Almost 5-Star Match Reviews — page 2

There are some pairings that just seem to always seem to work together without issue. Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat. Roman Reigns and absurdly long entrances. And today we look at another such a paring to see if they could make lightning strike twice in the same place.

The Story

This is a rematch eight months in the making. Back in April at DreamSlam I Akira Hokuto and Shinobu Kandori had an outstanding match together. In fact, it might actually be the single greatest women’s professional wrestling match to ever take place in terms of pure action. Upon more recent rewatching not only would I give it a full ***** rating but I’d also put it somewhere in the top 15 or 20 matches ever, it was that good. Part of the reason why was because of how personal and real it was. Both women threw live rounds at each other. Kandori locked in shoot armbars, to which Hokuto responded, “I want you to break it, idiot!”. Hokuto suffered such a nasty bladejob that several of her peers reported getting nauseous from the smell once she was back in the locker room. And according to Rossy Ogawa, despite the universal praise for this match, Hokuto was frustrated with the end result because in her mind the mismatch between them led to some chemistry issues and the match not unfolding the way she wanted. In other words, she ended up with gold when she wanted platinum.

That match ended with both women punching each other as hard as possible and Hokuto scoring a sudden pin. It was uncharacteristically violent, even by AJW standards, and earned a reputation as something akin to the peak of AJW’s interpromotional war. The best match I can compare it to would be John Cena versus Brock Lesnar from Extreme Rules 2012 except WAY better. After that match ended Hokuto started being called “The Dangerous Queen” and went on to have another strong year as a performer. But at the end of the calendar year there came a need to try and settle the score from DreamSlam. Though considering how incredible their first match was, could these two hope to reach those same heights?

I’ve been wanting to a deep dive into 1990s New Japan for a long time but just didn’t have the chance. NJPW World, while detailed, doesn’t have all that much from the 1980s and 1990s. And when it comes to 1990s Japanese wrestling, much of the focus when it comes to NJPW has been on the junior heavyweights. When it came to heavyweights, more attention has been given to All Japan since they had the Four Heavenly Kings, whose matches still hold up today as some of the greatest and most timeless contests to ever take place. Thankfully one of the regular readers here brought to my attention a massive online archive of wrestling matches that might be found anywhere else. So again, big thanks to Manjiimortal for sharing a link filled with literally thousands of wrestling matches, including this little gem that has gone under the radar for way too long.

The Story

This is a straightforward G1 tournament match between two big stars in the company. Chono was arguably the bigger star of the two, being one of the Three Musketeers of Fighting Spirit. Before he slowed down and went all looks-crazy decked out in black, Chono was a solid if not passable wrestler, whose biggest contribution to wrestling at the time was creating the STF submission hold. Meanwhile, Hase was lower on the card but arguably the better wrestler. He was more of a midcarder with a much more promising amateur pedigree who had more under his belt already. He created two unique moves of his own: the Northern Lights Suplex and the uranage, both of which would go on to be spammed and copied countless times. He is also credited for his role in the birth of the Muta Scale, for wrestling in that one match that, for a time, was considered the measuring stick for bleeding during matches. And this is an aside, but I just got my hands on his 2002 book and it’s definitely one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while. Not just because he has a unique perspective on wrestling, but because he also gives insight into his career as a politician and how he thinks a public servant should think about their constituents.

Anyways, the only other important thing to note here is this match took place after Chono suffered a broken neck. That will definitely play a role in how this match progresses.

I’m taking a short break from translating the many books I have covering Mitsuharu Misawa but I figured I’d stay more or less on topic and revisit an important support player in his and fellow Kings’ careers in Terry Gordy. Compared to the other Americans who hung around All Japan during the 1990s Gordy is an unsung and at times unappreciated figure. Most people remember him for being Steve Williams’ partner, and because his greatest successes were earlier in the decade many have forgotten that Gordy was actually a former world champion. Not only that but there was this internal belief within All Japan that, had Gordy kept his personal demons under control then he, not Stan Hansen, would’ve become the greatest gaijin wrestler in All Japan and possibly beyond. And since it’s kind of depressing to reminisce about how Gordy’s career ended, let’s try and focus on his positive contributions. To that end, let’s look at what is arguably the last great match he ever had and one of the most important ones as well.

The Story

This match took place on the Night of the Four Kings, perhaps the most important date in AJPW canon. On that night each of the Four Heavenly Kings of All Japan – Kobashi, Misawa, Kawada, and Taue – each faced off against one of the Four “Foreign” Kings: Terry Gordy, Stan Hansen, “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, and Danny Spivey. All four of these Americans had held either the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, or All Japan’s World Tag Titles, or in Gordy’s case, both. They were considered the top stars in the company and with Jumbo Tsuruta gone the only way for the younger generation to rise up was to beat these four fabled gaijins.

