Some more 80s AJW

 

Jaguar Yokota vs Devil Masami, AJW 9/7/1983

An amazing piece of new footage for the history, but also simply because it’s another Jaguar Yokota in her physical prime big match dropping on us out of nowhere. Watching this, it’s very much an early 80s AJW styled match. Serious, straight forward pro wrestling from before the Crush Gals melodrama took over. Starts with some fast paced moves, then they settle into hold-based groundwork before building up to another explosion. As much praise as Jaguar gets for being ahead of her time and insanely athletic, I always end up most impressed by the intensity of her basic wrestling. Just the fact she makes something like a schoolboy rollup look like an insanely forceful takedown or how she would pull back her opponent in the indian deathlock from the ropes. They work some momentum shifts that feel to happen at the drop of a coin but they still feel meaningful, loved how Jaguar immediately grounded the match again. Devil is as solid as you know her to be, hadn’t quite come into her character yet but her wrestling was credible and she made a fun powerful counterpart for the lighter Jaguar. However the big turning point was when Masami decided to hoist Yokota up and drop her straight on her head with probably the sickest ganso bomb I’ve ever seen. Yokota was able to slip out and hit Masami with a desperation suplex, and both of them looked like they had taken significant damage at that point. Something I miss about old school wrestling – the selling is not hyper-theatralic as it is now, but you can still tell damage was done and both of them were fighting for survival. This culminates in a brief but very memorable finishing run with some insanely intense pin attempts. Fairly modest compared to other AJW big matches, but memorable because they kept it intense and to the point. Jaguar looked liked a wrestling godess as she always does and the earnest challenger Devil Masami was really cool. A hell of a match to randomly drop on all of us.

Kazue Nagahori vs Yumi Ogura, AJW 3/20/1986

Another stellar match in the underrated careers of these two. This was both of them going hard for 30 minutes, with hardly a moment that dragged. No restholds or tentativeness, both of them go at it immediately, throwing explosive kicks and fighting like mad on the mat. Their kicks weren’t quite UWF-like yet either, so that made this pretty unique as you had the two of them spin kicking each other in the ribs and sometimes in the face. There is not a ton of overarching psychology, but there are some neat emphasized moves like the mirrored figure 4s throughout the match. Tons of cool moments of great struggle and some things that felt like a big deal. Heck, like 25 minutes into this match they would still scramble out of pinfalls before a 1 count like it was an amateur wrestling match, and that rules. Great last couple minutes with the repeated crashing and burning and both of them throwing the kitchen sink trying to win. Really unique to see a pure wrestling match in joshi like this and this ended up going down as one of the best bouts of the 80s.

Grizzly Iwamoto & Bison Kimura vs Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami, AJW 6/18/1989

Man checking out old AJW can be jarring. This was full-on in your face intensity, plenty of scrappy WAR-esque exchanges that would probably cause an uproar if they happened on US TV, borderline reckless brutality on display with girls slapping the shit out of each other, basic stomps and elbows executed with a real meanness, dropkicks landing flush in peoples face. First fall is pretty much an asskicking tour de force from Iwamoto and Kimura, who are in their badass military get up and there to stomp ass, with a few unpredictable babyface spots from Hokuto and Minami thrown in to keep things exciting. Minami getting punched in the face when she tried to go for a basic cover and then getting crushed by stomps and knee drops was another one of those basic but really violent moments that you seemingly don’t get in modern wrestling anymore. Minami and Hokuto won’t set your world on fire as a babyface team here, Hokuto is not yet Hokuto and Minami doesn’t have much personality at this point either, but they are energetic. Loved how Kimura and Iwamoto said ‘fuck this’ after the babyface started getting in some offense so they just grabbed some chairs and nightsticks to beat the shit out of their opponents some more. It does get a little meandering (30 minutes is long for an all out brawl) and there are some fuckups, though there is some more harrowing uncalled for kendo stick violence in the 3^rd fall, also blood because of course there’s blood. You really owe it to yourself to check this out just to see Iwamoto and Kimura kick ass.

