I've been compiling this selection of Sasuke reviews for ages. In the original version, I had a joke about Peter Mandelson limiting downloads from Megaupload. It's no longer relevant, but it was very funny. First half is old stuff, second half is 2010 stuff.
Great Sasuke, Atsushi Onita, Tarzan Goto vs. Jinsei Shinzaki, Mr. Pogo, Masaru Toi, FMW, December 20th 1993
The tag match without Shinzaki and Onita that I just reviewed last month was a hidden gem. I think there's a six-man from M-Pro also from December 1993 on a DVD I've yet to buy, but this match is in FMW and its a lot more barbed wirey than the earlier efforts. 90s Japanese indies are like Mayhem albums - it would feel wrong if they was well produced, so when the camerawork misses loads of stuff, it actually enhances it. The opening was weirdly unstructured, with everyone pair off but in close proximity to each other, so it looked odd that a heel would be beating up a face and another face would be beating up a heel almost back-to-back, with no interaction between the two. But it made it seem more chaotic, so it worked. Loads of blood, barbed wire spots and Tarzan Goto throwing the best wild punches in puro made this a wild and crazy good time.
Great Sasuke vs. SUWA, M-Pro, April 1999
I liked this. They start off with some decent competitive mat stuff which has a bit of quick lucha-type exchange of some stuff clearly influenced by Sasuke working Battlarts (an armbar and an anklelock are two moves I don't remember he using before). It really kicks off when Sasuke goes for his asai moonsault and Suwa yanks him off the apron by his leg. The roles here are just what you want, Sasuke's moveset is perfect for someone eating a large beating then launching a high impact comeback, whilst SUWA is a merciless prick who combines some really impressive stuff (his over the top tope is beyond amazing) and plenty of cheating and shortcuts to give the match a real face vs. heel dynamic. Not sure why, but Sasuke was rana-happy here, he must have done at least four from different positions. They save all their big stuff for the last few minutes, which works for me. Very enjoyable.
Great Sasuke vs. Takeshi Sasaki, FREEDOMS, June 21st 2010
Sasuke's representing Kojika's Army against Sasaki's FREEDOM's guys. This match had a few interesting moments, like Sasuke flipping and attacking the Satos (also in Kojika's Army), but nothing of particular note over the course of the seven minutes and was really both guys just going through some of their stuff. Sasuke's corner senton to the outside hit not a great deal up to the point where he hit the floor (some distance, you may remember, from his starting point).
Great Sasuke and Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami and Ultimo Dragon, RJPW, March 18th 2010
On the place this was downloaded from, I saw it described as an "awful, awful match". How? It was a perfectly fine old guys doing eleven minutes tag match. It's a Fujinami match, so like Mutoh, it's going to be based around his very specific match winning strategy of leg work. Choshu is going to lariat some people, look grumpy and do some stomping. Sasuke will do an absurd highspot and sell everything too much. There's a couple of awkward moments, but that's mainly because Ultimo has a rubbish moveset that he can't even execute well - watch him land on top of Sasuke in a missed SPIN FLY KICK spot. There's a tiny smattering of decent matwork at the beginning, and I kind of liked when Fujinami got all scrappy, kicking and chopping at Choshu until it broke up the scorpion deathlock-in-Japanese. Let's be clear, it's not very very good, I just get annoyed that old guys doing simple stuff is in someway actively bad.
Great Sasuke and MIKAMI vs. Asian Cougar and Miracle Man, Osaka Pro, 20th August 2010
Well, here's four guys that will bump like freaks. This starts with a few minutes of pointless brawling, but after that there was a lot of nutty highspots, and I'm definitely someone who thinks that if your not going to put together a structured tag match, you better be a lunatic. Sasuke takes a lot of bumps, several onto to the ladder - the first whilst superplexing his opponent, assisted by his partner, in one of his trademark accidentally kill himself whilst naively trying to do good. Cougar bumps to the outside and into the crowd on multiple occassions and has some nice looking offence. MIKAMI is the worst offender for not bothering to put a match together and just get his stuff in, but even then, I enjoyed his beautiful top of ladder senton (although partially because I was convinced it was going to slip and kill him).
