Comprehensive list of great MPro/lucharesu matches

[Craig]

Seeing as I've started watching all the M-Pro since 1993, I thought I'd start an OJ style obsessive list of great matches from the promotion, then add in other lucharesu style matches, whatever that even means. Hamada's UWF stuff is an obvious addition. By all means add suggestions.

Full archive of Michinoku Pro tape reviews: http://spinflykick.blogspot.com/search/label/m-pro.

The list (dates in incorrect/US format, rather than correct/UK format).

Classic M-Pro:

Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Terry Boy 7/24/1993
SATO/Piloto Suicida vs. Super Delfin/Super Boy 8/20/1993
Great Sasuke and Tarzan Goto vs. Mr Pogo and Masaru Toi 12/10/1993
Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki 4/29/1994
Super Delfin and TAKA Michinoku v SATO and Shiryu 9/15/1994
Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda 12/15/1994

Modern M-Pro:

Hayato "Jr" Fujita vs. Yoshitsune 12/12/2008
Hayato "Jr" Fujita vs. Great Sasuke 6/19/2009
Hayato "Jr" Fujita vs. Kenou 9/5/2009
Ultimo Dragon, Takeshi Minamino and Taro Nohashi vs. Jinsei Shinzaki, Kenou and Rui Hiugaji, 6/11/2010

Some links:
http://z11.invisionfree.com/wrestling_ko/i...?showtopic=3661

[Craig]

Watched 2/4/1994 and 3/4/1994 Champ Forum recordings:

1994/02/04 - Tokyo (Champ Forum - 03/1994)
1. Ricky Fuji vs. Terry Boy
2. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & SATO vs. Super Delfin & Jinsei Shinzaki & Gran Naniwa

1994/03/04 - Osaka (Champ Forum - 1994/04/19)
1. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Terry Boy vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Yone Genjin & Gran Naniwa
2. Mask v Hair: Super Delfin vs. SATO

I liked all four matches, to various degrees. The first six man is like the best possible intro to 1994 M-Pro - just a showcase of spots and characters and schtick, action packed, crowd-pleasing and a lot of fun. The second takes a while to get out of first gear, but the last ten minutes (it goes 30 in total) is pretty exciting, with the action flowing freely in and out of the ring, loads of dives and a resuming of Shinzaki vs. Terry Boy that leads to a series of great nearfalls.

The odd thing that struck me about Super Delfin vs. SATO is how in control SATO was throughout, Delfin almost played underdog face and developed significant crowd support. There were quite a long string of nearfalls and Delfin kickouts and submission escapes, which pushed my patience slightly (three powerslams in a row was the peak of this). That said, there was a clever little story that I got only after the match finished, with Delfin seemingly working the match fairly and being completely outwrestled, only for him to low blow SATO mid-hurricanrana for a cheap victory when playing fair didn't work, serving as a screw-you to the fans he was gaining sympathy from.

Nothing that is objectively great from this lot, but all good. Just watched the first Shinazki-Sasuke match - thoughts later.

[Craig]

Watched:

1994/03/31
1. Shiryu & Leon Guerrero vs. Super Delfin & Monkey Magic
2. Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki
3. TAKA Michinoku vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa
4. Terry Boy vs. Masato Yakushiji
5. Wellington Wilkins Jr. vs. Yone Genjin

Full show review: http://bit.ly/cyBTC2

Three short undercard matches, all OK. Terry Boy continues to be biggest (pleasant) surprise and is proving really versatile. Wilkins Jr vs. Genjin was deeply entertaining nonsense with a bunch of stiffness thrown in. Sasuke vs. Shinzaki was good, with a really nice finishing stretch, but a somewhat stop-start first half when I really just wanted them to let loose.

Second Sasuke-Shinzaki match might make the list. Got to rewatch.

[Craig]

Watched:

Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki 4/29/1994

Added to the list. This is much better than the first one. Great opening few minutes, nice little matchwork section, Sasuke kicking Jinsei in the face, spectacular highspots, Sasuke taking two outside powerbomb on the skull and a really pleasing layout - Sasuke in control until he messes up, then Jinsei finishing him off in emphatic style.

I'll upload it later.