Chigusa Nagayo vs Yukari Omori, AJW 1/5/1988

Insanely heated, bloody, clash of the titans match in Korakuen Hall, what else do I need to say to sell you on this? This was pretty fucking great, like the female version of Hash vs Tenryu but with more blood and bigger suplexes. I quite like Yukari Omori – she’s big, has a kind of understated charisma without trying to be dramatic, and her brain chops are a pretty fun different kind of weapon for joshi. She comes across like a force of nature, and Chigusa really feels that. Chiggy ends up getting chopped in the face which causes her to bounce out of the ring and bleed, which is awesomely old school. Chigusa hitting a desperation kick to Omoris face and then smashing her into a table was one hell of a comeback. After that both of them are gushing blood and it’s all desperation face kicks and shootstyle uncooperativeness. Omori is a great asskicker, and of course Nagayo is insanely good when its time to bleed and sell like you’re about to pass out. The finish was kind of beautiful as they are in kind of a stalemate and go into a test of strength – like they had done at the beginning of the match – only for Chigusa to hit a dirty headbutt and an angry Omori firing back with a swatting lariat. Kind of the pinnacle of Chigusas style, car crash violence, blood, drama, tinges of shootstyle, this may be one of my favourite 80s AJW matches I’ve seen because it doesn’t meander or waste your time. Just to the point, gory and awesome.

Pro Wrestling 2025 Week 21

 
Nanae Takahashi vs Seri Yamaoka, Marigold 5/17

Nanae Takahashi is the next joshi veteran on her way out. At least just like with Meiko, this little retirement tour is giving her some interesting opponents and motivation to show she still has something in the tank. I thought Yamaoka would be a bit of a super rookie, but this is mostly Takahashi giving her a hiding. Yamaokas grappling-tinged approach rules and if she continues she is poised to become something of a female Tamon Honda, which would probably make her my default #1 wrestler in the world. She is already halfway there, just needs to work on her stuff a little, but the ingredients are present, and she's really cool to watch when she gets going and starts busting out the amateur moves. Takahashi is still effective beating her down and the grappling stuff made the match cool. Yamaoka looked a bit like a scared puppy when she was taking a beating, her killer instinct needs to come out a little more. Still a pretty cool match and really fun to watch.

Ali Najima vs Ryutaro Ono, Sportiva 5/21

Najimas debut wasn't long ago, but now he's in the position to put a beatdown on a longer ranked rookie. This was quite the fight. Very much the standard rookie match but their intensity and passion was great. Onos kicks are slightly clunky but that's part of the charm. Najima keeps it basic but he really puts energy even into standard stuff, he really beat the heck out of Onos shoulder here. Onos weird axe kick to the back of Najimas head was really cool. Like I said, not much in terms of moves but head and shoulders above a lot of other wrestling these days when it comes to intensity, which is how it should be.

Sho Mizuno vs Yu Shimizu, Kobe Meriken 4/18

Do NOT sleep on this match. Mizuno is a Seichi Ikemoto trainee, so he's another indy shooter, and he makes the early goings of this match wonderfully uncooperative, and it devolves into a really good, scrappy, hate filled little match. Shimizu is the Scum Bastard and while he's not much of a shoot grappler he proves his worth here by trying to scramble Mizunos brains with his trademark elbows. Mizuno is game to throw down and both guys beat the shit out of each other. Really dug the moments where one guy would have a submission on and would just aggressively hack away at the opponents head with scrappy elbows. The hard hitting here felt genuinely violent - a rare thing in modern wrestling where it often feels like its turning into a lovetap exhibition. They also made me give a shit about the sleeper hold. The one downgrade is that they briefly ventured outside and the stationary camera didn't catch anything. After this Mizuno will definitely be on my watchlist.

