Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW, 4/15/00)

This was such a cool match-up, almost worked like a junior heavyweight match with Ogawa forcing Misawa into his style. Ogawa's a favorite and he was able to show off here, between his slick maneuvering and cheap tactics. He gets the most out of simple holds, like the way he hangs onto a side headlock or headscissors, or how he leaps onto Misawa's back with a sleeper hold to try and wear him down. He was able to deliver some great neck-focused chains of offense to set up the backdrop hold while managing to counter a lot of Misawa's offense. Subtle selling from Misawa, who looked a little perturbed at times that he's got this little gnat constantly buzzing around his head and on occasion, he's able to pop him with a few stiff elbows before finally putting him away in the end with the tiger driver. A simple but refreshing match.

NJPW "Dome Impact 2000" (4/7/00)

Don Frye vs. Koji Kanemoto

Don Fyre has such a good look, long hair or short, and he came off like a big badass here, but gave Koji Kanemoto enough to keep this interesting for the most part. Kanemoto isn't one to back down from a fight and I like that he stepped up to Frye, smacked in the face, and then immediately gets belly-to-belly suplexed down and put into a submission. Frye's limbwork was real grunty and calloused, which is obvious when you take a look at him, but Kanemoto's a sly cat and will grab a leg when he can. He lands a moonsault onto Frye's back off the missed spear and Frye lets loose a terrific F-Bomb when Kanemoto's got him in a leglock before he boots his way out the hard way. Then he clobbers Koji with a few elbows and submits him with a leglock.

Satoshi Kojima vs. Shinjiro Ohtani

Both entrance themes rule -- what a transition period 2000 was. I really liked the hot opening with the hard open hands exchanged and Ohtani going after the elbow/lariat arm and getting in some of his signature spots. But when Kojima takes over on offense, he more or less blows off the armwork and just shows off his dominance to the point where he attempts his own facewash...and fails. I liked the Koji Cutter spot off the missed spinning heel kick and Ohtani's reaction to the nearfall off the dragon suplex hold was great. Other than that, Kojima kind of stunk it up.

Kazunari Murakami vs. Takashi Iizuka

I love the visual of Takashi Iizuka running down the rampway toward the ensuing chaos in the ring...and then immediately getting pummeled and taken out by Murakami. Whenever Iizuka is able to get a submission hold locked on, it feels like a big deal and while the groundwork is rather simple, the struggle conveyed from both sides really adds to the gritty feel of the match. Iizuka being a dope on the ropes, not letting go and then pounding Murakami in the back of the head was great. I think this could've benefited from being shorter but whatever, we got Murakami trying to goad Iizuka back to his feet after blasting him with a kick, and the slack-jawed looks of Inoki and Fujinami at ringside. As the match heads home, you can really see the frustration in Iizuka's strikes and when he's able to get the choke sleeper on Murakami, it's huge. It's hard to put a rapid dog to sleep but Iizuka snags him off the ropes and finally puts him down. Good stuff.

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa

Slimmed up and shaved down Shinya Hashimoto is oddly reminiscent of Monster Morning himself, Manabu Nakanishi. This was pretty damn great in the way they were able to keep the lines blurred. Early into the match, Naoya Ogawa is being real shitty and brash with his knockdowns and then gets caught off guard with that Hash legsweep from the outside, which allows Hash the opportunity to lay into him to the point that Murakami has to come into the ring in Ogawa's defense. The reactions Hashimoto elicits from the fans with his takedowns are awesome as he keeps trying to cut out Ogawa's legs. I thought the STO struggle and escalation of impact was done really well, with Hash first countering with the DDT and then just kicking the shit out of Ogawa's leg in frustration before Ogawa is finally able to put him down after the choke sleeper > STO combo. Pretty awesome match.

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. 

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Satoshi Kojima (NJPW, 3/19/00)

Although it's missing six or seven minutes of action, this is such a great match with a concise and engaging story, good selling from both guys, and an exceptional performance from Satoshi Kojima. It opens with Kojima hitting a diving elbow drop onto Sasaki, slickly countering a lariat attempt with a Koji Cutter, and then hammering on Sasaki's knee with some grunty legwork, which includes these awesome diving chopblocks. After he delivers an awkward Koji Cutter off the apron, Kojima hangs Sasaki in the tree of woe and lariats the fuck out of his knee. Then he hits a top rope Koji Cutter -- I mean, they're coming from every angle. My favorite moment of the match comes after Sasaki withstands Kojima's lariat and straight up punches him in the face. Chono and crew jump the apron like "What the fuck, ref?!" but Sasaki doesn't care and punches Kojima again. He starts to build some momentum, hitting a frankensteiner and locking on the sasori-gatame but he can't maintain it due to the knee damage. They ragdoll each other with back-and-forth German suplexes and one count lariats. Kojima's able to counter the Northern Lights Bomb with an armbar takedown but when he tries to go back to the leg, he just collapses in exhaustion. So good. He then tries for his own Northern Lights Bomb but can't do it, so Sasaki shows him how it's done and then polishes him off with the short-arm lariat. Recommend!