[Craig]

Watched: M-Pro, July 30th 1994.

http://spinflykick.blogspot.com/2010/08/mi...-july-1994.html

1. Kendo, SATO and Piloto vs. Super Boy, Delfin and Naniwa
2. Jado vs. TAKA Michinoku
3. Great Sasuke and Ultimo Dragon vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Gedo

All three are fun matches. The trios is a real blast. I'll try and upload some of these SATO vs. Super Boy matches soon. The TAKA match is a fun sprint, but with good pacing of all the highspots. Gedo is really great in the main event. Are people still influenced by the Scott Keith opinion of mid 90s Gedo, because it is demonstrably incorrect if this is anything to go on. Add this match to the case against Ultimo Dragon, but Sasuke holds the face team together with great selling and some nuts highspots.

[Craig]

Something a bit more modern makes the list:

http://spinflykick.blogspot.com/2010/08/mi...-june-2010.html

Ultimo Dragon, Minamino and Nohashi vs. Shinzaki, Kenou and Hiugaji, 11th June 2010

Unlike every other Kowloon trios match for the past two years, this one was packed with genuine heat, violence and palpable dislike between the two sides. Heel Ultimo Dragon is as watchable as face Ultimo Dragon is dull. He comes off like a true rudo captain, directing triple teams, taunting opponents, taking shortcuts, begging off and luring the faces into an ambush. Also, his new mask is awesome. It starts with Hayato attempting to fight through an injured leg, until Kenou kicks it to shreds. This leads to Minamino leaping in, sparking a huge brawl - not a time filling one like, but truly glorious chaos. Even Shinzaki was motivated, moving faster than I'd seen in a long time against Nohashi. The pairing on Minamino and Kenou produced the matches best moments: this gets so intense that Kenou seems to lose all interest in the match at the expense of kicking Minamino a bunch more times. There's a spot where Nohashi has him on his knees, and he still keeps on punching Minamino in the midriff despite him being far less of an immediate concern. He forgoes making a hot tag when he has the opportunity (more kicking), and even when he's the last man standing after an series of moves between all six, he prefers to take Minamino to the outside and post him some more, rather than seek a pinfall. It's kind of exhilirating, and the match is kind of one of my favourite things from Japan this year.

[Craig]

Added to the list:

Super Delfin and TAKA Michinoku v SATO and Shiryu, 15th September 1994

This was an excellent way to launch the Kai En Tai stable. It's part-angle really, a fifteen minute rudo beatdown with a stretcher job for Delfin and a DQ finish when they throw the ref aside. It's also the first televised match featuring SATO the bruiser, rather than SATO the impossibly athletic heavy guy. There's no matwork or rope-running or dives here, just chops, kicks and punches designed to look as damaging as possible. Those chops were wild and great. The beating TAKA takes is really something, and his mini-comeback, featuring the no-hand plancha, completely had the crowd (and me). It was borderline cathartic as he made a two-on-one comeback - only for it to be snuffed out by a near-impossible mismatch (or, more accurately, a dropkick to the back of the head). The DQ was moments later, which was sensible, because the whole thing had acheived it's purpose and there was no way to improve upon it with another extended beatdown. Great stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing how TAKA ends up in the group a
after this.

Whole show here: http://bit.ly/9xbWBG

[KB8]

Watched some of the 12 disc set I got from IVP a few years ago (is it a Lynch compilation? I don't even remember now).

For whatever reason, I haven't actually made a point of watching all of the pre-96 stuff on the set. I've watched everything from discs 6-12, but only bits and pieces of the first 6 discs (Sasuke/Delfin matches, Sato/Delfin, a few trios, a few other singles matches). Really need to dive into the early stuff at some point.

Of course with all that said, it was some stuff from '96 that I watched last night.


