UWFi (1992)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato (UWFi, 1/9/92)

Probably the best match of the show, along with the tag main event, but damn, is this fiery from the opening with Miyato letting Tamura have it. Tamura grabs a great choke into the takedown and the whole escape sequence with Tamura flipping back into control and regaining the choke was phenomenal. Tamura's slick as catgshit with his takedowns an transitions, grabbing kneebars and armbars. Miyato was really good here, too. He hits a nice fireman's carry and works his way into a snug double wristlock. He kills Tamura with a backdrop hold and then pops him in the head with a follow-up kick. Tamura's able to grab the single leg crab but Miyato makes it to the ropes. The finish was the weakest part of the match but otherwise, a very cool sub-ten minute match.

Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoji Anjoh vs. Gary Albright & Jim Boss (UWFi, 1/9/92)

Anjoh is definitely one of the more underrated mat workers -- he's pretty slick and at one point, does a skull crusher. Boss is another clueless white dude and doesn't do much here but that's okay because Gary Albright rules in this match. He absolutely wrecks Anjoh with German suplexes throughout; that second to last German is especially brutal and awesome. When Yamazaki gets the initial tag in, he also takes Albright over with a killer German suplex of his own. Albright isn't much of a ground guy but he doesn't get paid the big bucks to work a side headlock. That finishing stretch with him and Anjoh is the definite highlight, with him clubbing the shit out of Anjoh before finishing him off with the Germans. Big Albright showcase.

Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Mark Silver & Tatsuo Nakano (UWFi, 2/15/92)

Probably the best match on probably the worst top-to-bottom UWFI show chronologically. And it's good, in parts. Silver has about the most white trash haircut behind Tom Burton but he does manage a couple of neat throws. But like most of the gaijins, he's clueless on the mat and his strikes are feather light. And he also gets kicked in the face AND the nuts. Tamura is Tamura, which means he's uber slick on the mat, leaving Silver in the dust. He has some good interactions with Nakano (of course). Love Nakano's side headlock with the fingers clasped -- textbook. They keep sending each other to the ropes with submission holds, and Nakano throws back-to-back Germans. Miyato continues to be a little shitfire and lets SIlver have it, barraging him and throwing him with a belly-to-belly. The finish was awkward but otherwise, a fun tag.

Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda (UWFi, 2/29/92)

A fun, competitive match with two scrappy young dudes going out there and showing off what they've learned over the past few months. Nothing fancy -- Maeda's a little smoother on the ground and had some nice counters/reversals. He also throws a few nice suplexes. Kanehara is the better striker with his quick open hands and knees. I liked the sequence where he had Maeda in the single leg crab and turned it into a facelock as Maeda inched his way to the ropes. By the end of it, they're both very exhausted -- Maeda a little more so -- and after Kanehara hits a German, he taps him with the armbar.

Gary Albright vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (UWFi, 3/17/92)

The best match of the show. Yamazaki flies at him with a kick and Albright quickly takes him down and starts pounding away with a few great body shots. Yamazaki is trying to play defense, trying to go after the arm, but Albright’s just too darn big. After a little temper flareup, Albright snaps him over with a belly-to-belly. When Yamazaki  finally gets the armbar, Albright right on the ropes. Yamazaki then stuns him with a knee to the midsection and German suplexes Albright to set up the crab hold but again, too damn big. Loved Albright running over and clobbering Yamazaki in the back of the head before German suplexing him and when Yamazaki is barely back up and on his feet, Albright hits a second German for the immediate KO.

Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda (UWFi, 5/8/92)

Another fun spirited young boy match with Maeda being feisty with his strikes and Kanehara looking to suplex>submit. What they may lack in finesse they make up for with their hearts and determination. But there's some cool shit like Maeda blocking Kanehara's defensive kicks when he's got him in the single leg grab. It heats up heading into the finish with some big strikes and submission attempts. I really liked the desperation of Kanehara's single leg crab/side facelock when Maeda won't tap. They're both exhausted and swatting by the end of it and Kanehara wins after a German suplex into the armbar. One of the better matches of the show.

