Hideki Suzuki & Yoshihisa Uto vs. Ryuichi Kawakami & Kazumi Kikuta (BJW, 6/28/17)

Now, this is how you build to a title defense. This was a really good K-Hall tag match with great transitions and plenty of heat between Suzuki and Kawakami. Suzuki really wants Kawakami early on but Kawakami feeds him Kikuta instead. Since Kikuta's changed up his ring gear, he's really been impressing me with his ability to take a beating...I mean, Suzuki's clawing his face, slapping and kicking at him. He elbows the arm to set-up the armwork section for Uto and Uto fills in the black for a bit before Kawakami comes in, suplexes him onto his knee, and kicks him over to Suzuki. Hideki comes in suplexing and when he puts on the octopus hold, he really sells the effort to apply it, first grinding his elbow into the spine to get the arm, then manipulating the wrist to be able to trap it. In the details, man.

 Kawakami kicks Suzuki in the grill and then starts in with some hardass chops. Suzuki tries to block them so Kawakami starts punching him instead! Loved the elbow exchange -- some real hard shots from both guys. Suzuki manages to hit a Robinson-style backbreaker...and then just clubs Kawakami out of frustration before collapsing. Kikuta gets to shine a little bit against Suzuki in the end but Suzuki shuts him down, hitting the scoop tombstone and then that awesome falling elbow strike. In a great moment, Kawakami hits the big elbow on Suzuki and wants the tag from Kikuta to finish off the champ but Suzuki cuts off the hot tag, snatching Kikuta in a full nelson, wearing him down before hitting the dragon suplex hold, using it as a submission to finish Kikuta off. I'm loving these suplex hold submissions. Before this match, I was lukewarm on Suzuki/Kawakami at Sumo Hall but I'm all in now. Can't wait!

Osamu Nishimura vs. Hiro Saito (MUGA World, 8/2/06)

Osamu Nishimura is someone who deserves a lot more love. In our modern energy drink-fueled world, I can understand why a guy like Nishimura can't quite capture the short attention spans of the "more is more" pro-wrestling fanbase. He's so detail-orientated and methodical that if you aren't paying close enough attention, you'll miss out on some of the more clever nuances. Same thing with a guy like Hideki Suzuki, who gives every little movement meaning. Nishimura is a fantastic conveyor of struggle and exhaustion and I think against a bruiser like Hiro Saito, it works so well. Saito immediately wants to get Osamu out of the ring and onto his chair-swinging thug level but this is MUGA World, Hiro. Saito's armwork is real grunty and he uses his head and knee to exert more pressure on Osamu. The standing surfboard escape sequence was fun and when Osamu's finally able to reverse it, Saito just walks over into the ropes to break the hold. Osamu's alternating side headlock wrenches are great and he makes really smart use of the Irish whip to get Saito back into the headlock.

Saito starts working over Osamu's neck, often using the ropes a lot to guillotine him, but when he tries for a piledriver, Osamu uses a back bodydrop hold to try and pin Saito down. Osamu goes after the leg with some awesome elbow strikes to the knee and the final few minutes of the match see him cranking away on Saito, using a sickle hold and these cool falling elbow strikes to Saito's knee. Saito's in the moment selling was really good here. After Nishimura misses a diving knee drop, Saito delivers a German suplex hold but the injured leg gives out so he delivers a second German and is able to maintain the bridge for the three count. A cool finish that came out of nowhere. This was definitely a "less is more" type match but the crowd was into it and it's definitely worth checking out.