Great Sasuke/Giant Zebra v Mr. Pogo/Gran Naniwa (1/10/96)
Great Sasuke/Hanzo Nakajima/Tiger Mask v Sato/Terry Boy/Shiryu (2/6/96)
Super Delfin v Pantera (3/15/96)
Great Sasuke/Shiryu/Tiger Mask v Super Delfin/TAKA Michinoku/Gran Naniwa (3/16/96)

The 1/10 tag is a match I probably would've hated a few years ago. It's pretty much a Pogo stunt show where he comes up with different ways to mutilate Sasuke. First he takes off his boots and smacks him in the head, the he stabs him with a stick, then when that gets tossed he busts out this scythe thing, and eventually he tries to set him on fire. Naniwa pretty much spends the whole time running around fetching him weapons. After he blows the first fireball there's one guy at ringside that tries to "put Sasuke out" by waving an orange towel in front of him, and I thought Sasuke actually HAD caught fire when I first saw it. Also got a kick out of Sasuke running outside and rolling around in the snow. By the end Pogo just throws a fireball at anything that moves, spitting one to break up a Sasuke powerbomb that sets a part of the ring mat on fire and nearly lit up the ref's hair. Giant Zebra has a really impressive Killer Kahn-esque flying kneedrop, but he spends most of the match on the apron while Pogo assaults his partner. Sasuke taking a plunge of the balcony at the start was crazy. Thought the whole thing was a blast for what it was.

The 2/6 match appears to be happening in America. Match is a lot of fun. Terry was probably my favourite guy in it; he had tonnes of shtick and comedy spots, then he'd haul off and punch someone in the face. Togo was of course Togo. Can't remember who it was now, but someone takes a crazy tope that lands him about 6 rows deep in some old lady's lap.

Wasn't paying much attention to Delfin/Pantera, but it seemed like they were running through some stuff and it never really did anything for me.

3/16 tag was terrific, probably the best M-Pro 6-man I've seen up to that point. The early section with guys pairing off probably could've had some time trimmed, but it was all at least sold stuff and it really kicked into high gear when it needed to. Shiryu was awesome; the whole match he seemed like a guy that just couldn't be bothered teaming with a couple partners like Sasuke and Tiger Mask, but the crowd were nuts for him. They do a dive train late on and his tope was the best of a strong bunch. TAKA also looked incredible and, assuming I continue watching the set and don't take a multi-year break from it like I'm prone to doing, I'm looking forward to him joining up with Togo and pals, because at this stage I don't remember how it happened at all.

[KB8]

Watched the 2/4/94 Great Sasuke, Shiryu & SATO v Super Delfin, Jinsei Shinzaki & Gran Naniwa match and I agree with Craig; it's pretty much the perfect intro to this kind of match from the pre-KDX era. Saying "Dick Togo was a fucking spectacular athlete" is pretty trite, but fuck man, Dick Togo was a fucking spectacular athlete. Whole match was a shit load of fun.

Also watched the Sato/Delfin hair v mask match from 3/4/94. Basically echoing what Craig said again. Sato is in control most of the way and Delfin keeps having to milk the ref's count just to take breathers. Dick stays in the ring and just waits for Delfin to come to him, at which point he takes him to the cleaners some more. Delfin just clubbing Sato in the nuts to counter the hurricanrana was pretty great.

[Dylan]

Got all the MPro sitting in my "too watch" pile after I finish up with AWA (which I am very close to doing). Looking forward to getting into it after reading this stuff.

[KB8]

Jado v TAKA Michinoku (7/30/94)
- Man, this was fucking great. They *maybe* teeter into overkill territory at the end, but the crowd is ballistic for everything and it's not even close to being as egregious as some of the shit you'll see these days, so it's really not a big deal. Craig mentions in his blog that TAKA is outmatched, and you get the sense he's really trying to pull out all the stops here. Jado is a total prick and cheapshots him, blasts him with a chair, generally acts like a scumbag, etc. He sets up a table and tries to whip TAKA into it, but it gets reversed and Jado goes face first. TAKA then turns the hate up to 11 and tries to choke Jado out, throwing the ref' away and actually getting booed he's so relentless. And of course he gets his payback with a chairshot. Some huge nearfalls down the stretch as well and the finish looked killer.


Also watched the Sasuke/Shinzaki match from 4/29/94 as well. Shinzaki reversing a Sasuke Special by catching him and powerbombing him on the floor was really cool, and the follow up powerbomb (also on the floor) was totally nuts.

[Craig]

So, I didn't really watch wrestling in 2011, but a couple of nights ago I felt a mighty need to get going again. End result: the following M-Pro shows from 1994.

