Michinoku Pro: 10th December 1993

There's lots of clipping in the early matches (Shiryu vs. Yakushiji, Wilkins vs. Hoshikawa, Gran Naniwa vs. Nakajima) leaving plenty of action and spots but not much sense of whether the matches were put together well. Probably somewhere in the middle. The Shinzaki and Damian vs. Predator and Yone Genjin had some nice bumping by Damien (who may or may not be the Perros del Mal affiliated Damian 666) and some surprisingly quick lucha sequences from the larger Predator, then a bunch of comedy spots which seemed to revolve around lots of miscommunication leaded to Shinzaki calming everything down with his powers. Again, this was clipped, but was fine for what it was.

Moving onto the matches that were more or less complete, Terry Boy, Battle Ranger and TAKA took on Ricky Fuji, Crazy Boy and Super Boy. This had plenty of quick exchanges and a lot of dominance by the technico side. The finish stretch was highspot heavy, but also featured a number of the sort of contrived bits I don't normally like (like synchronised toeholds and hurricanranas). You get the impression TAKA is starting to stand out - his dives are the most spectacular, and he takes the pinfall. That said, Terry Boy is by far the best for working for the crowd - his moveset is simpler and he openly interacts with them more. This was followed by a Sabu vs. Jerry Lynn match that was basically a spotfest. The most annoying bit was Sabu not breaking the table on his somersault dive, then Lynn being first up to try a powerbomb on the table. I'm always struck by how Japanese tables are actually made of tables.

Next up, Great Sasuke and Tarzan Goto vs. Mr Pogo and Masaru Toi. Nothing say's mid-90s Japanese indies like Tarzan Goto and Mr Pogo. This match was fantastic. It starts out as a brawl, and they keep an incredible pace when they finally get to the ring, with Sasuke running through his highspots and Goto being absolutely awesome punching and headbutting everything that got in his way. Sasuke goes for his quebrada, only to be hit with a cane mid-flight. What completely makes this match, however, is the heat section, where the heels tear up Sasuke's back with a splintered cane and the crowd are tremendous. Part of this is down to Goto, whose frustrated apron work allowing triple teaming in the ring was really great, and part is down to sticking to traditions- Sasuke manages two brief comeback, but is cut-off, before his third leads to a all-or-nothing dive to his corner and a genuinely hot tag. This leads to a great chop battle between Goto and Pogo, with the former finally running rampant, dropping Toi with a brainbuster, and bending a chair multiple times over his back. This all leads to Sasuke's revenge, bringing the crowd to it's peak, which was a couple of quick nearfalls, and a submission victory - a pleasingly short conclusion to an utterly wild match, which had a distinctly Southern feel, including the crowd. I'm sure Sasuke's selling and underdog act against the FMW guys is important to how much I liked this, but nothing compares to how into Tarzan Goto I was coming out of this match. Completely badass.

Main event is a mask match between Super Delfin and SATO. Not a huge amount of suspense over the outcome here. I was struck by the speed of some of the exchanges, especially watching SATO float around on the mat and some of the sequences off the ropes. I liked the build up of this, moving from Delfin being in control with a series of submissions, to SATO's run of near falls, interspersed with a couple of great highspots. SATO's no-hands somersault plancha is breathtaking. I did start to feel like the nearfalls were gettinga bit excessive, as moves started to get repeated for the same two-count result. However, I liked how Delfin finally regained the advantage, with an increasingly frustrated SATO risking everything on a top rope senton and missing, making him an easy target for a flash pinning german suplex.

A highly enjoyable show. The FMW tag is probably my favourite Sasuke match up to this point. Be warned: the quality of a lot of these shows is much lower than perhaps people have gotten used to. You are all spoiled. It's good for the soul to strain your eyes watching one blocky Asian leap at another, like we always used to (Note: it's not good for the eyes).