Sui Cup Kenchiro vs Great Mara, CWP 6/1

Come On Wrestling Party, baby. An 'ama-pro' wrestling match has no business being better than the matches from Japans major leagues, but here we are. Really raw pro wrestling that felt real as fuck. I've enjoyed the bits of Kenchiro I've seen, and he is clearly a king in this little scene. Mara I haven't seen before, he looks dorky even by the standards of semi professional wrestling and this match definitely had the vibe of him being way outmatched and trying to gut it out. Kenchiro puts a major ass kicking on Mara, kicks to the face, hard chops, king-sized backdrop suplexes, Sui Cap Kenchiro has really internalized the philosophy of doing just a handful of things really well. Mara is mostly getting his ass kicked but occasionally he is able to reach deep and crack Kenchiro with some gnarly shots of his own. There were some crazy headbutts, knee drops and face punches. Him desperately avoiding Kenchiros suplexes was also quite entertaining. Also gotta hand it to Kenchiro as he knew exactly how to bump for Mara and his last backdrop was criminal and awesome. How the fuck is this stuff closer to Hashimoto/Tenryu than whatever the major leagues are putting out I have no idea, but I really enjoyed watching.

2025 Pro Wrestling Roundup 

Konaka in the Sportiva Arena

 

Konaka vs. Sae, Sportiva 5/11/2022

Super good Konaka carryjob. Sae is kind of not very good, only having some bland offense and almost breaking her own neck when going for a Kamikaze roll, but Konaka pulls her through this 18 minute match just fine. Opening work is pretty solid with Konaka making things like taking a basic bump for a shoulder tackle satisfying by having it set up with a rope move. Soon we move on to the best part of the match, Konaka working a side headlock of Destroyer-esque greatness. Usually with side headlock segments it’s the guy stuck in the headlock making it interesting by trying different escapes, but in this case Konaka is the guy keeping things interesting by having a bunch of different ways to pull Sae back into the headlock. Later he keeps going for headlock crossfaces and neck attacks, at one point he was cranking a facelock like crazy and digging his fist into Saes face in brutal fashion, it was like something fucked up Ole Anderson or Tully Blanchard would do to a jobber in a 80s TV studio squash. Finishing stretch was really good with a bunch of cool moments centered around Sae going for a dragon sleeper of all things, a superplex bump that felt epic, Konaka missing a big attack off the top and a completely awesome finish. Real master performance from Konaka getting the most out of a limited opponent.

Konaka vs Shinya Ishida, 3/17/2021

For a white meat highflying babyface, I am pretty okay with Shinya Ishida. He has good offense, and he is capable of adding neat touches like connecting with a surprisingly punishing kick between moves, or doing some stubborn matwork. Most importantly is good enough to let Konaka do his thing and not interfere. This was a result very good. They start with some neat fast sequences before Konaka cuts off Ishida in a cool way and does some work on the arm. Ishida makes a solid comeback and then acknowledges said armwork by giving it back to Konaka in kind. Ishidas brutal stomp to Konakas ankle was probably the highlight, it looked just sick. The second half had a bunch more good stuff and neat moments that Konaka has a knack for, I also really liked the well worked chokehold segment they did, it shows Ishida is more capable than your usual spotty indy guy. Very decent stuff and anytime Konaka gets to stretch out and do his thing is a gem.

Konaka vs Kazuhiro Tamura, Sportiva 3/16/2022

I love Konaka and I know Tamura can be pretty great when he tries. Still, this slightly exceeded my expectations. Delivers exactly the kind of cool, unique matwork you hope for from the match up, and it delivers that in spades. What I love about Konaka is that because of his mysterious act, he is believable doing just about anything. I buy his weird reverse spinning toehold just as much as buy him locking in an achilles hold or rolling calf slicer. So him grappling with U-File guy Tamura is really cool. They settle for a work the arm vs work the leg story and they both have a bunch of really cool ways to attack a limb. Tamuras selling of the legwork wasn’t the greatest but our guy Konaka was stellar as always.