Masaaki Mochizuki & Kota Ibushi vs. Munenori Sawa & Hayato "Jr." Fujita (Indy Summit, 12/31/06)

Uh, I guess the best way to describe this "special" match-up is manic and sloppy strike porn. I mean, right from the get go, you had Sawa and Ibushi slapping and kicking away like two angst-ridden teenage girls. There are intermittent periods of ground game in between the stiff pissing contests but really, they mean squat here. You got Fujita blasting a provoking Ibushi with stiff kicks to the chest but when he signals for something devastating, Hayato picks up Ibushi, scoop slams him, picks him up again and then tags out. Dumb. Sawa was his terrific self with the hard smacks and Mutoh tribute spots, which included two Shining Wizards to Ibushi and Mochizuki. At one point, Ibushi stops selling Fujita's strikes and then destroys him with his wild lanky kicks and slaps and a German suplex. In the end, a busted open Fujita tries to submit Mochizuki with the K.I.D. but Mochizuki rolls through the final attempt and hits the Twister and a pair of high kicks to pick up the TKO victory. A glorious little clusterfuck of a match that doesn't quite know when to stop.

Bob Backlund vs. Masakatsu Funaki (UWF, 5/21/89)

Bob Backlund in Japan, in UWF specifically, is a riot. He’s such a goober -- such a pro-wrestling caricature as if Elmer Fudd was a former NCAA Champion. The way he sells Funaki’s kicks, whoa-ing and scuttling around. When Funaki cranks on the kneelock, Backlund casually bends Funaki’s leg and reverses the hold into a reverse Indian deathlock. He’ll fling Funaki off with this “gee, what’d I get myself into here?” expression on his face, only for Funaki to continue pelting him with kicks.  His takedowns are erratic and somewhat impulsive, the strike exchanges are chaotic between wild misses or hard wallops. No-nonsense Funaki is especially vicious with his feet, stomping his way out of holds and high kicking Backlund in the head. After Funaki grounds Backlund with an armbar takedown, Bob leg muscles up through the hold and sets Funaki on the top rope, seemingly pissing him off. Funaki then gets himself disqualified with a top rope dropkick, of course. What a show.

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Riki Choshu (Riki Pro, 9/3/05)

For the last of Katsuyori Shibata's sabbatical matches, we head to Riki Choshu's vanity promotion, Riki Pro, where Shibata had a fight against the big boss himself (also a tag match with Yuki Ishikawa -- is this somewhere in the dark web?). There was a cool chaos brewing in this match that never quite bubbled over into a full-blown violent pandemonium. Shibata hops out of the ring to attack Choshu, taking him to the back of the arena for a private PK ceremony, throwing chairs at him, kicking the snot out of him while he's helpless on the ground. Once it gets back into the ring, though, the match settles into something kind of forgettable. Shibata tries wearing Choshu out on the mat with holds until Choshu dumps him on his noggin with a backdrop, sits up, calmly fixing his hair, before beating on Shibata until the finish. He snapmares Shibata over the ropes in a cool spot and his first big lariat looked brutal enough to end the game...but no, it took six more to put the rabid Shibata down. Not bad but not quite the fight you'd hope for.

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Osamu Nishimura (MUGA World, 9/25/06)

In the age of purple Mountain Dew and 100% marshmallow Lucky Charms, this is a match I could see the modern wrestling fan hating. Two Japanese dads heating the crowd up with sometimes tired matwork, slow reversals, and zero high spots. But this is a throwback between teacher and student, and while Fujinami isn't near his peak...at all...Nishimura steals the show with his well-sold performance, intuition, and sense of struggle. I loved the way the figure-four played such a central role in this match, with Nishimura scouting it early on and turning the attempt into a small package to pick-up a fall. He goes after Fujinami's arm, supplementing holds with elbow strikes, but really, the story being told is based around Nishimura's leg and Nishimura playing defense. He cracks Fujinami with a desperate kick to the leg and in a moment of delayed selling, Fujinami crumbles...but it's not enough and Fujinami evens the score with a figure-four leglock submission. Nishimura's selling during the final fall is fantastic and he's able to block the succeeding figure-four attempts, finally reversing the third attempt to submit Fujinami in a...well, odd finish, as Nishimura had been working on the arm primarily but you could tell Fujinami's knees weren't in great shape. A charming match that was fun to revisit.

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.