Naoki Sano thinking he's pretty slick, getting Masahiro Chono in a Boston Crab in the finals of this one night tag tournament. Little did he realize the undignified fate ahead before him.

Alex Wright looking 7 feet tall against Rey Mysterio, Jr. Some great Heenan commentary. Wright getting insane hangtime on a top rope kneedrop. All the good WCW Worldwide stuff you'd want.

Will Ospreay vs Hechicero

- Will Ospreay (kayfabe) is 12.
- Unfortunately (fortunately?), that matches our time.
- Hechicero plays chess, swallows a checkers piece.
- An archetype for the zeitgeist.
- A bold new critical lens.
- Let me know how I did.

segundacaida.blogspot.com/2026/04/will...

Crazy scene from January 90. The Blond Outlaws had ambushed Choshu. He agreed to a match but if they lost they'd be in the undercard forever. Late in the match they rip off Super Strong Machine's mask (this NEVER happens) and the crowd starts chanting "HIRATA!" Then things take a strange turn.

I tried to get everyone covered!

1989 was probably peak New Japan aesthetically. You should absolutely watch this instead of Wrestlemania unless you have some sort of contractual obligation.

89 Summer NJPW Juniors - YouTube

Counter-programming for Night 2:

The NJ Juniors scene in mid-89 was the best it'd been since early 88. You had Liger (finding his way) and Nogami on one side and Sano/Hoshino on the other.

No 9/20/89 Liger vs Sano (sorry) but try an internet archive search for it.

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

So there's maybe just .... a LITTLE bird abuse here. Just a little. But there's a lot more weasel abuse. I'm going to put this out there as a historical relic and let people enjoy it or not at will. I shall not judge.

Start of Devil Masami vs Jaguar Yokota from 82. Devil wants to use the stick. The ref stops her. So her cronies slide her a chair and she takes massive swings. That doesn't work for her but Plan C is just to beat Yokota around ringside.

Share it. Enjoy it. Wash the bad taste of an hour long Steph speech out of your mouth with it. Fight the private equity-backed strategic merger that is TKO/WWE with the Soviet power of the Red Bull Army.

Who knows how long New Japan will let it last.

Buzz Sawyer vs Victor Zangiev YouTube video by NJ PW

Counter-programming: Inoki gave New Japan a boost in 1989 by bringing in the Red Bull Army, Soviet world champion level wrestlers. The most theatrical of them was Victor Zangiev. He took to it immediately, an instant star. Here's a playlist of most of his 89 matches.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MUT...

Inoki hadn't been in the ring for half a year, but he comes in against Brad Rheingans in Moscow and is immediately hitting the ropes and feeling on the mat.

Doug Somers and Buddy Rose trying to deal with the problem of Leon "Baby Bull" White a couple of years before he would become Vader. Rough around the edges. Probably even rougher than that. But there was so much raw potential with White in 86.

From 12/7/89, Hiroshi Hase vs Habeli Victashev. Victashev in his first or second different styles fight, and they were both wearing the jackets here. He came back in hot after Hase got him out and this sums up the 80s NJPW bombastic bluster very well.

I've rarely seen a bridge up into a pile driver quite like Brad Rheingans does it to Inoki here. I like how it looks just a little bit off.

Rocky Santana is very entertaining too.

A strike exchange, presented without comment.

This isn't executed as beautifully as you might want, but to the people in Moscow at the end of 1989, the struggle behind this Vladimir Berkovich German Suplex mattered far more than the prettiest suplex with the prettiest bridge. It's wonderful pro wrestling.

Maybe the best Zangiev Escape yet, this time in Moscow. I love how he knocks Choshu's head over in the midst of it.

I do have an essay where I went into a bit more work on it.
bsky.app/profile/matt...

Darby Allin vs Andrade

- Who is Darby Allin? Who is Andrade? It's all in the text itself.
- Character driving possibilities, opportunities, consequences.
- Character driving spots instead of spots contorting characters.
- Intrinsic in-ring storytelling.

segundacaida.blogspot.com/2026/04/aew-...

I wish we had gotten it decades early for multiple reasons. We were able to get a decent amount of it back to the families but it would have been better ten years earlier as you can imagine.

Start to Isha/Ischa Israel vs Jean Rabut from 1959 France. Absolutely wild how great the lock-up looks and they keep going from there.

There was something about the USSR guys that really made Doc hit the mat in a way that he didn't usually. He was sowing his wild oats or something.

I thought it was pretty slick at least!

Check out the way Iizuka uses the gi to spider his way around Victashev here. Just incredibly cool stuff. He looks like a million bucks (though he'd ultimately lose the match).

Adrian Adonis was a great, dynamic heel but you can tell from the 70s Portland footage that we really missed out on him as a babyface.

When anyone working in wrestling comes across AI slop.

Let's spend 30 seconds with our good friend Mocha Cota. Save a little bit of room in your lucha loving heart for our pal with the missing fingers.

The timing of this couldn't be much better.