Pro Wrestling 2025 Week 20

 Shinya Aoki vs Kazusada Higuchi, DDT 5/6/2025

A power vs technique match up that actually feels very close to a classic puro match! I am not entirely convinced that Shinya Aoki is as good as the likes of GENTARO or Yasushi Sato yet, but he sure is scratching on their throne. This had a bunch of really fun ultra-tight, high resistance grappling. I wanted Higuchi to be a bit of a bigger badass - I mean, he does look like a cool motherfucker being a tall ex sumo with slicked back hair, and he does hit pretty hard, but I wanted him to go ham and tear up Aokis spindly body a slightly bit more. I guess not everyone can be Tenryu, but I sense there is potential in him and I should probably watch him more. The ringside brawling was slightly weak but seeing legendary grappler Aoki get bowled into chairs and retaliating by smashing someones luggage into Higuchis head was a sight. I also love how unhinged Aoki feels when he starts flying around. I hope he won't go down the Minoru Suzuki route with the crazy faces but I thought for this match it was appropriate. Great, off the wall finish. They made a brain claw a deadly hold in 2025 and you have to love that. Really really fun, Aokis little reign is such a reset for a Japanese mainstream promotion and I hope they continue further on that route.

Keita Yano vs Tsuyoshi Okada, Dove Pro 2/9 - FUN

Oh Keita. This is a rounds match with Okada having MMA gloves and they're blaring some trance electronic music throughout, ZST style. With stuff like this it's starting to feel like Yano is slowly returning to form. It's a bit slow to get going as they go for really uncooperative shootstyle ala KINGDOM, but Yano does some fun grappling. 2nd round is a lot better with Okada really knocking the hell out of Keita. Not as epic as it would've been in like 2013 when Keitas psychosis was in full bloom, but a fun little occurance and I wanna see more of gloves Okada for sure after that.

Keita Yano vs Ayumu Honda, Tenryu Project 4/25 - FUN

Usual good Keita performance working circles around a guy with graceful WoS style matwork. At first I thought this Honda guy would be along for the right, but he actually brought a little something as the match proceeded by attacking Keitas arm in a few different ways. Keitas selling was pretty good for a short match and there is a nifty finish. Nothing grand in in the scheme of Keita Yano matches but it's good that he is still doing his thing even though the camera at Tenryu Project shows seems to get further and further away from the ring.

Shiori Asahi & Makoto Oishi vs CHANGO & Ayumu Honda, 2AW 4/27

CHANGOs grip on the Japanese indy scene with scumbag technical matches continues, and he's now infecting everyone around him. After Asahi, Oishi is the next guy to just say fuck it and wrestle in a grease monkey suit. These two used to be a team of sensationally spotty and smooth juniors and to see them say fuck it and be sleazy and hit fist drops and kung fu eye pokes is low key awesome. They didn't go full Mutoha here, but this is very much a refreshingly outside the norm match. Lots of WORKING as in making small, miniscule things a focal point, such as the build to the basic 'guy hits a diving elbow to opponents arm that is held in place by tag team partner' spot. Asahis and Oishis assault on people with rapidly hit knee drops and fist drops was reminiscent of a surreal version of the Yamaha Bros, and CHANGO is CHANGO. Honda is the weakest guy in the match and doesn't stand out much early, but he does come into his own when its to work an arm, and him trying to steal the win with plain straight armbars was pretty fun. Finishing run had a lot of the super tricked out slick spots that CHANGO, Asahi and Oishi have a knack for. Lots of roll ups within rollups if you catch my drift. It's a bit of an aquired taste but if you are reading this blog I can definitely imagine you getting into this, it's worthy continuation from the Asahi/CHANGO tag from earlier in the month.

