On the Rocky Road to NOAH: The Best of Budokan Hall, Disc One

Yo fuck the Corona Virus, and fuck the mentally and emotionally sapping world we live in right now. It made me not want to watch the art I love for months.

Alright, now that the sorry sap part of the blog post is out of the way, Wrestling!

So I've been sitting on this 3 disc set for a while now, but recently I purchased (Beyer help me) Best of Pro Wrestling NOAH DVDs for the years 2001-2014, because I have mania and the rum I was drinking determined that my mania was for NOAH that night.

I'm...I have imposter syndrome, I think. Like with Pro Wrestling NOAH, I feel like I haven't earned the right to be a NOAH fan, somehow. This didn't happen with New Japan, I think because I came into that company with a wave of other new fans, so it was a very mutual feeling of discovery and it made me feel comfortable coming in. But with NOAH I don't get that. It's not that the fandom hasn't been welcoming. In fact, everyone I've interacted with has been incredibly helpful and friendly when it comes to getting invested in the emerald brand. But I feel like...I dunno, I don't Deserve to be a fan somehow. Cause the company and it's fans have been through a lot the last twenty years, and here I am just kinda like a tourist with a camera around his neck and a Hawaiian shirt.

So, what to do?

Walk the King's Road up to the Ark, I guess. As I wait for the Pro Wrestling NOAH DVDs to come in, I'm gonna go through this DVD of a VHS rip, and try to...absorb? the power of 90's All Japan, so that I can be ready for a decade and change of Pro Wrestling NOAH.

Join me, won't you?

9.3.1993
Triple Crown Championship
Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams [5th Defense]
Start as you mean to go on, I guess. I really didn't want to go into this review like "KING'S ROAD IS THE SUPERIOR STYLE OF PRO WRESTLING AND MY EYES ARE OPEN" because I try not to be a hyperbolic guy (just manic). But...like I watched this match and I was blown away. It was so simple, but they got so much out of the crowd, who was WILD. Even through the background noise of this being a VHS rip, I could tell how amazingly alive the crowd was. There was one true moment of 'Heat' and it came when Dr Death pressed Misawa and dropped him sternum first into the ringpost. The crowd went nuts and it just stoked the fire. I don't wanna do a play by play, but at the same time I also really cant. It was all about momentum in this match. Doc would have control, Misawa would try and fight back, Doc would get it again. I loved it. My favorite moment of the match was when Williams went for the Oklahoma Stampede multiple times and Misawa kept slipping out each time, but never truly gaining an advantage. The match ended when, having gotten the momentum for just a moment, Misawa nailed the Tiger Driver, two massive elbows that still weren't putting the gaijin down, and hit a second Tiger Driver for the pin. I NOW GET MISAWA HYPE
****1/4

9.3.1993
All Japan Tag Team Championships
Holy Demon Army (Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada) vs. Stan Hansen and Ted DiBiase [3rd Defense]
So as I've said above, my experience with 90s All Japan is extremely limited. But I'd always felt a very soul bound attraction towards Toshiaki Kawada. I can't tell you why really; maybe it's his loyalty to All Japan when NOAH was formed, maybe it's the black and gold aesthetic, maybe I just really, REALLY like Taichi and that affection transfers over to his teacher. But after this match, I can tell Kawada is going to be one of my favorites on this DVD set. He's just a bottle of piss and vinegar fueled by wanting to be the best and I can appreciate the hell out of that.

There's really not much to tell about this match beyond that. Stan and Ted are big motherfucking gaijin who wanna take the tag titles. Kawada cannot abide by this insult and takes every opportunity he can to fight the two men. By all rights, Taue comes off as the level headed one in this tag team. Heat's on Kawada forever before Taue makes the tag. Taue runs wild but eventually he gets shut down, while Kawada gets thrown out of the ring. DiBiase hits Akira with an atomic drop and Stan bops him right after with a Lariat for the pin. Stan then goes outside just to fucking murder Kawada with a Lariat as well. To quote Bane, "That was Unnecessary." Not great, but it endeared Toshiaki to me.
***1/2

Joined in Progress
THAT Misawa/Kawada match
This DVD has the last twenty odd minutes of the June 3rd 1994 Misawa/Kawada Triple Crown match. I've never seen this match but I knew the legendary status of it, obviously. I'm not going to review what I saw, because I don't want to disrespect the match by reviewing part of it. But what I saw made my brain explode like I was attacked by a Scanner. I'll probably go back to this one day on this site.