Though he wasn’t as tall as Spivey, as powerful as Dr. Death, or as hard-hitting as Hansen, Gordy was perhaps the most complete gaijin wrestler on AJPW’s roster at the time. Having read all four of the Four King’s respective books and plenty of other supplemental sources, the overwhelming consensus is that Gordy was a deeply respected and admired wrestler who could’ve achieved even greater heights had his habits not gotten in the way of things. So many of his peers both American and Japanese have sung his praises, but did he back all of this up once the bell rung?

What we’ve got here is something quite interesting: a match involving one of the most accomplished and decorated wrestlers in recent memory who, for better or worse, has been all but scrubbed from WWE history…and Chris Benoit.

All kidding aside, SmackDown was an interesting place in 2002 and 2003. Under Paul Heyman’s initial guidance the blue brand became “the wrestling show” that was more worth watching than the entertainment-heavy RAW. It was also special because, around this time, WWE had conditioned its audience not to expect anything special on live shows or TV shows and to only expect the best moments and matches on PPVs. But SmackDown was largely an exception to this; even after Heyman was ousted from his position as head of the show’s creative department there were still better-than-average matches on that show more often than on RAW. As such, for your average fan who couldn’t always fork up top dollar for “premium” events SmackDown circa 2002-2003 provided more value for money. So with today’s WWE landscape being dominated by exorbitant prices for even B-level shows and a hit-or-miss chance for those shows to actually have anything worth the price of entry, let’s look back at a time when the average fan for more out of what they paid for.

The Story

A few weeks earlier at Survivor Series 2003 Lesnar and Benoit found themselves on opposite teams in a traditional five-on-five elimination tag match. Benoit’s side won that match and what was particularly notable about this was that Benoit made Lesnar tap out to his Crippler Crossface submission hold. Now, Lesnar tapping out wasn’t a new development since he had tapped out to Kurt Angle already at least once before. But tapping to Benoit was considered a far more serious embarrassment, to the point that, earlier in the night, Lesnar vowed to tap Benoit out in this match.

That being said there was one problem: at the time that didn’t have an established submission finisher. This was before he entered MMA and so LONG before his kimura was even a thing. During his first run Lesnar only had the F-5 as an established finisher and nothing else. So even though Lesnar was dominant and rarely showed vulnerability, with this match he found himself in an unfamiliar setting. Would Benoit tap him out twice in quick succession, or would Lesnar find a new way out of this exceptional challenge?

I’m taking a break from translating Japanese books go back to reviewing matches. But this time the two topics are related since one of the comments on my Akira Taue book reviews suggested this as a “hidden gem” and “an absolute blast of a sprint”. And you know what? He was right.

Most of Taue’s best matches, according to some critics, have been tag matches. As a singles star he often gets dismissed as less skilled or less accomplished compared to the other Four Heavenly Kings. His only Dave Meltzer 5-Star match was against Misawa in 1995 (though to be fair that match is still amazing) but little else stood out. Then again, as we have seen in more recent years Meltzer’s idea of what makes a match great is extremely niche, even by wrestling’s already niche circles, so it’s always better to have more voices talking about the same topic. And with that let’s look at this purportedly great match of Akira Taue’s.

Twenty years ago Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels had one of the best matches in not just WrestleMania history, or even WWE history, but all of wrestling history. To this day this match has been hailed as Angle’s magnum opus as an in-ring performer and it further cemented Michaels’ status as a modern legend in his own right. It has also been a prime example of the dubious validity of wrestling’s most notorious critic, Dave Meltzer. Many, many people believe that Kurt Angle deserved at least one five-star rating in his career but Meltzer, for whatever reason, never gave him. And even though Meltzer’s opinion is just that, an opinion, there are still enough people out there that, either genuinely or facetiously, take Meltzer’s word as gospel when it comes to modern professional wrestling.

With that in mind (along with having met Kurt in Toronto a few weeks ago), I figured it was appropriate to commemorate this occasion with a 20^th anniversary retrospective on the match that stole the show at WrestleMania 21.