Meiko Satomura & Sareee vs Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu, Fortune Dream 4/16

Stiff, fast paced, crisp, serious pro wrestling. Maybe one of the best of the year from the women in fact when it comes to action from start to finish, and definitely worth checking out even if you've been watching all the Satomura matches. Satomura vs Hashimoto is known quality, and Sareee makes a really fun addition. Her matches earlier in the year were spotty, but I thought she was really effective here just coming and trying to crack peoples faces with vicious dropkicks. It helps that Hashimoto ate the fuck out of those dropkicks. Yuu also looked like an impressive monster. The one thing I didn't like was her weird rolling move. That felt too comical for this kind of affair. Thought the sick Sareee/Hashimoto was the highlight, until Meiko came in and she and Chihiro wailed on each other some more. Awesome. Thought the match needed a bit more Meiko vs. Chihiro duelling instead of having Chihiro and Yuu just go to hit their double teams but I guess that was the point. Also, selling wasn't super important here, but that's joshi for you sometimes. I'm gonna miss Meiko.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

Keita Yano Documentation

Kakuto Tanteidan 4/8/2025

 Satsuki Nagao vs Shuji Ishikawa

It’s nice to see Ishikawa return to his Fu-Ten roots of just potatoeing the fuck out of people in quasi-shootstyle matches. This didn’t feel quite like a BattlARTS or Fu-Ten match, it had bit much of those back and forth elbow exchanges, but once in a while they would try to nuke each others brains with a sick headbott or knee and it was a spectacle. I’ve never seen or heard of Nagao, looking him up on Cagematch tells me he might be… sorta… a big deal on the small scales of Japanese indies? He’s with Tochigi Pro, challenged Akitoshi Saito for a title in NOAH last year, what ever that means nowadays. Having my first look at him in this match I thought he was a black trunks rookie, there to get mauled by the bigger Ishikawa, and it does feel a bit like that with Nagao eating a big beating and unable to get Ishikawa off his feet etc, but Nagao ends up surviving much longer than expected and getting bigger and bigger hits in on Ishikawa including just straight headbutting him in the face, maybe even to the point where I thought it was a little too much as he survived a sick dragon suplex and then the actual finish looked a little weak. Anyways I am nitpicking this match too much, they potatoed the fuck out of each other and it was a really fun opening match, end of story.

Masashi Takeda vs Kosuke Sato

Hey its Kosuke Sato. I enjoyed him when he was in CAPTURE for a hot minute. And look Takeda gets to do shootstyle! This starts with Takeda bullying Sato because Takeda iis a Tamura trainee even 12 years after Style-E so clearly the superior shooter. Sato comes back biting Takedas wrist because despite his chiselled body and boyish looks, he is a filthy BJW boy after all. Takeda ends up bleeding from his ear after grappling. I imagine sudden bleeding has to be a big problem for death match wrestlers in their daily lives. In this case it’s not even just a little smear of blood, its a full on gushing wound that keeps spilling blood. Sato manages to get some comebacks and when he does he hits these cool big leaping dropkicks where he makes sure to kick Takeda right in the head. He hits a lovable messily executed shootstyle bodyslam that is full of struggle and goes to choke Takeda out, with Takedas blood all over his body and even getting in his mouth. Sometimes you just gotta watch some filthy blood drenched gruesome pro wrestling like this. Started out just solid like a BJW or DDT undercard match with shoostyle elements but once they got to the bleeding and gritty fighting it got really great. Takeda is perfectly good as a shooter with cool submissions and sick suplexes, its a pity he gets to do this kind of match only once in a while.

Yuki Ishikawa & Tyson Maeguchi vs Super Tiger II & Tanomusaku Toba - FUN

A fun BattlARTS style midcard tag with some kickboxing mixed in. Ishikawa can still roll out and have cool exchanges with STII just like he did in from 2008-2011 all the time. I thought it was just gonna be a friendly grappling exchange with Ishikawa schooling his opponent and pulling out cool reversals, but then STII dropped a fucking Killer Kowalski level knee on Ishikawas face, making things more intense. Maeguchi basically was all kickboxing, and he does throw some fun combos, him sparring a little with the Tiger was fun, and Toba did his “I am too old for this shit but I can still dodge you and punch you in the face at any time” thing which entertains. The real money match up here is Ishikawa vs Toba which is a real sleazeball shootstyle dream match, unfortunately their exchange lasted only about 30 seconds but it was still nice we got to see that.

