Match of the Day - The Hokuto/Kandori Dreamslam showdown!

Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori - AJW Dreamslam I (1993)

Since it's Women's History Month, I've decided to feature one of my favorite female pro wrestling matches: Akira Hokuto versus Shinobu Kandori at All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling's first Dreamslam event as "Match of the Month". This is a brutal bout at my favorite speed for a wrestling match - out of control speed!

Just in the opening minutes of the match, LLPW's Shinobu Kandori, a judo expert with a bad attitude, target's Akira Hokuto's arm in hopes of twisting it right off. Kandori works on the arm until it is clearly out of commission. Hokuto's arm puts her in such a disadvantage that the chance of this match being a technical wrestling showcase goes right out the window. Instead, the match turns into a legit-looking fight. These two scrap it out with each other like two kids in the schoolyard... It's brutal, it's bitter, and it's far from pretty.

Once the match spills out into the ringside area, Kandori counters Hokuto's attempt at a piledriver on the announcers' table and tombstone piledrives Hokuto's head straight into the table leaving Hokuto donning the crimson mask. Not often does one see such brutality and blood in a women's wrestling match, especially not here in America, but this match brings it at full force. This match is a must-watch spectacle that clearly I can not give the justice it deserves just by using words. The only way to experience the power of this match is by watching it.

Song of the Day - Shadowboxin'

GZA/Genuis - Shadowboxin' from Liquid Swords (1995)

One of the greatest rap/hip-hop albums of all time. Some day I'm gonna buy this on vinyl with the chess set... because that exists!

"My style broke motherfucking backs like Ken Patera."

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Song of the Day - Caramel

Piglet - Caramel from Lava Land (2005)

One of the most underrated instrumental math rock groups of the 2000's, and I don't use that 'underrated' word lightly.

 

For fans of music.

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Song of the Day - The Dead Flag Blues

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - The Dead Flag Blues from F♯ A♯ ∞ (1997)

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine...

... and the machine is bleeding to death.

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Song of the Day - That Summer Feeling

Jonathan Richman - That Summer Feeling from I, Jonathan (1992)

That feel. It's coming.

Fun fact: My biology teacher in high school was cousins with good ol' Jonathan. No big deal.

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Song of the Day - El Scorcho

Weezer - El Scorcho from Pinkerton (1996)

"Watching Grunge leg drop New Jack through a press table"

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Song of the Day - My Funny Valentine

Chet Baker - My Funny Valentine from Chet Baker Sings (1956)

It's almost that time of the year again. Are you ready?

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Song of the Day - Informer

Snow - Informer from 12 Inches of Snow (1992)

Yep. It's Snow.

The Canadian reggae rap sensation of the 90's is perfect for any snow day.

Get lost in the snow or get lost in Snow's lines... Your choice.

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Song of the Day - Don, Aman

Slint - Don, Aman from Spiderland (1991)

Perfect for a cold night walk around a ghost town neighborhood.

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Song of the Day - Rocket Number Nine

Sun Ra - Rocket Number Nine from Space is the Place (1973)

I watched a lot of Mystery Science Theater 3000 today.

And nothing much else.

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Match of the Day - Chikara's incredible 4-way dance

El Generico vs. Nick Jackson vs. Kota Ibushi vs. Jigsaw - Chikara King of Trios (2009)

Now to be honest, I haven't seen a lot of Chikara, a still relatively unknown  independent promotion that has actually been around since 2002. I will say this though: I've only seen/heard good things about this company and from what I've seen, I've enjoyed. While similar to other promotions like Ring of Honor where they take pride in "professional" wrestling and the true art behind it, Chikara actually has a much sillier side, whereas ROH is pretty dead serious most of the time - the only weakness I've seen from that respective brand of pro wrestling. Chikara also incorporates colorful characters and luchadore style that comes with a sort of Japanese wrestling and cosplay feel to it which actually works and makes sense as the whole roster can still wrestle their way out of paper bags... Something most WWE superstars today surely can't do.

