Yes, Splitting Posts

Yuki Ishikawa v Daisuke Ikeda (Fu-Ten 24/4/05)
--They shake hands out of mutual respect and not five seconds go by before Ikeda’s laid out Ishikawa with a palm (could have been a fist). Gets an eight-count too which was great to start the match with and it really creates a theme of these two trying to outdo each other. These two had been in ring rivals for at least ten years before this and while I haven’t seen a lot of their matches or probably even their best ones, they’ve all been great. This was off the charts. Ishikawa to me is the superior mat worker of the two and Ikeda the better at smacking people around with kicks and different hand shots. Never mind that though, Ikeda can do mat and Ishikawa can do pummelling. This had both doing both, obviously. There was plenty of first-rate grappling here with a lot of stalemate moments where both guys would be waiting for the other to cave in and stay the hell down. By the end of it (fourteen minutes), both guys hair looked like they had been electrocuted and Ishikawa’s lip was split open. I was surprised to see it end in submission, actually.


Shinya Hashimoto v Masato Tanaka (Zero-ONE 2/3/02)
--This is apparently the match that made Z1 officials become so impressed with Tanaka that they hired him full-time. Can't say I blame them, he was great. He has some sort of inter-promotional Championship in his hands or something pre-match and just before the bell rings he drops it to his leg and kicks it towards Hashimoto. Hash is a respectful fella, and fan favourite (and creator of Zero-ONE)  but he'll fuck you up bad. He rampages straight for Tanaka in a blind haze of strikes and kicks that'd make most wrestlers weep. Tanaka's waiting outside for a break and he's almost whinging like a baby while Hashimoto's standing there and looking at him like he dares him to kick that belt at him ever again. Tanaka gets some good offence in and I was surprised by how much I liked him, but Hash is one of my favourites on offence and he's really creative. One spot Tanaka's on the outside laying down and Hashimoto casually jumps from he apron ONTO HIM. Nearly hits his head on the guardrail as a result. He just will not relent with those kicks and chops either, I didn't really think I'd see anyone I could say rivals Vader in the shoot-while-not-wrestling-shoot-style department. Great bloody match and I'm not waiting too long to watch he 11/7/03 one.


Sheamus v John Morrison (WWE 19/12/10)
--I can pretty much revoke what I said about Sheamus not interesting me in any way, because most of what he did here was pretty freakin great. I wouldn't call this a classic, and I'd say it's far from it, but the idea of a "classic" seems to vary from every single person, and I'm not going to knock this much at all because it was really good. Thought Sheamus actually did really display his overpowering big motherfucker gimmick over little jumpy purty-boy Morrison who should have specialised in this sort of thing. Sheamus' work on his leg wasn't just good becuase "hey he's jumpy and this is a ladder match and John can't climb", it was good because he actually DID unique stuff that i thought he was missing. I really can't be bothered trying to remember much of what he did in particular, or trying to come up with names for them, but I got the sense that if somebody like Arn Anderson was in a ladder match he'd do a similar sequence of stuff. First 3/4 of the match was spent with hobbling Morrison trying to stop Sheamus from going up, and Sheamus being pissed and surpirsed at how Morrison can even stand, then plowing through him him with this and that. Morrison sold the leg really,m really well as well, and he sold it even at points where it wasn't even necessary (if it is and stuff. yayrasslinnerds) It was all done really well and Morrison's hope spots didn't seem goofy (like I usu. think they do). Loved the spot where they were both holding ladders on the opposite sides of the ring and ran at each yelling "YOU FUCKERRRRR". Well they didn't yell that, but it wa sin my head and I enjoyed it. Ladder matches are obviously going to have it's fair share of "the hell?" moments, and this wasn't too bad before the *big spot* of faling outside the ring. Honestly that looked pathetic with both guys just jumping. I tried to watch the replay to see if someone did a move or they both fell but I just saw Sheamus jump onto the ladder and Morrison jump after him. I don't think Sheamus should have really got up after that either but it set up Jerry Lawler's line of "what is this guy The Terminator?", so it makes up for it. Very good match.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Kengo Kimura (NJPW 7/12/75)
--Been going through the NJPW 80s set again, and skipping through Fujiwara caught my eye like a motherfucker. On a total kick of the guy and I'm gonna skip through the NJPW 80s, Other Japan 80s & PWFG sets and watch anything of him I can. In the meantime I'll search for otehr stuff of his I don't have, like this. Fujiwara's apparantly been in the game about three years here, and his selling is already phenomenal. This is a short match (unlikely- most was probably cut off), but it's a good display of 70s matwork, and I like that style a lot. Kimura's fine and good, busting out your usual stuff and trying to outdo Fujiwara the best he can, but Fujiwara's threw out some great stuff, notably having an armbar on Kimura, throwing him over in a firemen's carrier (while keeping hold of the arm), and dropping down to a leg-armbar. Thing. Like I said his selling is top notch; you don't get to see a lot of selling in his face since the footage is from '75 and a little blurry, but his bumps are spot on and if someone used the stuff Kimura used in a leigt fight I can totallly see someone actually being affected the way Fujiwara was selling. Not a great match at all (for the eight/nine minutes that was shown, it was probably a lot longer), but it's the sort of match I'd be thrilled to see on Raw sometime.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Kohei Sato (Zero-One 2/3/02)
--I was liking this until this Sato guy decided to blow off all of Fujiwara's signature stuff. They were having really good mat exchanges for nearly ten minutes, and then Fjiwara goes to the Fujiwara armbar, and without two seconds rolling by, Sato rolls through and treats it like it's nothing. That I wasn't ALL THAT fussed about, but it got a lot worse when Fujiwara was trying to headbutt the kid, and he goes and starts yelling like one of those annoying young Japanese wrestlers, displaying his "spirit" or some crap (like KENTA or Akiyama). Fujiwara later does that thing where he twists his legs around and kaes his opponent roll in front of him, and because he's old and shit it takes forever and he's panting like a motherfucker on the floor, so Sato gets back on offence again. Honestly, though, first half (more than half, probably) of the match was really good. Fujiwara was still good mat-wise and Sato could match him well. Felt kind of sorry for them because of the dead crowd, like, if this was RINGS with a hot atmosphere, there would have been people shitting their pants at the quick submissions pulled out of nowhere and stuff. Worth a watch, definitely.