Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Terry Gordy (AJPW, 6/1/91)

Very solid match-up - admittedly, I haven't seen much of Gordy outside of tag matches but he looked strong. Great clobbering lariats, big elbow exchanges with Misawa, and yeah, the blood added a little something-something to the overall struggle. The fans were eating up the finishing stretch - the nearfall off of Misawa's German suplex hold was especially great. Gordy did a good job selling for Misawa's offense, and Misawa's ultimate win felt huge.

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dynamite Kid (NJPW, 2/5/80)

The story is a simple but effective one, with the aggressive Dynamite Kid trying to re-open the champ’s bandaged forehead. Fujinami works from underneath for the majority of the match, firing off the occasional uppercut but ultimately being overwhelmed and bloodied by Kid’s snug forearm shots and headbutts. He tries for the dragon suplex hold but Dynamite fights out and continues to target Fujinami’s injury, using kneedrops and fistdrops, knuckling the forehead and at one point, even biting it! Dynamite's such a little shit here -- I mean, the fans are throwing rolls of toilet paper at him! I like that he's seemingly trying for the manjigatame as a heel move. Fujinami does a terrific job of garnering sympathy from the crowd as he sells his injury and the desperation of his retaliations. Dynamite is able to hit the diving headbutt for two but when he tries for the second, Fujinami is able to roll away and the crowd loses their shit. He’s able to dropkick him out of the ring but Dynamite walks away from the follow-up plancha, once again cutting off Fujinami’s momentum as he had through much of the match. But once inside the ring, Fujinami is able to pin him out of nowhere with the Japanese roll leg clutch and Dynamite is pissed. Really good stuff.