Kazuo  Yamazaki vs. Koji Kitao (UWFi, 5/8/92)

Not a very good match but totally a GREAT match. I loved it. Kitao's this big dumb judo guy eating leg kick after kick, waiting patiently for the right moment. Oh, and t's coming. I love that his counter to the double leg takedown is just standing there. At some point, Yamazaki's nose gets busted but he still wants to German suplex Kitao but settles for a sleeper hold, to which Kitao counters by trying to dump him over the top rope. Kitao's selling after he slowly crawls to the ropes to break a heel hold is off the charts. Kitao's monent comes when he swats Yamazaki's spinning heel kick out of the air. Then he proceeds to destroy Yamazak - a nasty running knee, a big uranage, and endless leg and butt kicks until Yamazaki can no longer stand on his own two feet. Altered Beast Kitao is the best Kitao, and Yamazaki is one of the best shithead underdogs.

Nobuhiko Takada vs. Gary Albright (UWFi, 5/8/92)

Takada's first big UWFi "epic" and a very fun match up top, with Albright grabbing suplexes and Takada being the charismatic striker trying to kick Gary's head off. He also delivers a pretty sweet Saito suplex to Albright so lots of suplex love in this match -- loved Gary's back-to-back belly-to-bellies. The groundwork slows it down and isn't very interesting until Takada starts blasting Albright with leg kicks and counters the German with the toe hold. I liked that Gary's first shitty German suplex seemed like a result of his bad knee buckling but then he hits the second shitty German and it's definitely Takada sandbagging him -- who then just lays there like a goof to give Gary the KO victory. Cool moments but not a great match.

Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (UWFi, 6/28/92)

Yoshihiro Takayama's pro-wrestling debut and it's exactly the big aggressive debut you'd expect from Takayama. He immediately open hands the hell out of Kanehara and gets in plenty of giant knees and slaps. Kanehara is obviously trying to get him down to the mat for a submission but he's having a hard time doing it. He gets in a few good shots at Takayama and finally lets him have it, backdropping Takayama to set up the submission. Really fun debut from Takayama.

Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Mark Fleming (UWFi, 6/28/92)

This was the best Fleming has looked since he first popped up in UWFi. He really gets to show off his power vs. Miyato with big suplex throws and a little more refined technique against Tamura, like his hammerlocked takedown into the headscissors. But Tamura is the slickest and wipes the mat clean with Fleming. Nakano isn't very slick either but he's scrappy and a little shit, which is why we adore him, and he knees Tamura in the face a couple of times. The exchanges between Nakano and MIyato are always very feisty and they didn't disappoint here. Nakano dumps him with a German suplex and Miyato answers by spiking him with a crazy uranage. Fleming still can't apply his shitty STF and while it doesn't work on Tamura, it works on Miyato. A really fun undercard tag.

Yoji Anjoh vs. Masahito Kakihara (UWFi, 6/28/92)

The best match of the show and an easy recommendation. It's 10:00 minutes. It's Dickhead Anjoh, it's Slappy Kaki, and there's plenty of heat between the striking, and the aggressive takedowns and submission attempts.When Kakihara misses his big spinning heel kick attempt, which he misses about 78% of the time, Anjoh adds some salt by kicking him in the face. Some real nasty shots from Anjoh toward the end but Kakihara pulls off the upset by submitting Anjoh with the leglock. Good stuff.

Kiyoshi Tamura & Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Gary Albright & Mark Silver (UWFi, 7/12/92)