Brother Yasshi vs Dan Tamura

First few minutes had some very good amateur-style matwork with Yasshi once again busting out a cool Honda-ish arm takedown and Tamura throwing his opponent around, including hitting a pretty nutso German suplex. Unfortunately the match kind of turned into a mediocre indy match which looks really awkward on a show like this.

Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura vs Manabu Hara & Hikaru Sato

I’ll be honest, I thought this was hurt by being overly long, some goofy ropework and I dislike how Abe seems to turn everything into a joke. But fuck that, they decided to beat the fuck out of each other from the get go and the spirit was absolutely there. Lots of fun chaos and hard hitting. Sato coming in and looking like a badass was surprising and great. Hara also always looks great when it’s time kick ass. We get lots of fun chaos and plenty of violent exchanges with some great extended segments towards the end only slightly marred by the weird decision to include some rope running. Sato may have been the best guy in the match, he really comes into his own in this style, really feels like a late blooming for him. Thought the match needed a bit more Nomura and less Abe, Nomuras out of nowhere grittiness is great. This match was a blast, not mindblowingly great, but definitely a blast.

The Library

Pro Wrestling 2025 Week 19

 Super Taira vs Ryutaro Ono, Sportiva 5/14

Ono is another Sportiva rookie who just made his debut. Given how Sportiva rookies are usually good, them having 4 of those rookies now plus a couple more workers that I really like (Taira, Ishida, Konaka..) it begs the question if Sportiva actually has the greatest roster in the world now because that is sure more interesting wrestlers than most other companies have right now. This Ono guy is chunky and old, like a middle aged businessman who decided to get in the ring, he has kickpads too but he seems like he will be a bit more of a raw fighter. But well this match isn't much about Ono, this is about my man Taira stretching and beating him around the ring. This is my first time seeing Taira in a while and he still looks like one of the best wrestlers on earth. Lots of cool groundwork of him controlling the bigger guy and there are bits of fun aggression and violence. Really hope Super Taira becomes a Sportiva mainstay again because he's clearly still on top of his game.

Masanori Watanabe vs Kengo Takai, Sportiva 5/14

Boy Takai looks over the hill. Really really over the hill, but he can still put the boots to a rookie, and that makes this pretty fun. Watanabe hits some fun, painful looking kicks to Takais arm and shoulder and does some cool arm attacks, so he continues to look promising, although at this point he still mostly gets squashed. But that's the fun in watching these Sportiva rookies develop, it's a week-to-week progress. And Takai can totally still hit a nasty lariat.

Charlie Dempsey vs Shinya Aoki, Bloodsport 4/17

Cool we got to see these two grapple it out. Standards for grappling-matches are actually kinda high in 2025 I think, so the first couple minutes were just alright, the highlight being Dempsey putting himself in the figure 4 to stretch Aokis ankle, but the last couple minutes were pretty great. Loved the intense struggle over the reverse gutwrench suplex, Aoki going for the abdominal stretch etc. Bit of a size mismatch but it was a really good match all around.

