Almost 5-Star Match Reviews — page 3

Stan Hansen is one of the most iconic and recognizable wrestling legends to spend most of his career outside of the WWE umbrella. Many older fans might remember him for his body of work in the US throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but to many younger fans he has another leg to his career across the Pacific.

Simply put, Hansen is the most venerated gaijin/foreigner to wrestle in Japan. Though guys like Hulk Hogan, Freddie Blassie, Bob Sapp, and André the Giant might’ve made more money over there, few men command as much respect as Hansen. He was feared the county over for his toughness and in-ring meanness. He was the ultimate example of using any recklessness or physical handicaps (in his case his poor eyesight) to his advantage. In a medium defined by cooperation, Stan Hansen gave off the impression that he was either going into business for himself or got the stamp of approval to do as he pleased as long as it drew money, which it did.

That said, Hansen’s great match record in All Japan – where he enjoyed immense success – is…a bit checkered. He managed to have some outstanding matches with guys like Kenta Kobashi but he also had some disappointments with others like Mitsuharu Misawa. So how would he do against Toshiaki Kawada, a man who had his own distinct style and seemed to have outstanding chemistry with pretty much everyone?

Any time you see the names ‘Mitsuharu Misawa’ and/or ‘Kenta Kobashi’ together you’re all but guaranteed to have a good time. I’ve seen countless singles, two-on-two, trios, and eight-man tags involving these two men and have yet to see anything that could be considered disappointing, much less bad or underwhelming. There’s a reason these two men are still regarded among diehard wrestling fans as two of the best to ever do it: they had incredibly chemistry the likes of which doesn’t appear all that often. There’s plenty of evidence of this elsewhere: the two were outstanding tag partners and they had amazing singles matches in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2003, many of which top fans’ shortlists of greatest matches of all time. But how were things even earlier than that? How good were they as opponents back in 1993 when they spent 95% of the year on the same side of the ring?

ECW was about more than just crazy hardcore bullshit. Sometimes it featured crazy hardcore bullshit but with LUCHA and FLIPS. And that’s exactly what these two smaller guys pulled off. In fact, these two had one of the better matches from ECW to survive to the present day, which says a lot given that actual ECW matches have by and large aged poorly since they were usually great examples of “great in the moment but not much else”. Let’s see how this one holds up.

The Story

Tajiri and Super Crazy began feuding at the start of 1999. They began trading losses on a weekly and sometimes nightly basis. They fought in singles matches, tag matches, and other multi-man situations. They fought on ECW’s televised shows and house shows, and even took their feud to Puerto Rico and to FMW in Japan. They even tagged together on a few occasions but those situations could be best described as “temporary, uneasy allies” situations.

By the time this match came around Tajiri had 31 wins while Super Crazy had 21, with the rest being either double losses or tag situations. With each passing encounter their matches got more violent and intense. Thus to reach the next level one of their televised matches would be booked as a deathmatch without any rules.

With SummerSlam just around the corner I figured it made sense to look back at one of the best matches to ever come out of that PPV. It’s also fitting since both The Rock and Triple H are so intrinsically tied to the company now. Man…who would’ve thought that, in the span of 26 years, these two guys would go from midcard gimmicks to the two most powerful people in the wrestling business today?

Pro-wrestling is a story of few successes in a sea of failure. Many companies have tried to succeed in this high-risk business only to fail after only a few years. This is more apparent in Japan where stories of promotions starting and failing in short order are more pronounced. Some failures were spectacular like Riki Choshu’s World Japan, Big Mouth Loud, Riki Choshu’s Riki Pro, and Wrestling New Classic. Others lasted a bit longer by either changing their product over time, which is what happened with the company we’re looking at today, RINGS.

Many people consider AJ Styles to be one of the best wrestlers active right now, if not the best. He has wrestled a veritable who’s who of big names over the decades: The Undertaker, John Cena, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Kazuchika Okada, Roman Reigns, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Rey Mysterio, Shinsuke Nakamura, Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, the list goes on.