Anyways, this is probably one of Chikara's greatest matches. I'm not just saying that because people say that on Youtube either, I truthfully believe this to be hell of a must-see match for any fan of pro wrestling. Every character brings a great amount of agility and ring-saviness to this match and every second is a thrill to watch. Yes, a lot of it does look like a very choreographed dance number that these young athletes recite every night but hey, I don't care. It's damn entertaining and actually very talented. Can you do a moonsault off the top rope, land on your feet, and then do a standing moonsault right after?

Really?

Prove it.

This match comes from King of Trios 2009: Night two were all four individuals had wrestled in a group of three with respected teammates usually from a related aspect such as company i.e. Nick Jackson (one half of the Young Bucks) and El Generico whom both represented Pro Wrestling Guerrilla the night before as they were title holders of that company at the time. Also, Japanese wrestling sensation, Kota Ibushi (winner of this match) wrestled in a team comprised of DDT wrestlers, a Japanese promotion Ibushi currently works for and actually has had a number of intense matches with El Generico just like this one.

The only time this match got a little hairy was when El Generico went to give Ibushi the "Brainbuster" from the top rope and it actually looks like Generico loses a hold of Ibushi and he lands awkwardly on the turnbuckle. However, the commentators say that he kicked out of the Brainbuster on the way down so you could counter out to stick Generico with an amazing "super-reverse-rana".

Match of the Day - The Snake vs. The Dragon!

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts - WWF Saturday Night's Main Event (1986)

This classic between Ricky Steamboat and Jake Roberts, best known as the match Steamboat would reveal his own mascot, is the feud's so-called rubber match; a match that settled the score after Roberts had attacked Steamboat before their match on Saturday Night's Main Event a few months back (remember when feuds lasted longer than a few weeks?) in the incident where Roberts DDT'ed Steamboat on the floor (something that had never before been seen) and then Steamboat later getting a win over Roberts in a no DQ Snake Pit match on The Big Event.

While this grunge match saw Ricky Steamboat as the victor, Jake Roberts as the heel he was continued to attack Steamboat after the match. Roberts eventually looks to finish off Steamboat with his snake Damien but is taken aback as Steamboat pulls out his own secret weapon from a bag on his corner of the ring in the form of a komodo dragon! Jake the Snake then tucks his tail between his legs and flees the ring leaving Steamboat and his "dragon" to celebrate the end of this well played out feud.

Overall reaction to this match: Personally all I have to say about this match is that growing up I always thought that Steamboat's dragon was a crocodile. That being said, I actually have a little bit of fear of giant lizards like komodo dragons which is funny in an almost sad way because Mattel recently released a Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat action figure that comes packed with a playful looking green komodo dragon... putting a fear of mine pretty much to shame:

What a minute... that's definitely an alligator or crocodile of some kind!

Despite the package of this action figure mentioning Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat's memorable komodo dragon moment on SNME w/ Jake Roberts, I'm pretty sure that that is the alligator/crocodile (with the red thingy attached to it) from a different Jake Roberts/Ricky Steamboat confrontation.

Clearly I was not the only one to notice this as Tomopop, a "Collectible Toy Culture" review site also caught this lil' tidbit as well. Check it out!

I've still yet to find what what match that was were this alligator in question comes from and if it was ever taped but once I do I will most definitely share my finds right here on NFT's Song and Match of the day!

Song of the Day - Spoon

Can - Spoon from Ege Bamyasi (1972) and remastered (2004)

Here's a bit of throwback... It's the Krautrock legends, Can and their German smash hit, "Spoon".

While this album is hugely popular to cool cats today due to "Vitamin C" , Can actually got their big break in Germany with this closer track that was originally added as filler. According to the internets, "Spoon" reached top 10 on the German charts and sold over 300,000 copies.

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