Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Sho Funaki (PWFG, 5/19/95)

Sho Funaki working in a shoot-style environment is just about as awkward as you’d expect it to be. While he’s not quite the striker, he does manage some decent takedowns and works the mat well enough. But he’s mostly a punching bag for Ikeda and Usuda here, which is fine, too. Usuda snaps off kicks and throws out some nasty open hands, while Ikeda’s a little more gritty with his stomps and kidney punches. Poor Funaki gets dumped with a German suplex and that’s the last we see of him before Ikeda and Ishikawa shut it down like you’d expect. Plenty of snug shots and grunty matwork, with Ikeda wrenching at his face and choking him out for the win. Fun tag.

Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (NOAH, 10/19/01)

This little doozy of a match-up truly embodies what a gratuitous bomb-fest should be. You've got Takwai, one of the best no selling shitkickers out there, and Kanemaru, who proves he can scramble brains with the best of them. Within the first five seconds of the match, Takaiwa turns Kanemaru's world upside down with a big boy lariat. They're both being really shitty, with Takaiwa throwing the ref out of the way and Kanemaru using that to his advantage and low blowing Takaiwa. They choke each other with tape before opening up the arsenal and dropping just about every bomb they have in reserve. Brainbusters, Death Valley Bombs, including the best spot where Takaiwa catches Kanemaru off the apron and plants him on the floor, lariats, Takaiwa Drivers -- even one of my favorite video game finishers, the double powerbomb INTO the Death Valley Bomb. They steal each others moves, executing them to brutal perfection, and of course, Takaiwa being Takaiwa pops up after taking three consecutive brainbusters like it's nothing and spikes Kanemaru with the Takaiwa Driver. What a prick. But sometimes you just have to sit back, shut off your thinking capabilities, and enjoy a brainless (maybe literally) but awesome bombs away match.

Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJPW, 1/27/91) + BONUS TAG!

Although these early All Japan six-mans can become a little hard to distinguish from one another, the formula works so well and the characters play their roles engagingly. Once again, the seasoned dad wrestler Jumbo Tsuruta showed terrific resilience against that fiery shitkicker Toshiaki Kawada, who pesters him throughout. I mean, the opening exchange sees Kawada bump like hell off a kitchen sink knee -- Jumbo hits him so hard he hurts himself. At one point, Kawada keeps peppering Jumbo with his shitty face kicks and Jumbo snaps, unloading a barrage of big daddy elbows on him and continuing the punishment on the floor with chairshots. Fuchi's the prematurely old dick head, Misawa the young hero, Kikuchi the underdog, and Taue does what Taue can to ensure his team comes away victorious, getting shit from the fans for breaking up puns but ultimately scoring the pinfall with the powerbomb. To quote all the cool little Twitter owls, this was a HOOT!

Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW, 2/23/91)

This match was clipped to the end of the six-man and what we get is a doozy. The heat between Kawada and Taue is sizzlin'. The match cuts in with Taue delivering one hell of a shoulderblock to Kikuchi before we get to the bloodshed. Once again, Taue with his fresh haircut, is being nastier than usually, busting open Kawada or tossing Kikuchi out of the ring onto Kawada. The fans are way into Kawada's general pissy-ness as he and Taue just slap each other silly heading into the finishing run, and they bite onto most of the nearfalls before Kawada finally puts Ogawa away with the powerbomb.

Daisuke Sekimoto & Kohei Sato vs. Daichi Hashimoto & Hideyoshi Kamitani (BJW, 10/15/17)

This was a hell of an opener, and what I'd consider to be one of Daichi Hashimoto's best performances to date in Big Japan. You had the young team showing a ton of fire at the outset, prematurely attacking Sekimoto and Sato before the bell, and putting Sekimoto on the rocks early on before the hardened vets take over on offense. Daisuke is so good at playing the heel-ish taunting bully and of course, Sato's just plain nasty in there against Daichi, elbowing the snot out of him. Daichi's full of fighting spirit and won't back down, despite getting his clock continually cleaned by Sato -- just terrific selling on Daichi's part as he takes a beating. Kamitani does a good job of throwing his weight around in there and gets a taste of Sato's punishment, taking some brutal kicks to the chest and a big headbutt. But he's able to clobber Sato down with a lariat, tagging in Hashimoto to conclude his story. Loved the visual of Sato and Sekimoto standing over Daichi like schoolyard thugs as he futilely tries to fight off both. That heart and determination pays off for him in the end, and after blasting Sekimoto with a Shining Wizard, Daichi's able to put him away with a big brainbuster DDT. Yet another example of tag team wrestling done right in BJW.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Dokonjonosuke Mishima (U-STYLE, 4/6/03)

This was a terrific little match-up, with Mishima showing off his quasi-capoeira style and judo takedowns against Tamura's slick-as-catshit counter and matwork. Mishima manages some hard slams and I really liked his takedown into the headscissors, transitioning into the jujigatame. Of course, Tamura's great here as the veteran, tip-toeing out of trap attempts and scoring takedowns>submission holds. The struggle on the ground was conveyed well, although Tamura's king and at times, he looks bored at Mishima smothering his leg. Heading into the finish, Mishima comes at him with a palm thrust but Tamura is able to take him down into a necklock, flipping him over into the armbar and cranking for the submission win.

Minoru Tanaka vs. TAKA Michinoku (PWFG, 5/19/95)

Holy shit, this rules. It’s liquid hot magma right out of the gate as Minoru immediately starts slapping at TAKA, and then they scramble fiercely around the mat, fighting over a leglock, getting pissy in front mounts with their strikes, including some well-placed palm thrusts from Minoru. Minoru delivers an awesome shoot package Gotch-style piledriver…I don’t even know how else to describe it (see above)…then transitions into the single leg. He may be without his glorious locks here but Minoru’s still swanky as fuck, with his smooth leg trap counter into the kneebar. He’s either taking TAKA to the bottom rope or he’s stuffing him with kicks.  They trade suplexes (love TAKA’s snap belly-to-belly) but when TAKA tries for the German, Minoru answers with the wakigatame takedown and when that doesn’t do the trick, he just stomps TAKA in the back of the head. He tries to finish off TAKA with a high kick but TAKA’s able to counter into the single leg and crank it back to submit Minoru. Love this match.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. TAKA Michinoku (PWFG, 8/26/95)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara, as awesome as he is, doesn’t have time for TAKA Michinoku’s shit. Who does? But Fujiwara especially. No matter what TAKA tries on the mat, Fujiwara finds a way of countering and schooling TAKA in the art of old man grappling. When he’s not forcing TAKA to the ropes with a leglock, he’s smacking or headbutting him, naturally. At one point, TAKA sends him headfirst into the corner, but of course, Fujiwara no sells it to re-adjust his socks because his head is notoriously unbreakable. But bless TAKA, he keeps trying. When he attempts to boot out of a hold, Fujiwara snags the boot and screws the ankle, and when he’s had enough, Fujiwara cranks him into submission and doesn’t let go. What a crabapple.