This is one of the most historically significant matches of the past three decades that you probably haven’t heard of. This match headlined the biggest wrestling show up to that point that didn’t involve Pay-Per-View. With this contest NJPW raked in the equivalent of about $US 6 million from live gates alone. Not only was it a huge lucrative success but it set in motion a chain of events that would alter the course of wrestling history. This match concluded what is quite possibly the most successful outside invaders angle ever, to the point that Eric Bischoff couldn’t help but copy it and repurpose it for his own reasons and create the Outsiders and then the New World Order. Without this match odds are the NWO wouldn’t have existed. No NWO means no 83 week win streak for WCW. No win streak means no Attitude Era. No Attitude Era means no Steve Austin versus Vince McMahon. And no Austin versus McMahon means no second golden age for WWF/E, which means no chance for the company to go public and eventually become the multi-billion-dollar entity it is today.

Kenta Kobashi is many longtime wrestling fans’ favorite wrestler. His career is filled with outstanding matches, crazy moves, and insane moments. Even though he spent 99% of his career in his native country he created an interesting legacy for himself. Though he was never as famous, wealthy, or popular as the biggest names in American wrestling, he still became beloved among diehard segments of the wrestling fandom for a myriad of reasons. To this day I have yet to see an outwardly bad Kobashi match. Even when he was having an off day he was still putting on mid-to-high-***-range matches. It seems like he is allergic to having bad matches…as proven here once again when a seemingly forgettable match of his ended up being way better than expected.

The Story

At first glance this looked like one of the biggest mismatches imaginable at the time. Post-knee surgeries Kobashi was built like a classic heavyweight champion who could hit like a freight train and take hits like a planet. Think of him as a wrestler with John Cena’s physique, Kurt Angle’s in-ring ability, and Rey Mysterio’s knees. In 2003 Kobashi was on a tear as NOAH’s world champion, having accomplished a lot in his first six months on top. His world title reign was something of a template for all world champions to follow. He won the title from Mitsuharu Misawa in what many call THE best match of all time (and is also my personal favorite match), and then proceeded to elevate the title by defending it against all comers. First he beat a near-Olympian grappler in Tamon Honda. Then he had his first and only match for NJPW by beating Masahiro Chono ~IN THE TOKYO DOME~. Then he beat a token gaijin hoss in Bison Smith. And after that defended his home turf against then NJPW ace (read: the only guy wrestler in the company with a shred of credibility remaining following Inoki’s disastrous MMA obsession) Yuji Nagata. After surviving such a wide variety of opponents, including some that outclassed him in some way, Kobashi needed a new challenger…and I guess with NOAH having a dearth of credible homegrown guys built up, they went with one of the most perplexing choices imaginable.

Ogawa will probably go down as the least-threatening Japanese wrestler in the past 30 years. He was pencil thin, unimposing, and lanky. He was too tall to be a full junior heavyweight and too small to be a heavyweight (his official stats show him as standing 5’7” and weighing 180 pounds, motherfucker is smaller than ME!) And yet there were three reasons not to dismiss Ogawa so easily. First, Ogawa was AJPW’s wrestling trainer who oversaw technique training in the All Japan dojo. Since he lacked overall strength and looked like he could be knocked over by a passing breeze, Ogawa built his own wrestling ability around countering, fluid techniques, and being crafty. This led him to be a mainstay in AJPW’s fledging junior heavyweight division, it also made him an interesting partner for Misawa when the green machine found himself without a partner once again (Misawa originally wanted to team with equally small UWFi guy Masahito Kakihara while Giant Baba wanted him to team with Hawaiian wrestler Maunakea Mossman and Ogawa was ultimately selected as a compromise).

This led to the second reason: Ogawa was surprisingly good in his role as the sneaky weasel who cheated and used underhanded tactics to win. He earned the nickname “Rat Boy” and wrestled like a mixture of William Regal on the mat with Ric Flair at his eye-poking best, all while looking less menacing than Jack Perry. Yet with these attributes Ogawa was able to have at least two outstanding, MOTYC-level tag matches with Misawa against Kobashi and Akiyama in 1999.

Third, these skills helped Ogawa reach the top of the mountain NOAH once before. That’s right, this scrawny little geek is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion, having beaten Jun Akiyama with his countering and reversal specialty in only four minutes a year earlier.

So on one hand people saw these two very different men square up and probably concluded that this was going to be a night off for Kobashi. After all, Kobashi’s arms were wider than Ogawa’s torso so it was only a matter of time before Kobashi caught this little rat and cleaved his head from his shoulders with a lariat. On the other hand Ogawa was as unscrupulous as he was quick, which meant he wasn’t above cutting corners to get what he wanted. And since Kobashi was this righteous do-gooder who believed in sportsmanship and digging down deep to get the most out of himself and his opponent, it was only a matter of time before these two diametrically opposed ideologies led to an explosive clash.

It was only a matter of time before Will Ospreay wrestled his doppelganger.