Great Sasuke, Atsushi Onita, Tarzan Goto vs. Jinsei Shinzaki, Mr. Pogo, Masaru Toi, FMW, December 20th 1993
The tag match without Shinzaki and Onita that I just reviewed last month was a hidden gem. I think there's a six-man from M-Pro also from December 1993 on a DVD I've yet to buy, but this match is in FMW and its a lot more barbed wirey than the earlier efforts. 90s Japanese indies are like Mayhem albums - it would feel wrong if they was well produced, so when the camerawork misses loads of stuff, it actually enhances it. The opening was weirdly unstructured, with everyone pair off but in close proximity to each other, so it looked odd that a heel would be beating up a face and another face would be beating up a heel almost back-to-back, with no interaction between the two. But it made it seem more chaotic, so it worked. Loads of blood, barbed wire spots and Tarzan Goto throwing the best wild punches in puro made this a wild and crazy good time.
Great Sasuke vs. SUWA, M-Pro, April 1999
I liked this. They start off with some decent competitive mat stuff which has a bit of quick lucha-type exchange of some stuff clearly influenced by Sasuke working Battlarts (an armbar and an anklelock are two moves I don't remember he using before). It really kicks off when Sasuke goes for his asai moonsault and Suwa yanks him off the apron by his leg. The roles here are just what you want, Sasuke's moveset is perfect for someone eating a large beating then launching a high impact comeback, whilst SUWA is a merciless prick who combines some really impressive stuff (his over the top tope is beyond amazing) and plenty of cheating and shortcuts to give the match a real face vs. heel dynamic. Not sure why, but Sasuke was rana-happy here, he must have done at least four from different positions. They save all their big stuff for the last few minutes, which works for me. Very enjoyable.
Great Sasuke vs. Takeshi Sasaki, FREEDOMS, June 21st 2010
Sasuke's representing Kojika's Army against Sasaki's FREEDOM's guys. This match had a few interesting moments, like Sasuke flipping and attacking the Satos (also in Kojika's Army), but nothing of particular note over the course of the seven minutes and was really both guys just going through some of their stuff. Sasuke's corner senton to the outside hit not a great deal up to the point where he hit the floor (some distance, you may remember, from his starting point).
Great Sasuke and Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami and Ultimo Dragon, RJPW, March 18th 2010
On the place this was downloaded from, I saw it described as an "awful, awful match". How? It was a perfectly fine old guys doing eleven minutes tag match. It's a Fujinami match, so like Mutoh, it's going to be based around his very specific match winning strategy of leg work. Choshu is going to lariat some people, look grumpy and do some stomping. Sasuke will do an absurd highspot and sell everything too much. There's a couple of awkward moments, but that's mainly because Ultimo has a rubbish moveset that he can't even execute well - watch him land on top of Sasuke in a missed SPIN FLY KICK spot. There's a tiny smattering of decent matwork at the beginning, and I kind of liked when Fujinami got all scrappy, kicking and chopping at Choshu until it broke up the scorpion deathlock-in-Japanese. Let's be clear, it's not very very good, I just get annoyed that old guys doing simple stuff is in someway actively bad.
Great Sasuke and MIKAMI vs. Asian Cougar and Miracle Man, Osaka Pro, 20th August 2010
Well, here's four guys that will bump like freaks. This starts with a few minutes of pointless brawling, but after that there was a lot of nutty highspots, and I'm definitely someone who thinks that if your not going to put together a structured tag match, you better be a lunatic. Sasuke takes a lot of bumps, several onto to the ladder - the first whilst superplexing his opponent, assisted by his partner, in one of his trademark accidentally kill himself whilst naively trying to do good. Cougar bumps to the outside and into the crowd on multiple occassions and has some nice looking offence. MIKAMI is the worst offender for not bothering to put a match together and just get his stuff in, but even then, I enjoyed his beautiful top of ladder senton (although partially because I was convinced it was going to slip and kill him).
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