Really awesome shoot-style tag because it definitely blurs the lines between shoot and pro-wrestling very well. Mark Silver, really representing 1992 in all its glory, won me over and became quite the fighting underdog when the fans turned on Tamura who basically bullies SIlver on the mat throughout the match. Really rides that back mount and at one point, SIlver lifts his hands and asks "why?". Things get really heated when SIlver tries to retaliate but Tamura goes back to dominating him and sending him to the ropes. Yamazaki's "I don't want to be here" energy is so good. He definitely gives Silver something more to work with and their exchanges felt gritty and seamless. Love Yamazaki's go behind German suplex. Yamazaki gives him some big kicks and Silver sells them great but it looks he was supposed to take Yamazaki's spinning heel kick counter, doesn't, stands there awkwardly trying to figure out what to do, and then Yamazaki, clearly pissed, shoot stomps him in the face and tags in Tamura. So now Tamura and Yamazaki are both shooting on Silver, Silver just wants some retribution against these assholes, the fans want Silver to tag in Albright, and Albright is ready to fucking kill somebody. We get the finish everyone was waiting for. Tamura tries to do his thing against Silver but Silver immediately goes to the ropes, drops Tamura with a uranage, and finally tags in Albright, whose like "f this a-hole" and annihilates Tamura with suplexes for the KO. Not a happy man at the way Tamura humiliated Silver and boy, did Tamura pay. Yikes.

Masahito Kakihara vs. Mark Silver (UWFi, 8/28/92)

Hey, this was pretty good. Plenty of struggle on the mat with Silver trying hard to do something and Kaki staying in control for much of the match. Silver's rough and tumble and would've made for a good generic AJPW gaijin or something. No finesse but all heart and mullet, which is what we need most sometimes. At one point in the match, Silver snags a kick and clobbers him with a sickle lariat and when Kaki tries for his big spinning heel kick, Mark catches a foot and drops down into a kneebar, which leads to a heated little spat. Silver plants him with a uranage but ends up trapped in a kneebar, with Kaki pulling him away from the ropes and re-applying for the submission.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjoh (UWFi, 8/28/92)

For a 30 minute draw, I thought this was pretty great and they did a good job of keeping the matwork exciting. Anjoh is easily the second best guy in UWFi at this point behind Tamura, and they always manage to have competitive tag exchanges up to this point. Tons of neat transitions and defense -- like Anjoh, for example, blocking the single or his transition into the double wristlock attempt, to which Tamura powers out and takes Anjoh over with a big fireman's carry. Lots of cool moments peppered throughout; Anjoh's reflex knee to Tamura's head, the shoot figure-four into the STF, Anjoh hitting the fisherman buster and Tamura immediately snagging the double wristlock. Loved Anjoh getting heat for dropping those knees to Tamura on the ropes. I thought Tamura's rubber-legged selling towards the end of the draw was really good, with Anjoh running in with these shitty low kicks, trying to take him out. By the final couple of minutes, they're both exhausted and Tamura tries for one last choke off the big waterwheel drop but the time expires. Good stuff!

Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Mark Silver (UWFi, 9/21/92)

This was really pretty good. Mark Silver is such a lughead but unlike a guy like Burton, he's got more heart and a bit of a vicious streak. Nasty chokes and big kicks and slams. At one point, he repeatedly boots Kanehara in the head. Kanehara hasn't quite clicked yet but he was able to try out some new submission holds against SIlver. But yeah, this was kind of the Mark Silver show - he hits a belly to belly into the neck crank, clobbers him with a lariat, throws him with a big ass German suplex. I mean, the way he dumps him and stumbles around looking like a total klutz is a big plus for Mark Silver. He gets Kanehara in a pretty gnarly single leg crab but Kanehara's in the ropes and the match ends in a draw.

Masahito Kakihara vs. Tatsuo Nakano (UWFi, 9/21/92)

One of the best sub-five minute matches out there and within the first 10 seconds, Kakihara splatters Nakano's nose with a flurry of open hands. Nakano's able to slow Kaki down on the ground with a leglock and I like the combo of the knee > front neck chancery takeover, throwing some salt in the wound with a cheap shot kick. The blood really adds something to the match, with Kaki's grip slipping during a takedown attempt. As usual, Kakihara sets himself up for the big spinning heel kick but misses, which leads to the brutal finish from Nakano: smack, stomp, submit via single leg crab.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (UWFi, 10/23/92)

Great match and definitely the most reminiscent of UWF 2.0 out of any of the UWFi stuff so far. That opening was fantastic and I loved all the crowd reactions to the constant counters and reversals on the mat through the first couple of minutes.  Tamura plays the brash young underdog, Yamazaki the stubborn veteran, and together, the competitive nature, the frustrations, the teases -- everything worked, for the most part. There were a couple of times when it felt a little long in the tooth but then they're turn it up again, and Yamazaki would fly at him with a spinning heel kick. There's a great moment toward the end when Tamura is smacking the hell out of Yamazaki when he's stuck in a leglock but Yamazaki ain't letting go. Then Yamazaki's like fuck it, let's finish this, and he's able to hit the German suplex but Tamura finally taps him with the armbar. Really good stuff here.

Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (UWFi, 12/20/92)

The best match in their series so far, continuing the tradition of sloppy charm. They scrap around, both on their feet and on the mat. Takayama's strategy is largely the same: knee knee knee. But when Kanehara catches one, he dumps him with a big waterwheel slam and tries to choke Takayama out. Takayama looked more comfortable here and he definitely got to shine, hitting a big capture suplex, popping Kanehara in the face with a flying knee, and an awesome German. Kanehara looked good here, too, with his kicks and counters - loved him catching Takayama's kick and high kicking him in the head with the opposite leg. Or the leg catch slap. Really good desperation there at the end between the holds and counters and wild strikes -- at one point, Kanehara kicks Takayama in the nuts to set up a leglock.  Kanehara hits his own German and finishes Takayama off with a choke. Fun stuff!

Nobuhiko Takada vs. Naoki Sano (UWFi, 12/20/92)

This is easily Takada's best singles match in UWFi through 1992, and it comes after a warm up match against Dennis Koslowski. Takada, who is usually not very interesting on the mat, worked a stronger ground game against Sano. Sano, on the otherhand, had Takada on the ropes with chokes and single legs throughout. But it's DOUBLE TAKADA so he's going to shine here, which he did. He hits a nice Saito suplex>rear mount>face lock combo and he blasts Sano with a nasty high kick. Sano is able to grab the leg and German suplex Takada but when Takada tries to sneak in for a leglock attempt, Sano's able to roll him up with one of his own. They lay into each other with slaps and kicks and there are some good moments of struggle heading into the finish. They fight over armbars but Takada obviously wins out and picks up the submission. Good stuff! 

PWFG "One For All And All For One" (7/26/91)

Mark Rush vs. Kazuo Takahashi

If you like mat wrangling, then this is the match for you. Mark Rush is a burly individual with an amateur background and for over ten minutes, he and Kazuo Takahashi jockey for leverage on the ground, with Rush using his size to his advantage. Takahashi's focus is the arm and the struggle for armbar is a reoccurring and often compelling theme of the match. There's a couple of slams throughout but this mostly takes place on the ground, and finishes on the ground, as Mark hits a powerslam and taps Takahashi with a nice snug side headlock.

Wayne Shamrock vs. Duane Koslowski 

Duane Koslowski is about as Wonder Bread as they come, looking like 1990's Steve Rogers come to life. Wayne is Kenneth is Ken, and he brings a lot of aggression to this match, which I'm okay with. He tries to keep his distance with strikes while Duane looks to sneak in for a suplex. After taking a couple of shots to the head, Duane finally hits an All-American belly-to-belly suplex and tries for a double wristlock on the mat. He's able to bridge out of a choke and they get into a little spat of open hands before Duane belly-to-bellies him once again. At one point, Duane gives Shammy a love tap slap across the face and boy, does Wayne not like it. He soon finishes him off with the Shamrock Special #2 aka the Northern Lights suplex into the leglock. I want to see more Duane Koslowski.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Naoki Sano