Watched:

9/29/94
Terry Boy & SATO vs. Hanzo Nakajima & Naohiro Hoshikawa
TAKA Michinoku vs. Gran Naniwa
Super Delfin vs. El Samurai
Shiryu vs. Jinsei Shinzaki
Great Sasuke vs. Shinjiro Otani

This is a really fun show across the board. The main event is the highlight - in terms of 1994 NJ juniors wrestling, I think the only match I think I like more is the second Liger vs. Sasuke match. Otani is quite the performer at this stage in his career. This had a heavy emphasis on mat-based struggles, in a competitive "I'm going to find a way to pull your arm out its socket" sort of a way. The last third is your expected highspots and finisher run. Not quite making the list, but really good stuff.

10/30/94
Masato Yakushiji vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr.
HANZO Nakajima vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa
TAKA Michinoku & Jinsei Shinzaki & Gran Naniwa vs. SATO & Shiryu & Terry Boy
Super Delfin vs. La Pantera
No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Double Hell Exploding Ring Death Match: Great Sasuke vs. Atsushi Onita

The undercard singles matches are entirely forgettable. The Pantera-Delfin match never really gets going, and there's a whole run of real awkward-looking Pantera spots which look like botches that just kills any latent momentum that had going. The trios is maybe the first Kaientai trios, and it is really fun. The shows outdoors and the opening brawl is absolutely not afraid to give the video producer a headache (the whole thing is nicely put together so that get a sense of the three seperate exchanges all happening together). Then they reset and hit the ring, which gives the Kaientai guys a chance to show off all there new triple team stuff. Other team does mount a comeback, but the focus is still on the rudos - their dives were spectacular and their team mentality finally isolates Naniwa for an awesome SATO senton.

I also liked the main event. The match stuck with a simple deathmatch psychology - use the nasty things before you opponent uses them on you. The build to the first big spot had loads of teases, and when it comes, it is unexpected (Onita suddenly charging Sasuke into the wire). Sasuke pulls out the space flying tiger drop over the electrified wire, in what critics (me) are calling a completely ridiculous but awesome decision. I don't quite understand the exploding ring gimmick - is the point to finish the match before it detonates, or to keep out of the way when it detonates (hopefully with your opponent in the blast zone) - but there's little doubt its a visually impressive finale. It leads to some deeply melodramatic post-match activities where Sasuke plays actually dead and Onita trys to revive him. Fun fun.

Full reviews of the September show on the blog (also going again). Glad to be back and looking forward to trying to catch up on the last year.

[Craig]

Added:
M-Pro 15/12/94
Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda

Is this Ishikawa-Ikeda match out there, or shall I cap it and upload it? It's not of epic length or anything, but it's a really great eight minute match. I watched it a few times to pull out all the things going on, because it goes at a relentless pace. It starts with Ishikawa trying for the armbar early, but Ikeda manages to avoid it. Ikeda starts off on the mat too, then turns to the headkicks after one gets a near standing ten-count. Ishikawa avoids more kicks and turns them into leg bars, but Ikeda manages to land another, then continue with the head attacks and shifts to the german suplex. A second one is blocked by Ishikawa going deadweight and rolling through, but his armbar attempt is again blocked. Ishikawa holds on, and this time Ikeda can't block the submission hold. Just a really well-told story. Plus, it's a decent level of violent (aside from the headkicks, Ishikawa punches kidneys and has some nasty knee strikes), and there's all manner of neat mat transitions going on.

Also from the same show:

M-Pro 15/12/94
Great Sasuke vs. TAKA

I liked this a good deal. The match is predictably pretty action packed. I liked the pacing of the big spots, and the sense of escalation in them - TAKA one-ups Sasuke's quebrada with a top rope version. As you might guess, it's an ace vs. young upstart type of a match, but TAKA looks really strong throughout, like he might pull off the win. I actually bought into one of the near falls of a cross-arm powerbomb. Aside for all the impressive spots, it's Sasuke's reaction to his near-defeat that is crucial to the match, the way he's stunned and slapping his own face the shake himself out of it. His victory comes across as opportunistic and fortunate, like it was a solitary lapse in TAKA's concentration being the deciding factor. There's some slightly intermittent clutching of an injured arm that keeps trying to distract me from enjoying the whole match, but that's the only obvious flaw.

[Tim Cooke]

I've never seen that Ikeda/Ishikawa available anywhere. Be awesome if you would post it.