Takehiro Murahama vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa (Osaka Pro, 3/25/00)

I do love little shitkickers and Takehiro is a terrific little shitkicker, already showing so much fire and ego three months into his pro-wrestling career. This match is fought in rounds, like Murahama's debut match, and Murahama is just so much more aggressive out of the gate than Hoshikawa, avoiding most of his strikes and laying into him with kicks, punches, and knees. The only real offense Hoshikawa's able to get in the first round is a series of freakout slaps to the grounded Murahama. The second and third rounds are mostly defensive, with some strikes exchanged and groundwork that doesn't go anywhere. In the fourth round, Hoshikawa immediately takes Murahama down with a suplex and tries to cinch in a choke, knowing his only chance to best Murahama is on the mat. The German suplex off the ropes with Murahama struggling to hang on was awesome. When Murahama delivers his own German, Hoshikawa is able to grab an arm upon impact, going from a double wristlock into a jujigatame and nearly scoring the submission before the round ends, saving Murahama's ass. In the final round, Murahama comes out swinging for the fences and pummels Hoshikawa down, stomping away at him while he's on the ground. He's relentless here and Hoshikawa definitely gets brutalized, despite getting a few shots in, before he goes down hard. Pretty awesome fight that felt different than most "shoot-style" affairs.

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Masanobu Fuchi (AJPW, 7/18/91)

I heart both of these guys and I heart this match like I heart a good cup of coffee in the morning. A little sugar from Fuchi on the mat, a little cream behind Kawada’s kicks. Unfortunately, this is clipped but when it picks up, Fuchi’s going after Kawada’s left leg with the old man stomps. He lays into a leglock, transitions into an STF, and then just starts cranking on the leg. When Kawada gets pissy, it’s one of the better things in life, with his baby headbutts and punting Fuchi out of the ring. Even when he’s lying on the ground, he’ll still try to take out Fuchi with a low kick. But Fuchi takes advantage of a prone Kawada with a nasty looking stomp. He avoids the powerbomb, backdrops Kawada, then slides into a facelock, forcing Kawada to take a breather out of the ring but goes right back to it when Kawada re-enters. Kawada finally clobbers Fuchi and uses his own facelock, which produced this fantastic visual of Fuchi scrambling to get out of it until Kawada applies the body scissors and submits him. Really fun stuff.

Yuki Ishikawa, Munenori Sawa, Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda, & Super Tiger (BattlARTS, 7/26/08)

Awesome six-man elimination match, which you don't get too often in a hybrid shoot-style environment. This is the kind of shit that got me back into pro-wrestling -- the frantic, almost relentless matwork, trying to hold onto a submission long enough to do enough damage before somebody runs into the ring and shitkicks them. Everyone is constantly following up on their attack, going from submission hold to strikes back to a submission hold, not leaving much breathing room. I mean, for a 45-minute match, the pace they’re working is incredible. This felt like the BattlARTS version of a classic All Japan six-man, with everyone playing up their respective roles: Sawa, the wild child, Usuda, the aggressive little shitkicker, Ikeda provoking everyone from the apron or break up holds, Otsuka the suplex machine, and Ishikawa the dad that has to come in and save his kids. Oh yeah, and Super Tiger, whose tripping all over himself trying to land kicks.

Otsuka and Usuda were the two standouts of the match, in my opinion. Otsuka's always grabbing limbs, transitioning from hold to hold, trying to find an opening for a submission, while creatively maneuvering around the mat. And of course, he throws awesome suplexes. Usuda has great strikes, between his slaps, palm thrusts, kicks...but I also really liked his counterwork, grabbing Sawa’s arm on the figure-four attempt and putting him in a keylock, or catching the Shining Wizard with a kneebar. He’s really stiff against Ishikawa, landing some brutal looking high kicks and a lunging headbutt. But then Otsuka eliminates him after dropping on his neck with a German and then on his ding dang head with a dragon suplex.

In the end, Ishikawa’s the lone survivor against Tiger and Ikeda. I loved the sequence where he’s got Tiger in the Indian Deathlock and every time Ikeda comes in and knocks him down with a kick, it exerts all that pressure onto the submission hold. Tiger’s able to get a couple of knockdowns with his kicks but once Ishikawa’s grabs hold of the leg off the spinning heel kick, he taps him out with the heel hook. The final comes down to Ishikawa and Ikeda and, as always, just about everything they throw is as stiff as day-old catshit. Punches, lariats, kicks – I mean, at this point in the match, with time slipping away, the desperation and exhaustion are major factors, and Ishikawa especially is relentless in trying to submit Ikeda before the time expires. Check this one out, guys and gals.