There are many people who adore Ospreay as a wrestler and it isn’t hard to see why. He’s flashy, acrobatic, willing to risk everything on a regular basis, and he has ludicrous conditioning for a guy who has spent the past 15 or so years throwing himself around like a pinball, both on defense and on offense. Personally I’m not all that convinced of his purported historic greatness: I’ve seen awesome matches from him against the likes of WALTER, Hiromu Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito, Zack Sabre, Jr., and even once with Kenny Omega. But the thing with Ospreay is that he’s a guy that requires a very specific type of opponent to really shine and show off his strengths.

So who better to fill that role than the man who, at one point, did Ospreay’s shtick better than he did?

Remember when Kazuchika Okada was considered THE best wrestler on the planet and many people agreed with that statement? Remember when he actually put in serious effort into his gimmick, angles, and matches, and as a result actually gave people their money’s worth? Those were good times.

Okada’s fall from grace is kind of disappointing from the fans’ perspective. Here’s a guy who, not too long ago, earned the near universal praise he got by being one of the most exciting wrestlers in the world. But it seems like a decade on top turned him into something of a cynic and led him to seek greener pastures. Well it turns out he found those pastures in AEW and since then he has been…underwhelming, to say the least. Most people watch Okada in AEW and see through him quite clearly: that he’s here for the fat paycheck and will do the minimum to get it.

While there’s a certain respect to be given for him managing to, for lack of a better word, hustle more money for less effort, it’s also disappointing to see a once exciting wrestler come down and fail to live up to the hype. And it’s not like Okada was only great during the 2010s when he was the challenger; he was having great matches as recently as two years ago that were by and large much better than what he has shown in AEW…

One look at these two names and you know you’re looking at greatness…supposedly.

Jushin Liger and Ultimo Dragon are two of the most famous luchadores in the world outside of maybe Rey Mysterio. Liger is a certified legend, one of the few Japanese wrestlers to overshadow heavyweights in a country that very much emphasizes weight classes and the preconception of “graduating” from junior heavyweight to full heavyweight. Meanwhile, Dragon is a legitimate record holder, having held more singles titles at once than any other wrestler before or since.

But is he really deserving of this stellar reputation, both as an in-ring performer and as a booker?

I’ve heard nothing but good things about this match. It’s something of a lost classic, known only to the small handful of people dedicated enough to scour the interwebs for obscure matches that took place during the tail end of joshi’s post-peak downward spiral. And with news that Meiko Satomura will be retiring within the next five months it’s fitting that we take a look at what is considered one of the best matches of her career…as well as another feather in Hokuto’s cap as well.

“I WILL KILL YOU!” – Brock Lesnar. “YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO!” – The Undertaker.

Who needs longwinded promos with recycled verbiage conjured up by unenthusiastic writers when you can tell an entire story and sell an entire arena out with those two simple phrases?

The last time Brock Lesnar faced The Undertaker the two men had a shitty match that, despite its shocking conclusion, had a deflating effect on the atmosphere. Part of that was due to the combination of underwhelming hype and a bad performance stemming from an in-match injury that neither guy really managed to overcome or work around in the moment. But that was a bad note to end things on, which is why Undertaker came back to try and finish his feud with Lesnar on a much higher note. But could he?

Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar are two if the biggest names in wrestling from the past two decades. Both of them have reached the top of the mountain more than once, have been showered in accolades, and still have legions of unyielding fans who love everything they do. It wasn’t always this way, but despite having some bumps along the way both of them have managed to become so comfortable that they don’t have to do all that much to get ludicrous reactions from fans willing to shell out top dollar just to see them live.

But hype and build don’t always translate into a polished or worthwhile final product. Despite being heavy promoted and protected, both Lesnar and Reigns have…mixed…track records when it comes to delivering on the purchased ticket. I remember back during the 2010s when words like “lazy” were used to describe Lesnar, while Reigns was the target of far worse vitriol. Whether the hate these men got in the past was deserved or not is a matter of opinion, but it’s important to note because the past does affect the present. In this case, it’s the mixed response to previous Reigns/Lesnar matches that loomed overhead as these two men battled for what was – and so far is – their final encounter.

Do you like violence? How about blood? And explosions? Yes to all? Okay, how about seeing someone get electrocuted? Or how about someone running into barbed wire? Still here? Okay, how about having two men trapped in a cage surrounded by all of these implements of destruction unable to escape while fighting against time under the threat of a time bomb going off? If all of this sounds like a fun time then boy do I have the match for you.

This one of the craziest stipulation matches of the past three decades, so much so that AEW tried to copy it (and failed spectacularly). When people complain about exploding matches in North America not living up to historic standards, this is the match to which those lesser matches are compared. It certainly had a lot to live up to, and with so much change in the wrestling landscape, let’s see how well it holds up.