But there’s one wrestler that he hadn’t faced before, one who might not be on many people’s shortlist of GOATs but one who has been a mainstay in wrestling for over 25 years. One who was so transformative during his prime that he has countless wrestlers around the world outright stealing from him in one of the biggest examples of ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ in the wrestling business. That wrestler’s name is Naomichi Marufuji, and he was handpicked to face AJ Styles in Styles’ first match for a Japanese wrestling company in ten years.

It’s often said that a good way to judge wrestler’s skill is the ability to wrestle against any opponent. Styles, who is often likened to Ric Flair or Shawn Michaels, is said to be so good at wrestling that he can have an entertaining match with a broomstick. But could Styles live up to this stellar reputation and deliver on a worthwhile main-event in front of an audience that hadn’t seen him in years?

Mark Henry is an interesting example of a guy who gets better with age. Though long retired, there seems to be a renewed focus on his career, especially right now courtesy of the YouTube algorithm. One needn’t look far to find fans of his talking about his Hall of Pain gimmick, his salmon jacket, or that five-star fake retirement promo that made him into an overnight sensation. But on the flipside, Henry has some detractors – or at least, critics – who’ve argued that his fleeting moments of greatness can’t make up for over a decade of mediocrity and underperformance.

Still, there’s something special about Mark Henry. Not only does he still have the real sports acumen that gave him immense credibility as a performer, but he has also served as a good talent scout, at least for WWE. And when CM Punk mentioned all the ‘wisdom’ that existed in AEW’s veterans backstage he mentioned Henry by name. So with all that said, was Henry really that good once he was saddled with a proper gimmick?

One of the many readers here at Blog of Doom said that this match should be put in a time capsule since it’s just that great. This is high praise given the breadth of great matches that’ve taken place over the past 35 years.

Then again, this IS Ric Flair and Vader we’re talking about. They’re two of the most highly-regarded American wrestlers in modern times. Flair is shorthand for greatest of all time in many fans’ eyes and some circles consider Vader to be the greatest big man to ever wrestle. These two men had already faced each other twice in singles competition with Vader coming out on top thanks to shenanigans. But now that WCW was putting on its biggest show of the year, could Flair break the streak and beat the most dominant super-heavyweight in WCW history up to that point?

When he was in his prime Mitsuharu Misawa’s career was the gift that kept on giving. Now, though, his career story has become the tragedy that needs to be repeated so that it doesn’t happen to others.

You’re unlikely to find a bigger fan of 1990s All Japan than me. It’s my favorite style of wrestling and I think so many of the matches that took place during that decade blow most of today’s wrestling out of the water. But the fabled King’s Road style came at a severe cost, one that wouldn’t be seen or felt until years and decades later.

Nowadays there are some people that, admittedly, struggle to look back at those same matches and not wince knowing how Misawa’s life would end. And so, Misawa and his cohorts have attracted some notable detractors who’ve criticized their in-ring style since it was so physical, taxing, and diametrically opposed to one of the core tenets of pro-wrestling: make it look like it hurts without actually hurting one’s self.

Nevertheless, Misawa was passionate about wrestling and kept going long after his physical prime. He was beloved by certain fan circles, to the point that he was given an incredible reception when he came to the United States for the first time in years. But was the match deserving of the reception it got, or was it a case of novelty overshadowing any negatives?

Many wrestling falsely assume that 1990s All Japan was all about the head drops and the excess. The truth is that golden decade featured so much more. The company was built on a style that was simple in premise but was executed flawlessly more often than not. That allowed the wrestlers to excel and create these easily-digestible narratives that, even now, are so universal and easy to follow that any viewer can just watch any random match and both follow along and enjoy it without ever being lost or confused. And what we’re looking at now is one of the better examples of that simplicity in action.

