Matt D - SC

Vader. Bigelow. Dropkicks.

Choshu's Powerslam is one of the coolest moves of all time.

Kamelot and Alexius tearing it up on the mat.

Quick check in on Owen Hart vs Tatsutoshi Goto from 8/31/89. I love the look on Owen's face after Goto tags him here. Plus they kept calling Goto "Mr. Backdrop" and here's why.

Heel-coded Pedro Morales from 1976 New Japan is a bizarre sight, but my favorite part of this is how slowly Sakaguchi lifts up the table in the middle of the clip. It feels larger than life, a real titanic big of strength given how he does it.

Great, great cut off/shut down by Nishimura against Yamazaki here in 98. The set up is what makes it work.

Choshu is indescribable in the same way Randy Savage tends to be, one of a kind, but they both channel electricity in very different ways.

There’s an inevitability in Choshu matches, a sense of ritual and promise, a vow. Eventually that arm will swing. Eventually the lariat will come. Everything that happens before that builds the pressure, the animosity and agitation and fury that will boil over to power it.

Choshu excelled at framing moments, at priming the crowd and capitalizing upon narrative opportunities. He understood the symbolic value of everything he might do and leaned harder into that than any sense of realism. In doing so, he made crowds buy in all the more .

It took me a while to really get Choshu. He’s as good at any of his peers at creating mood. Whenever he enters the ring, he brings with him rising tension. He’s the promise of eventual retribution, a burr (maybe even a sore) upon the heart of the world.

This is a short clip but it sums up the spirit of 80s New Japan so well to me. Saito hammering down on Iizuma. Iizuma showing pain, suffering, but fighting his way through defiantly, and in the background Choshu elated for his effort.

I could spend 30 seconds every day watching Inoki come in on a tag and the crowd go up for him and it would brighten my day. Here it's against Bundy and Samu from 85. Kimura looks great here actually. Some really good Inazuma Leg Lariats and subsequent bumps and/or sells.

Because he never suffered any actual consequences, Jon Moxley is now basically the Lisa Murkowski of the Death Riders.

Really tremendous figure-four battle between Mimi Hagiwara and Yumi Ikeshita from 1981. Hagiwara had been an actress and was the most emotive of her era. You can really see that here. The bridging on the figure-four reversal being so high is very unique.

I'm pretty convinced at this point that there's nothing more magical in pro wrestling than Inoki getting the tag and bursting into the ring with uncontainable staccato energy.

MJF vs Brody King

- Details Matter.
- No, that's it. That's the post.
- ~2000 words of a one-match case study about how details matter so, so much.

segundacaida.blogspot.com/2026/02/aew-...

The thing about Inoki is that he could be wrestling the biggest goofs in the world like Super Maxx and Madd Maxx here and it didn't matter. He'd leap over the top rope and start throwing knuckle arrows and the crowd would go up for it no matter what. Just a special connection.

Bathe in the inspirational power of Antonio Inoki fighting his way out of Blackjack Mulligan's Claw.

Let's spend a minute and a half with the most kickable face in the history of shoot-style as Yoji Anjo tries his luck against Takada.

Victor Zangiev. What a guy.

A minute or so of Jean Bout vs Jack Van Doreen from 1959. It's such an interesting historical relic, the setting with the tables in the background, the way that it's shot, the expressiveness in the cross choke, and of course the lost up-and-over headcissors takeover out of the top wristlock.

I'm increasingly convinced that the future of pro wrestling is a reframed social contract with crowds, a transparent "neo-kayfabe" that convinces them it's in their best interest to leave irony behind and embrace a unique interactive theatrical experience. Some words on that.

1000 quick words on the Collision Parking Lot Brawl.

- Wrestling's like life; it never stops.
- Eddie Kingston is so, so tired.
- Wrestling's like life; it doesn't care.
- Still, he fights on.

segundacaida.blogspot.com/2026/02/aew-...

Inoki vs Kimura from 1986. Inoki's such a jerk but we love him for it anyway (the crowd sure does).

All the action fit to print from the Football Pads battle between Jim Duggan and Steve Williams from December 1984.

Wild finish to a 1989 Choshu/Liger/Kimura vs Bigelow/Owen/Pat Tanaka match. The foreigners were flying around for them.

Henri Lambert and Roger Laroche demonstrate fighting spirit in 1959 France.

The finishing and really great post-match to the Houston 3/14/86 Doc/Dibiase vs Masked Superstar/Murdoch tag. Just beautiful pro wrestling.

Wild finish to a fall in a 6-woman tag from 1980. They neutralize the numbers in an inventive way. Jackie Sato looks every bit like the ace she was. And pre-Jaguar Rimi Yokota with her crazy triangle recoil splash off the corner. Controlled chaos.

Super blurry but still awesome footage of Mami Kumano being the earliest person we have on tape to do the Brody King dangling choke in 1979 AJW. She did this all the time and she should be associated with it.