7.29.1993
Triple Crown Championship
Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs. Toshiaki Kawada [4th Defense]
I don't get why this DVD is going out of order, but I don't mind too much.
First off, Toshiaki Kawada's entrance robe/jacket

I Just want it for Around the House

You can tell this is definitely not the first time these two have fought. They each have easy counters for each other's strikes and holds; Misawa puts his guard up for every other enzugiri, Kawada has a block for the Elbow, etc. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't take many notes for this one. I think watching the end of the June 3rd match blew me up emotionally and showed me how much they can do. One thing I've written multiple times that I should bring up is that all of Misawa's finishing level moves are awesome. The Elbow can be sudden, and the Tiger Driver/Suplex can be switched around based on the opponent he's applying them too. Too heavy to hit the Tiger Driver? Tiger Suplex. Keeps slipping out of the Tiger Suplex? Tiger Driver. I love it.
What I don't love is Kawada getting donked on his neck twice on really, really scary German Suplexes. By the time Misawa brought him back up for the Tiger Suplex, he was out on his feet. Pinfall in an extremely good match that I haven't really talked all too much about. I, once again, blame the previous matches rabid excitement for the dulling of my expectations.
****1/4

Man, I hope the final match on this disc can wake me up and get my spirits high again.

8.31.1993
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams vs Kenta Kobashi
 OH MAN I NEEDED THIS. If you've never seen this match, I linked the match above. go watch it now, this post will definitely be here when you come back.
You could tell right away from the immediate hyper aggressive lockup that this match was going to be meaty. I was pumped. Surprisingly, Kenta took over early, working him over for the first stretch of the match. It was weird, mostly because I was expecting Steve Williams to at least try and steamroll Kobashi.

But then.

Kobashi was beating on Dr. Death and he starts...kinda running in place. Kenta pummels him again, Dr. Death is dancing more.
He's firing up.
You made him angry.
You. Dumb. Motherfucker.
Steve Williams is fucking done with this bullshit now. He picked up Kobashi in a press slam and dropped him outside the ring. Not slammed him outside of the ring. The mad bastard faced away from the ring ropes and just let his opponent fall from the press. I was amazed and terrified, knowing I would never want to make Steve Williams angry. I have the words "Steve, no, please stop" written twice in a row.
It was about this time, when the match boiled down to the two men trying to hit each other as hard as they could, running corner to corner, that this thought came to my mind.

This was like any New Japan NEVER Openweight title match. Two beefy men hitting each other with their beef and the crowd is going wild. This might get me in trouble with the All Japan fanbase but I don't care, I say it like it is. I'm not saying that it's inherently better than the Misawa/Kawada matches, but it's something that feels familiar, which to me makes it some shade of evergreen.

Kobashi hit a moonsault (and it was fucking beautiful by the way) for a two from the referee and this audience is screaming. He worked over Dr. Death a little more before going for a second moonsault, but this time Williams got the knees up to collapse an Orange Rib cage. Doctor Bomb attempt lead to a really weird moment of Kenta...falling back first...on Williams? He got a two count but that didn't end the match. No, there was a worse fate to suffer for young (27) Kobashi.

Earlier in the match, Kobashi had countered a football tackle by putting Steve Williams in a sleeper hold, leading to a tense period where Williams might have been choked out. Kenta tried this again, but Steve wasn't a fool, he kept his momentum from running to gloriously get in position for the first of three brutal, amazing Backdrop Drivers. It was so amazing, I had to make a gif of it.

That's horrifying. But Kobashi is healthy and well today so I'll continue to watch this on repeat.
Two more Backdrop Drivers end it. I'm gassed.I need a cigar.
*****

Well, that was the end of Disc One. I can't see how the rest of these matches can get any better, but I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised

Archive Dive: G1 2006/ Wrestle Kingdom 1

No one tells you how unstable it is trying to review wrestling...or reviewing anything, probably.

There's a lot of lows, with time crunches to be the first one to talk about a show, being able to see exactly how many people aren't reading your reviews, and I still don't think I've recovered from last summer when I tried to watch all of the G1 and it shut my brain down for a week. But there's highs. Seeing the people that are reading some of the reviews of a relatively nobody never-done is astounding and it's been nice to share my thoughts on wrestling with the world at large. So how do I work around the parts of doing a wrestling blog I don't like while still doing it? New Japan World and ROH's Honorclub have huge libraries that, while not complete, have a lot of matches that people probably don't know about. Combine that with my want to get as much of my money's worth out of the subscriptions as possible, and I was struck with inspiration.

An Epiphany.