WrestleMania XX is usually remembered for one of three things: 1) The Undertaker’s bone-chilling return as The Deadman; 2) Brock Lesnar and Goldberg having one of the biggest stinkers in modern WWE history; or 3) the main-event triple threat match between Triple H, Shawn Michaels and…a guy that some people are still debating whether he should be mentioned at all (Chris Benoit).

Because those three things were so much more memorable by comparison, everything else on WrestleMania XX’s card tends to be forgotten. This includes a big singles match between two of the best wrestlers the company had at the time which, after twenty years, still holds up incredibly well.

Will Ospreay has certainly gone through an incredible journey over the past decade. He was scouted by New Japan after getting rave reviews from Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, and AJ Styles. He became a polarizing figure from the moment he reached a major stage after having that absurd match with Ricochet that got him both praise and ire from different corners of the wrestling fandom. He took the world by storm as this weird mix between cruiserweight and heavyweight, later becoming too big for the former but still too small to be convincing as the latter. He has been showered with praise and accolades all over the world. And if the most notorious wrestling critic is to be believed/taken 100% seriously, then Ospreay is a better in-ring performer than pretty much every person to come before him.

So what better way for us to judge these claims for ourselves than by watching Will Ospreay compete against the wrestler that represents and symbolizes AEW more than any other?

AJPW had a lot of classics in their 1990s heyday, many of which still hold up to a present-day standard. Countless wrestlers to have made their names in North America have drawn inspiration from these AJPW legends, either directly or indirectly. And while the industry has changed quite a lot over the decades, there are still plenty of people that prefer stuff from the past. It’s in that spirit that we look back at another big match from AJPW’s heyday to see if it still holds up.

Who would’ve thought that, when this match took place, these two men would become the two most powerful men in the wrestling business.

When these men clashed in the ring no one knew how big both of them would become. Although The Rock came from a venerated wrestling family no one expected that, come 2024, he’d be worth over $800 million and would sit on WWE’s Board of Directors.

As for Triple H, his time in WWE has seen more ups and downs than a Game of Thrones character. He was loathed for a very long time, became a legitimate go-away-heat-having monster, and is now among the most beloved people in the industry.

With Vince McMahon gone from the company, Triple H has assumed more or less complete creative control of the company. Under his leadership WWE has seen a surge in popularity not seen since 2000 which, incidentally, was also quite possibly the best year in modern WWE history. There’s still plenty to be happy about WWE in the present, but how well does the company’s last peak year hold up to a modern lens?

Few wrestlers were more alpha and badass than Goldberg and Steiner. They were two insanely strong monsters that lived up to the hype as larger-than-life monsters. But what also gave both of them appeal was the fact that both of them were grounded in realism. Goldberg was a straightforward wrecking ball that didn’t need all that much finesse or skill because the few things he knew how to do he did extremely well.

Meanwhile Steiner started off as an amateur standout that could throw people around effortlessly and then grew into becoming one of the most unintentionally exciting wrestlers of his day. Not because of anything planned for or around him but because he earned a reputation for being such an unpredictable powder keg who did whatever we want that fans genuinely wanted to see what he’d do next.

So when these two mammoths clashed, who would win?

It’s often said that wrestling careers are short (at least in North America) and very few people end up having storybook careers with fairytale endings. Both of these men certainly know a thing or two about that.

Michaels was once the most hated man in the English-speaking wrestling world; if social media existed in the 1990s during his prime he’d have enough hate mail – both physical and digital – to cause a mental breakdown. Yet he went away for four years, found God, and then had a complete career renaissance. He almost ruined his legacy when he prostituted himself for a hefty paycheck and a shitty match in Saudi Arabia, only to turn things around once again and become a much-adored and respected booker as the new head of NXT.

Jericho, meanwhile, has seen his fortunes sour in the eyes of many fans. Once heralded as the central figure behind AEW’s original success, as one of the greatest in-ring workers of his generation, and as a certified legend, Jericho has go-away heat with a lot of people. Some people point to allegations of bad behavior backstage while others point to his worsening creative ideas/catchphrases and the fact that he has stuck around so much that fewer people really care about him.