SPOILER ALERT: This is a 30:00 minute time limit draw. However, it's one of the best time limit draws I've seen and the pace these two work throughout is incredible. Right from the get-go, they scramble around with the crowd buzzing, trying to get something locked in long enough without getting thrown off. Suzuki keeps going for the armbar but Sano isn't give him an inch. He'll slap at Sano's thigh, trying to break open the armbar, but no dice. I loved Suzuki's slap to the face>fireman's carry takeover into the armbar attempt, and when he tries for the double arm suplex and Sano resists it, he piledrives him instead. The stand-up striking feels very heated at times, and some of the open hands and palms exchanged look/sound real nasty. Exhaustion begins to rear its ugly head about 15-20 minutes in but Suzuki is dead set on getting the armbar. He hits a German suplex on Sano, but Sano is able to snag an arm off the bridge. At one point, Sano has Suzuki in a rear naked choke and Suzuki is slapping himself to stay coherent, it's great. Finally, Suzuki says "enough with the armbar" and grabs a single leg crab, but he can't maintain it and the time limit expires with them fighting over a leglock. High recommendation for this one.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatsu Funaki

This wasn't great but it wasn't bad. It was SOLID. They work the mat to start, mostly fighting over leglocks, before Funaki starts in with the smacks and kicks, knocking Fujiwara on his ass. He comes at him with a big flurry of kicks and while Fujiwara's able to a catch a leg, he can't follow up with the leg trip and Funaki ends up taking him back down to the mat. One of the best moments of the match comes when Fujiwara's trying to get a hold of Funaki's leg while he's on the ground and Funaki pops him in the face with a defensive shin, once again dropping Funaki on his ass. Funaki doesn't let up, catching him with a hard slap in the face against the ropes and a kick to the face for another knock down. Then he unloads a barrage of body shots, open hands, kicks, but Fujiwara's a resilient and wily old fuck and won't fall. So when Funaki goes for the double leg takedown, Fujiwara snags his arm with his leg for the submission victory. Of course, Fujiwara pulls it out in the end.

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. 

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.

Masahito Kakihara vs. Naoki Sano (UWFi, 4/20/95)

What I love about Masahito Kakihara is how spastic and scrappy he is, completing whiffing on his spinning heel kicks, landing about 68% of his strikes, falling all over himself trying to grab a leg or an arm. Sano’s similar to that effect, especially in this match, as he aimlessly rolls around the mat, not quite sure which way he wants to go. I loved the struggle Kakihara conveys when he tries locking on the armbar, with Sano looking the most “in danger” he looks the entire match. Typically, a Kakihara match starts and ends the same way. Here, he trades strikes with Sano, until Sano dominates him down the home stretch, hitting suplexes, knees, and kicks, overwhelming Kaki until he tries for another German and Kaki rolls him up with a kneebar and quickly taps him. Lucky.

Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (NJPW, 1/31/90)

Whether it's bashing fools with rudo chaisrshots or lapping up the babyface sympathy juice, Jushin Liger knows how to elicit emotion from the fans. Here, having only a crimson mask of blood to hide his face, Liger not only puts in one of the best performances of his career, selling Sano's asswhippin' like he's about an inch away from heaven, but he still manages to maintain that same aura and mystique that's synonymous with Jushin "Thunder" Liger. The way he's able to remain hidden from the cameras behind the tatters of his mask is some real deal in-ring awareness. If there's anything to nitpick, perhaps that it's Liger's selling, or lack thereof, when he's on the comeback, going full-speed with dives and headscissors, and ultimately, making quick work of Sano after having been beaten down for roughly 80% of the match. Sano's able to deliver about every suplex variation in the book, including his game-ending tiger suplex hold, which Liger's barely able to break with a foot on the ropes.

I mean, Liger asked for this ya'll....he said "fuck your handshake" before the bell and bitchslapped Sano across the face. Visually, this is an awesome but frightening match - for example, there's a moment where Sano throws Liger almost lifelessly into the corner pad, leaving a smear of Liger's blood on the white padding. Each time Liger begins to build momentum and speed, Sano's able to cut him off. After taking out Sano on the outside with a beautiful tope con hilo, Liger hits the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to set up the Romero Special but in a terrific counter, Sano rakes the exposed eyes of Liger to escape the hold. Later on, Liger's able to take Sano down with a headscissors but when he tries to follow up the attack, Sano back bodydrops clear over the ropes to the outside! Liger can't catch a break until literally the last two minutes of the match, when he sneaks in a flurry of offense, including a German suplex hold, a Liger Bomb, and a sweet tombstone piledriver, finally pinning Sano with the move he innovated pre-Liger, the Shooting Star Press. This is right up there with Liger's all-time great arm selling performance from the 8/10/89 Sano match. An awesome match.

Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (NJPW, 9/20/89)

This felt more like a "greatest hits" montage, with some neat callbacks to their previous two matches, but never really finding its rhythm or structure. They go in and out of the junior prom stuff, working the mat in between, but the groundwork isn't nearly as important as their August match and serves more to fill in the gaps. There's a little bit of testiness from Liger early on with some of his kicks but it goes away and the final half is mostly exhibition, with tons of piledrivers, including an awesome jumping tombstone from Liger. Liger also suplexes Sano to the floor and hits that gnarly diving senton from the top rope to the outside! They tease the double dropkick spot, Sano's able to hit a German suplex hold but Liger counters the super backdrop finish from the second match. Liger's last ditch effort is a rounding body press but after Sano throws him off the top, he slips over into a tiger suplex hold for the clean victory and Liger still can't beat Sano. Solid match but not it didn't feel as personal between the two -- more of a "going through the motions" rematch.

Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (NJPW, 8/10/89)

This may very well be my favorite example of limb selling in a match, if anything within a junior heavyweight match, where the high spots often take priority over sustained selling. I mean, you got Jushin "Thunder" Liger wearing fucking American football shoulder pads to protect the shoulder but Naoki Sano doesn't let deter him. If anything, it's a giant target on Liger -- like, hey Sano, I'm hurt, please don't attack me here. Sano goes after the arm early on, pissing off Liger, who annihilates him with a rolling koppou kick. But when Sano gets a hold of it, he really does a number on the arm, kicking and stomping and stretching it to make Liger his (rarely seen) bitch. Liger essentially wrestles this match single-armed, the injured one hanging limp at his side. He tries to lock up but Sano overpowers him. When he tries for the surfboard, he has to switch things up to a leg scissored armbar before...well, his arm is jacked. In perhaps my favorite moment of the match, Sano whips the arm and it's sold beautifully by Liger...just the way it drags along the canvas as he crawls. Awesome.

Liger's finally able to turn the tide with a very conscientious top rope suplex to the apron and a follow-up plancha. He sidesteps Sano's dive and Sano crashes, giving Liger some much needed time to rest up. When Sano returns to the ring, he's bloodied up and Liger smells it, attacking him with boots and at one point, kicking Sano in the face. He delivers a quasi-Gotch-style piledriver and then piledrives Sano on the floor because he's Liger. Again, he uses his recovery time wisely and continues to target Sano's neck. Sano's able to snag the arm a few times with armbars but Liger's able to make it to the ropes. When Liger tries for the brainbuster, Sano again takes him down with the wakigatame, forcing Jushin back to the ropes. Assuming Liger ain't tapping, Sano hits a German suplex hold and when that doesn't do the trick, he hits a super backdrop for the win. A fantastic match and perhaps the shining example of how you can make sustained limb selling compelling from start to finish. Liger really is the best junior heavyweight.

Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (NJPW, 7/13/89)

Late 80's "God Beast" mode Jushin Liger is one scary motherfucker. The OG mask was creepy enough but this one is straight out of a horror movie. Naoki Sano's jacked and ready to show off his stuff. This was a super duper juniors exhibition, with lots of slick back-and-forth mat-tastics and a bubbling aggression that didn't quite pop. Instead, they unload almost all of their offense and it's pretty great. Liger drops a boss diving elbow, suplexes Sano from inside the ring and drops him to the ground, and then follows that up with a fucking somersault senton from the top rope to the floor like he's 2017 KUSHIDA. Not to be outdone, Sano rallies back with lots of kick variations and he goes up top and uh, maybe slips or maybe kicks Liger on the floor. Some of Sano's stuff isn't as squeaky clean as in later matches but he's trying everything, hitting a German suplex hold and a dope arm trap suplex floatover for a two count. They both collapse on the top rope backdrop attempt and the match ends on a double KO. Weird finish but it works and sets up the subsequent rematch.