No time limits, no pressure. Most of Falcon Arrow Emporium is going to be focused around diving into these backlogs, wading through them like Zhang Liao in a Dynasty Warriors game, and finding what's good, what's great, and what's worth $10 a month for. There'll still probably be reviews of modern stuff scattered around (NOAH, ZERO-1, Anything else that might really interest me) and I still want to do a monthly Top TV match list. But as for New Japan and ROH? I'll get to modern stuff when I get to it.

Doing my research for this project (Read: After watching New Japan's CHAOS history video), originally I was going to start with dissolution of Great Bash Heel in April of 2009. But then I started digging a little father (Read: going to the GBH Wikipedia article), I found out the roots of Great Bash start coincidentally a few months before the original Wrestle Kingdom. Review every Wrestle Kingdom? Sounds fucking mad right? Well I'm that kind of fucking mad, so let's do this. ROH will come along when we get to it in the timeline as set by Honorclubs limits (2011). so let's go back in time, to August of 2006. The G1 was two blocks of 5. Liger was in one of the blocks (it did not go well for him, 1-4) and the stage is set for the finals. Satoshi Kojima, who at the time was part of All Japan Pro Wrestling's roster, taking on New Japan's Hiroyoshi Tenzan. The 3rd Generation explodes!...for the 3rd time since Kojima left New Japan.

8.13.2006
G1 Finals
Satoshi Kojima vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Tenzan looks incredibly trim here, which is either due to him gaining bulk over the years or black being a truly slimming color. This little under half hour match was something interesting to watch 13 years later. the biggest profile match I've seen out of either man here came from their NEVER Title shots against Shibata in 2016. The two were very evenly matched throughout the contest, with Kojima occasionally taking advantage using underhanded means. nothing as glaring as a low blow,  small things like taking a little longer to break when Tenzan reached the ropes, or "accidentally" raking his opponents eyes in an attempt to escape a hold. Tenzan made up for what his opponent was doing by using his sheer power advantage over him. He would win most of the strike exchanges, and capitalized with moves off the top rope more than Kojima did. Satoshi tried to take a count out victory by first DDTing Tenzan on the apron, then Lariating him over the ropes as he got back in the first time. As the match goes on, it's fun to spot the wrestlers surrounding the ring, like Makabe and his clearly fried yellow hair or the sphere that is Nakanishi. As the match picked up, Tenzan started busting out bigger and harder moves, leading to the anaconda Vice from him for the first time in the match. Kojima had applied it earlier but both times the Vicee reached the ropes to escape. Kojima hits a Koji Cutter out of a blocked Lariat, which is a new one for me, before going for another Lariat and being caught for a slam leading to the Anaconda Vice, which everyone thought would be the end. Kojima raked eyes out of it, before leading into two flesh crashing Lariats that should have been it for New Japan's chances. But, after kicking out, tenzan decided something needed to be done about all this, and proceeded to chop the ever loving piss out of Kojima's arm. After he nearly took his opponents arm off like a Buzz Lightyear action figure, Tenzan executed a pair of perfect Big Man Moonsaults, and two Tenzan Tombstone Drivers for the pin.
***1/2

1.4.2007
3, Koraku 1-chrome, Bunkyo, Tokyo Japan
The Home of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Yomiuri Giants
42,000 seats
The Big Egg
The Motherfucking Dome.

I just wanted another excuse to do that intro. Let's get into the undercard.

El Samurai, Masanobu Fuchi, and Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Akira Raijin, Kikutaro, and Nobutaka Araya
Ryusuke Taguchi looks like he wishes he were literally anywhere other than this match. Kikutro was Back Suplexed, DDT's, and Dodon'd to be pinned at the end of this short, bizarre match.
*, only because of Taguchi's bitchin' pants

Gedo and Jado vs. MAZADA and NOSAWA Rongai (Tokyo Gurentai)
An okay contest. Jado and Gedo are really good asa tag team and it showed here. Going to be honest when I say that I had no idea who NOSAWA and MAZADA were before this match and I probably wouldn't go out of my way to see them again in the future. Superbomb from the top rope followed by a frog splash by Gedo for the pin.
**

Buchanan, D-Lo Brown and Travis Tomko vs. Togi Makabe, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano (Great Bash Heels)
THE ATTITUDE ERA IS INVADING.
AND THEY BROUGHT A HIRED GUN FROM TNA WITH THEM.