This is one of the reasons why it’s better to look at wrestlers’ matches instead of wrestlers’ careers in their entirety. You get a better snapshot of a wrestler’s skills in individual matches than you get when looking at careers that can span through different phases. It’s with this in mind that we revisit one of the best feuds in WWE during a time when the company was still on something of a downward slope popularity and interest-wise.

Can anyone become a pro-wrestler?

Even in the colorful and at times absurd world of professional wrestling there can be philosophical discussions about what is and what can be. The question above is one that many fans have argued over the decades: should pro-wrestling change with time and open its doors to any who want to pursue it, or should it be restricted so that only the best and most well-trained are able to showcase it in front of big crowds?

This match between two of the most recognizable figures in modern wrestling history sought to give one answer to that question. Hulk Hogan was the most iconic wrestler and, in many ways, still is. Meanwhile, Vince McMahon was instrumental to creating Hogan’s nationwide appeal and bringing WWE to a national level. Vince was also critical to his company’s second golden age during Attitude Era by becoming the ultimate villain.

But how well did Vince do in the ring against one of the greatest stars he ever had a hand in creating?

Thirty years ago New Japan Pro-Wrestling put on one of the most interesting and exciting shows in modern wrestling history. Not only was it entertaining but it changed the wrestling landscape in general. This show proved that smaller, quicker wrestlers could draw big houses and have high-caliber matches just as well as the heavyweights that usually closed the shows.

Much has changed in the wrestling business since then, but one thing that remains the same is that smaller wrestlers do usually steal the show. Guys like Bryan Danielson, Will Ospreay, AJ Styles, and Rey Mysterio are all hailed as some of the best to ever do it. But none of them would’ve ever gotten a chance to showcase their talents had it not been for this show, which was put together by this man.

By 1994 Jushin Liger was the unquestioned centerpiece of New Japan’s junior heavyweight division and one of the company’s most popular wrestlers. Wanting to extend that popularity to other wrestlers his size, and to shine a greater spotlight on other “juniors”, Liger convinced NJPW to give him complete creative control to book a one-night single-elimination tournament composed of junior heavyweights from both New Japan and elsewhere.

The tournament brought fourteen wrestlers from six different promotions together to see who the best would be. Some of these wrestlers were going to wrestle multiple matches in one night with little to no preparation against people with differing styles. This gave some of the matches more of an on-the-fly nature as the people involved had to do what was best in the moment rather than follow some pre-prepared outline. But that also made it more of a test: how would these wrestlers do under the added pressure of having less time to put their matches together?

Kurt Angle is one of the most respected and admired wrestlers of the past 25 years. Many fans and active wrestlers have plenty of good things to say about him and have fond memories about wrestling with or against him. However, there seems to be a divide in which parts of Angle’s career people appreciate more.

Though his WWE career has gotten the most praise, the same couldn’t be said about his time in TNA. Many people have used terms like “sad”, “washed-up”, “past-his-prime” and so on to describe Angle’s time in TNA. I think that’s an unfair generalization, both of Angle’s time in TNA and of TNA’s reputation as a whole. Instead of being a retirement home for WWE superstars that were either cast away or grew tired of the grind, TNA had a few unique things to offer, at least for a while. And one of those things was the sight of seeing Kurt Angle overcome physical and personal challenges and leave it all in the ring. He did this plenty while in WWE but did he live up to the same standards elsewhere?

This is the match that started a legendary two-year war between Jumbo Tsuruta and Mitsuharu Misawa. That brutal war carried All Japan until Tsuruta’s unfortunate and premature departure and while it went on All Japan was white hot. This match also includes something unusual as far as All Japan classics are concerned: Akira Taue as Misawa’s partner rather than as his opponent. Anyone who has followed that period knows this to be rare, and outside of the odd ‘special tag match’ would never really happen again.

With All Japan’s roster devastated by a loss of talent that would be completed by the end of the summer, how well did they manage to pivot towards pushing new talent? Let’s find out.