the heavy cyborg striker in Vrij and the submission specialist in Han, with the perfect build and set-up to the finish. It plays on the strengths of both dudes, and is sort of a personal dream match of mine from when I first started watching RINGS. Han knows what Vrij’s all about and immediately tries to submit him with the kneebar and keeps dragging him back to the middle of the ring. But once he’s back on his feet, Vrij goes hard with the strikes, cracking Han with kicks to the hamstring and brutal knees whenever Han tries for the double leg takedowns. On the ground, however, Han rules and he once again utilizies his legs in unique ways to try and pry open an armbar on Vrij. Vrij can't really hang with him on the mat.. He’ll hack out one of Han’s legs with kicks but he's unable to follow up with a submission. Even when he works in a head scissors, Han is able to turn it against him and force him to the ropes. By the end of the match, they’re both exhausted, they’ve used up all their outs and it’s down to the last submission or knockdown. Vrij swings for the fences with a high kick but Han’s able to catch it, spoiling Vrij’s homerun with a calf hold to submit him. Awesome match.

Akira Maeda vs. Andrei Kopilov 

This was similar to Kopilov’s match against Han in that it was more or less a stalemate on the mat. But it was fun seeing Maeda go to the mat early on, and I thought the struggle and defense on the ground was well-executed. Where this match excels over the match with Han is Maeda's character work. He's such a good babyface-in-peril when he needs to be and I loved the drama from him as he's trying to get to the ropes when Kopilov snags him with the kimura. Kopilov’s terrific on the mat, trying to tie Maeda into knots, until eventually Maeda says “fuck the matwork” and starts picking up knockdowns with his strikes -- big open-hand slaps to the face, kicks, and knees. But Kopilov wants to finish this where it started, and after another tussle on the mat, Maeda’s able to pry open the armbar for the submission victory.

Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi (NOAH, 8/6/00)

This kind of "main event" match structure is why I enjoyed the Okada/Omega G1 Climax match-up so much: it simplifies the bombastic formula, condenses it, utilizing offensive targeting to build drama without dragging out the nearfalls in order to produce excitement for the sake of excitement. In other words, I really enjoyed this. The hero, Kenta Kobashi, comes into the match with a taped right knee but he's still able to say "not today, kid" with the opening exchange. Kobashi controls early on after taking over on the outside, chopping Akiyama over the barricade and powerbombing him onto the floor. He works a slower, more methodical pace, bringing him back into the ring with a great stalling suplex from the apron before trying to wear him out with a facelock. Then he'll explode with chops on Akiyama, breaking down his defense for the half nelson suplex.

Akiyama's able to dropkick the bum knee out from Kobashi and I love the follow-up dropkick just as Kobashi had struggled back to his feet. With the follow up submission attempt, Akiyama turns the sasori-gatame into the STF, and then starts trying to hamper Kobashi from making the break by grabbing the arm and covering his eyes. And after he makes the break, Jun immediately pulls him back to the middle with a cross kneelock. The frustrated boots to the knee after Kobashi makes it to the ropes shows Jun's hunger. Kobashi counters the Northern Lights suplex attempt with a necklock>necklock suplex, then catches him in the sleeper>sleeper suplex. Kobashi puffs up again with his offense, and even after Akiyama delivers a German suplex hold, he quickly grabs a kimura off the bridge, which was unexpected but awesome. In the end, however, Akiyama is younger, healthier, and the more aggressive, dropping Kobashi with three Exploder suplexes before cinching in the front necklock for the huge submission victory, not letting go after the referee calls it as if he wants to be sure he's actually beaten Kobashi. Great stuff.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Wayne Shamrock (PWFG, 9/28/91)

Whereas Kenny Wayne Shamrock's match with Masakatsu Funaki from the month prior was hampered by dull matwork, this had a little more excitement on the ground thanks to Minoru Suzuki's speed. His quick counterwork and reversals made for much more compelling submission wrestling. You got the sense that they really had to fight for everything here. They each, more or less, went after each others' legs with Suzuki getting the upper hand on Shamrock. When Shamrock starts clobbering on Suzuki, Suzuki gets him in the rear waistlock, and in order to hit the German suplex, he has to deliver this awesome little combo of strikes to break Shamrock's defense. The finish was awesome, with Suzuki struggling to break out of the rear waistlock by grabbing the arm, and just when you think he's got it, Shamrock puts him in the full nelson and dragon suplexes him for the KO. The fact that Shamrock was using the dragon suplex to knockout his opponents in 1991 is incredible. Really cool match.

Takehiro Murahama vs. Black Buffalo (Osaka Pro, 7/22/00)

A terrific three-quarters of a match, with some minor issues during the home stretch. Takehiro Murahama is having one of the better debut years in recent memory, and up against Black Buffalo, you have a neat dynamic of the babyfaced shooter against the gruff brawler trying to take it to the mat. First and foremost, Murahama’s tights are incredible – peak 90’s aesthetic circa 2000. Buffalo’s takedowns aren’t pretty but they’re effective as he takes more of a smothering approach on the canvas. Murahama’s still able to sneak out a leglock through Buffalo’s aggression and when he’s back on his feet, he pops Buffalo with a kick to the hamstring, to which Buffalo smartly rolls away from Murahama. Murahama’s spunky on the mat, running through a number of holds almost as a routine (see above) before settling on an armbar. I loved his leglock counter to the hip toss. Buffalo doesn’t hold back with the open hands and short-arm lariats, and of course, he brings the chair into play. At one point, he’s standing on Murahama’s head while he’s on the ropes and then drops a leg across the back of his neck onto the ropes. Nasty. Just as Murahama starts heating back up, he kicks the ring post, which leads to Buffalo targeting the leg with a chair and figure-four leglocks. Good in-the-moment selling from Murahama but once he pops back up to his feet and starts flinging kicks at Buffalo, he blows off the legwork and then it’s business as usual as they run through their offense to what seemed like a botched finish. A bit of a jarring transition but still, a real good match worth checking out.

Grom Zaza vs. Volk Han (RINGS, 5/16/92)

Dream Match #1, hot from the start with Grom Zaza going nuts, the crowd losing their shit when he lifts Volk up in the fireman’s carry. For two guys not known for striking, they were quite handsy here, with quick little slaps and shit kicks in between the sweet takedowns and Han making Zaza squeal on the mat as he tries to break away. Despite Han’s fancy groundwork, which included a sweet step-over armbar, the match felt evenly matched. Han would land a spinning backhand, Grom would dump him with a couple of fireman’s carries. Then Han decimates him with the finishing a submission, which can only be described as a grounded choke STF, with Han once again utilizing his legs like a Swiss Army knife. Really good stuff.