D'lo Brown and Tomohiro Ishii were in the ring at the same time here, which is something right out of a custom Fire Pro Wrestling Promotion. Entertained by the time capsule that is the GBH team, knowing what directions Ishii and Yano will take in the future, and how uninspired they really were in the ring here. Match ends when Buchanan is hit in the back with a chair and Lariated by Makabe. Only seek out as a curiosity, not if you're looking for a good match
* 1/2

Suwama, TARU (Voodoo Murders), Giant Bernard, and RO'Z  vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Naofumi Yamamoto, Riki Choshu and Takashi Iizuka
The Chosu coalition was winning early, until they decided to tag Naofumi (now YoshiTatsu) in, who was promptly and immediately taken advantage of. During the beatdown of Yamamoto, we got a shot of the commentators, including my new favorite picture of the week; Yoshihiro Takayama in a Hawaiin shirt, looking as unimpressed as anyone who's ever been on commentary.

I feel you, man. This undercard has been a slog.

I thought this would be another match on the pile of skippables until Nakanishi tagged in and started going nuts. I get why this man was IWGP Heavyweight Champion now. He out the Rack on TARU, and when Suwama tried to save his friend, Manabu chucked the Fuck from his shoulders ONTO THE CHARGING SUWAMA. All this before Racking (Read: Olympic Slammed) RO'Z, who I want to remind you was about 300 pounds. A fucking Monster, was Monster Morning here. Unfortunately, someone decided to tag Yamamoto back in, who Suwama killed with a Bridging Backdrop Driver. Catch the last five minutes of this one.
**1/4

Jushin Thunder Liger, Minoru, Milano Collection AT (CTU), Shuji Kondo and YASSHI (Voodoo Murders) vs. Kaz Hayashi, Koji Kanemoto, TAKA Michinoku, Tiger Mask and Wataru Inoue
Fuck's Sake. No.
i'm sorry if this comes off as unprofessional, but I'm a Lab Technician not Dave Meltzer, so excuse me if this one isnt as deep as it could be. But I knew a grand total of three of the men who started this match. Two of them wear masks, and TAKA is an ageless demi-god who hasn't changed since 1997. I know many of these men, just by name, were staples of Junior Heavyweight action in their times, but their times were not my times. You want to send me Minoru or Wataru Inoue matches, be my guest. But here, it was just "Liger and four bodies" against "Tiger Mask, TAKA, and three bodies". Tiger Mask won by Tiger Suplexing a man who I think was YASSHI.

Oh wait, I figured out Milano Collection based on the Paradise Lock. So...Yeah, thanks for that SANADA.
**

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Toshiaki Kawada
Okay, Undercard over. Let's get serious with a fucking serious match.

There was a definite feel in the air between these two men. Shinsuke came in looking like he had something to prove, Kawada had another body to put in the ground. This was the greatest story in wrestling of the young upstart and the confident veteran.

Fuck. Yes.






Kawada was definitely easily the more powerful man in the ring this night, but Shinsuke was willing to cut whatever corners he could to win this match. Holding on after rope breaks, taking every shot that was open to him, nothing was held back. And then, Shinsuke slapped Kawada, and Kawada proceeded to beat the fuck out of this young man. At that moment, not 5 minutes in, the future multi time IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion was on the fast track to losing this match. Despite his best efforts, trying hard to power through being dumped on his head, and cinching in armbars multiple times, it was all for naught by the end. A sick powerbomb from Kawada got a one count. A Brainbuster got a two. Shinsuke, going for what I could only assume was the only thing he could think to try, went for Kawada's legs and cracked himself against his foe's knee. Twice, somehow, it wasn't his best night. That put Nakamura out for the three. Not the greatest match on the show, or either man's best, but it was still very good.
***1/4

Triple Crown Championship [2nd Defense]
Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Yuji Nagata
I never thought I'd enjoy watching Uncle Murder and Uncle Justice fighting each other, or at least as much as I did here. I just see them as two completely different entities who, in todays New Japan, just wouldn't meet in a full blown contest. But not even two minutes in they decide to slap the piss into each other, and it's on from that point. Suzuki took over early, taking Nagata outside and busting him open with a chair against the post. Unfortunately, this only managed, once Yuji busted Minoru up himself, to invigorate the challenger. For maybe the third time in my watching history, Suzuki is on the ropes and getting kicked down at every step for the better part of the match. He'd start a comeback here and there, including a sweet reversal from an exploder and hitting the Gotch piledriver at one point in the match, but Nagata seemed to have his number the whole time. Yuji had the title won, Suzuki was dead to rights, wasn't coming back. But he got the cover, the ref counts 1, counts 2, and New Japan's challenger lifted the champions shoulder up. Because it was apparently time to go to school. That one opportunity, like any time in a Minoru Suzuki match, was all it took to doom Nagata. Minoru fired up with strikes after this insult, stopped a backdrop, and locked in a Rear Naked Choke for the win. Hopefully I haven't understressed how awesome this match was. Definitely paired well with the previous match.
***1/2

IWGP Heavyweight Championship [3rd Defense]
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Taiyo Kea

Look at that fucking beauty of a belt.