I was originally going to post this a few days ago but got sidetracked with other stuff. I wanted to bring attention to this particular match because it’s something that I think is worth studying. Few clips of this match exist; the only one I was able to find had no subtitles and no commentary, not even in Japanese. As such, if you were to start watching it randomly you’d probably find yourself confused. After all, why would Jushin Liger, NJPW’s most respected and iconic junior heavyweight, be wrestling The Great Muta, a wrestler in a completely different weight class?

It seemed completely random and out of nowhere for NJPW to book this; after all, it was the penultimate match on a random night during NJPW’s tag tournament so it’s not like there was much emphasis put on this feud. And yet with so little build this match ended up being far more entertaining than it had any right to be.

This match has been on my radar for some time but I couldn’t get around to it until now. On paper it seems like a completely forgettable match; after all, the only two guys most people might be familiar with here are KENTA and Marufuji. The former because he made it to WWE, AEW, and NJPW after his NOAH career ran its course; and the latter because pretty much every wrestler active today has either wrestled him or borrowed/stolen something he came up with at some point in their careers.

But the other reason I wanted to see what this match was all about was because of its presumed reputation. This is one of the few 2000s matches Dave Meltzer rated ****3/4 out of five, and this was during that long decade when, for whatever reason, he seemed to think there wasn’t all that much good wrestling. So if we take his rating at face value, this match got similar ratings as: Angle/Benoit at the 2003 Royal Rumble, Angle/Michaels at WrestleMania 21, Undertaker/ Michaels at both WrestleManias 25 and 26, Kobashi vs. Sasaki at NOAH Destiny 2005, and many more classics that’ve aged so well to the present day.

Yes I know, taking old Meltzer’s opinion so seriously is ridiculous…BUT from time to time he does serve as a useful starting point for people looking to find something they might like. And since Pro Wrestling NOAH was putting on some of the most exciting wrestling in the world during the first half of the 2000s, then maybe, just maybe, he was right with this match as well.

Hey remember Kenny Omega, that guy once labeled the best professional wrestler in the world and one of AEW’s founding fathers? Whatever happened to him? Oh, he’s been sidelined for almost a year due to serious illness? Well, isn’t that depressing.

It has been almost a full year since Omega wrestled his last match and, as of this writing, nothing concrete has been said of his return. There have been rumors here and there but nothing substantial. When he does come back (it’s not a matter for “if” for someone who loves pro-wrestling as much as Kenny Omega), people are going to be very curious about what he will do.

But while Omega’s return is growing ever more likely with each passing day, there’s one thing that isn’t: that he’ll return the same man as he was before. Considering that he’d be coming back from diverticulitis, a nasty condition that not even Brock Lesnar could overcome completely unscathed, there’s a growing possibility that Best Bout Machine Kenny Omega might never be seen again.

If that ends up happening then we might be left with a more subdued version of Omega, one capable of having great matches yet one that’s still far removed from his 2016-2018 prime. With that in mind let’s take a look at one of Omega’s lesser AEW matches since, after all, this might end up being what we end up seeing from Omega down the road.

Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston are two of the most beloved wrestlers in AEW. They’ve both been around for decades, have earned their reputations for dedication and passion, and wear their hearts on their sleeves. Danielson in particular is still adored by many fans and his popularity transcends the tribal division that has come to define online wrestling discourse. Kingston, on the other hand, is another matter. He was one white-hot after that Players Tribute story about him went viral. Yet despite it turning him into more of a likable and relatable person, there was never any genuine follow-up to it. Despite him catching fire he fell through the cracks and ended up being one of several promising people in AEW to languish on a treadmill, always in motion but never moving anywhere. And this match is one of the reasons why.

A few days ago my colleague JABRONIVILLE did a write-up on the 6-9-95 AJPW tag match that, to this day, has stood the test of time as the greatest tag team match to ever take place. With such high praise, readers commented on what they saw as other matches worthy of the title of ‘greatest tag match of all time’. That brings us to this AJW match here, courtesy of user PeteF3.

This has to be one of the most star-heavy tag matches of the 1990s interpromotional era. You’ve one of the few women to be honored with a WWE Hall of Fame induction, the women’s version of Big Van Vader, one of the toughest women to ever lace up a pair of boots, and an Olympic bronze medalist with an ax to grind against pro-wrestling in general, all fighting in a company notorious for pushing the envelope and revolutionizing pro-wrestling in general. Much has already been said about the in-ring quality of joshi wrestling in the 1990s, so how does this particular tag match hold up?