Having never seen Taiyo before, I was very impressed by his athleticism. I almost was admiring how good he was, until he NAILED TANAHASHI WITH A LANDSLIDE ON EXPOSED CONCRETRE. HOW DARE YOU USE A COUSIN OF THE FALCON ARROW IN SUCH A TERRIFYING WAY. I'd Gif it, but I don't want New Japan taking my blog down before it even gets too far off the ground. Taiyo took over most of the match from here, just annihilating Tanahashi in the ring. Using a great combination of strength and athleticism to take apart the defending champion. Tana showed some bursts of life, but each time he tried to capitalize on a mistake, he was shut down and the beating continued. Kea hoisted Tanahashi into the Fireman's position to finish him off, when Hiroshi slipped behind him and started to fire back. With this renewed energy, the fight became very back and forth, each man gaining advantage when he could and trying to end the match. Taiyo's last big moves came in the form of a Saito suplex and a Sleeper slam that dumped the champion right on his head. Yeowch. A normal man would be defeated by this, but even 12 years ago Tanahashi was not a normal man. He fought long enough to catch Kea with a Strait Jacket German, a Dragon Suplex, and finally putting Taiyo away with the High Fly Flow. A great match.
***3/4

Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima vs. Keiji Muto and Masahiro Chono
Mutoh immediately cleaned house with Shining wizards.

All Japan Pro Wrestling Presents: New Year's War, 2018

I don't want to surprise anyone, but Grad School while working full time eats up any decent gaps for wrestling.


But I will persist, because people need to know about All Japan Pro Wrestling! (And NOAH, but we'll get to that). New Year's War is the usual 2 day event that sets the tone for the year in a whole. We had most of the company's titles on the line (Sorry, All Asia Tag) and some of the undercard shows a good amount of promise. We're losing watching time for NOAH before New Japan's New Beginnings, so let's get rolling


Night One

Atsushi Maruyama, Dick Togo and Masanobu Fuchi vs. Osamu Nishimura, Ultimo Dragon and Yohei Nakajima
Fuchi is so, ridiculously not good. I'm sorry if I'm missing something here, if he was much better when he was younger, or if I just have a lack of nostalgia, but I will never complain about Manabu Nakanishi again. Opening comedy about closed fists between Fuchi and Dragon, and thank Shinya that things picked up after Dick Togo and Yohei came in to bring life to the whole thing. Togo puts on the greatest crossface of all time, Yohei bent in angles that shouldn't be possible in a submission like this, and tapped out.
*1/2

Lions, Pillars, and Arks: All Japan New Years War 2015

It's 2017, on the eve of 2018. I've unofficially been a fan of  Japanese professional for a few years now. But there's still a lot I haven't really watched. I've exclusively watched New Japan for two of those three years, and even then it wasn't always consistent. Since then, I've found All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH, and those I've been very sparse on. So I decided to amend this problem, and here we are. I launched Falcon Arrow Emporium mostly as a vehicle to log my progress through the library before me. So join me, if you will, as I cut through 3 years of Japan's finest wrestling. 

All Japan Pro Wrestling, New Year's War 2015
The year is 2015! With The Triple Crown and the Junior Heavyweight Title held by Joe Doering and Atsushi Aoki, respectively, Evolution is on top of All Japan! However, the group XCeed is in the game as well; Go Shiozaki will challenge Joe on the second night of the wars, while Kotaro Suzuki and Kento Miyahara hold the All Asia Tag Belts. As the first shows in the new year, there's a lot hanging in the balance for the men of All Japan!



Night 1, January 2nd, 2015

Naoya Nomura vs. Yuma Aoyagi
This was a Young Boy match, and if you've seen one at any point in the past, then you've seen this one. The only really neat thing to mention is that these men would one day be All Asia Tag Champions together. Nomura won with, shockingly, a Boston Crab
*

Kotaro Suzuki (Xceed) and Ryuji Hijikata (not of XCeed) vs. Masanobu Fuchi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Instead of a Yohei Nakajima match, which happened but we apparently skipped, we got this. I've heard of Kotaro Suzuki before, but looking at all the hardware he's had in his career tells an amazing story. Masanobu Fuchi took  the entire beating, then his fire up was composed of a single nose hook and the coldest hot tag ever. I don't want to surprise anyone, but Yoshinobu turned the match's pace around for the absolute better, making a great comeback. He and Suzuki clicked very well, and Hijikata wasn't an entire slouch. We had a string of La Magistrals from Suzuki until one actually worked, pinning Fuchi for the three.
*3/4