Meiko Satomura & Manami vs Chihiro Hashimoto & Aja Kong, 4/29

Obviously a really important match. Hashimoto looked like she was about to cry during the opening exchanges. Setting aside the emotional context, there was a lot of good wrestling to enjoy here. For Meiko, it's very much just her doing her thing for the last time, until about the last 3rd of the match where it kicks into high gear. The other participiants are pretty fun, though. Aja is still really compelling, kicking ass and knowing exactly when to do what, despite being really over the hill physically. Manami is fun for the most part and Chihiro is just a big old juggernaut who's really fun to watch charging into people with body checks and tossing them around. It's good wrestling until Meiko starts throwing open hands at Chihiro and Chihiro responds with Vader Hammers in kind. Meiko and Aja doing their old trademark exchanges was awesome considering how over the hill Aja looks and I loved that they put actual emotional stake into whether Satomura could beat her old nemesis finally. Very good match even setting aside the context, doesn't quite top the Mentai Kid match for me when it comes to high end retirement matches this year but it's absolutely worth watching, and what kind of person would you be if you didn't!

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Assorted Mutoha

 As always, buy them on X or thebase!

Unicorn Rules: Yasushi Sato & Konaka & G Valion vs. Hiroshi Watanabe & Masamune & Super Crafter U, Mutoha 7/22/2021

35 minutes of sweet wrestling, like you expect from this killer lineup. This was Unicorn Road rules which means the 1^st fall was a singles between Konaka and Crafter, 2^nd a tag between Sato/Valion and Watanabe/Masamune and the 3^rd a 6 man between all participiants. Konaka/Crafter was really good, the shootstyle submissions of Crafter mesh very well with Konakas more esoteric pro style approach and it was awesome to watch Konaka figure his way out of Crafters shoot leglocks, really good little technical match and Crafter blasting his opponent with brutal looking kicks was awesome as always. 2^nd fall had some awesome grappling from Masamune and sweet exchanges between him and Yasushi Sato. Masamune is really good when he’s just grappling and not doing Kurt Angle shit, he had some amazing counters, honestly he may have been the best guy in the match, he looked like a grappling machine. I would’ve liked to see a bit more of Sato vs Masamune because these two just trying to put the other guys shoulders down for the 3 is always awesome to watch, but then again I always want to watch more Yasushi Sato. Valion is the weakest guy in the match, I was interested in what he would bring to the table but in this murderers row of fantastic grapplers he doesn’t stand out a ton but he was alright and I liked his series of quick DDTs and odd submission. 3^rd fall didn’t have as much grappling and some slightly odd moments such as a random ref bump that had no effect on the match, however both teams looked like they were trying to finish the match and Yasushi Sato held the ending run together with his cool submissions, russian leg sweeps and neat touches. This was kind of like a pro wrestling mixtape with 6 really unique wrestlers bringing a ton to the table, just really cool to watch.

Kenichiro Arai vs. Masamune, 3/19/2022

30 minutes of mostly matwork. Strictly for the technical wrestling freaks but if you can’t get into something like that, what the hell are you doing reading this? They started out basic but put some amazing details into their otherwise basic holds and transitions, and continued in that fashion throughout the match putting some gritty struggle into hings. Masamune is always game to just grapple it out and it was really cool watching him trying to put Arais shoulders down for the 3 with his more amateur style flourishes while Arai is just the king of grabbing a basic hold and cranking it to the maximum. Arai paying tribute to Giant Baba with an ultra tight full nelson into the leg nelson was a really nice moment. I really liked how Arai sold vulnerability by selling his leg after missing a knee drop and seemed to be close to self destruction when he went for a couple flying axe handles. I am a bit tired of ankle locks at this point but Masamune chess match approach to the hold worked for me. They meandered a bit on occasion but overall this was very good and fascinating to watch if you were a fan of GENTARO/Arai already this should definitely go on your watch list too.

 

Kenji Takeshima vs. Hikaru Sato Mutoha 11/14/2015

Pretty badass no-ring shootstyle match that exceeded expectations. This match is compelling because of their difference in ranking and because of how competitive they make it feel. They really put over the fact that Satos kicks are bombs, Takeshima was Fujiwaralike in catching them early on and taking Sato down, however as soon as Sato started landing the kicks Takeshima was getting destroyed. Takeshima comes back hitting a desperation headbutt and they go into this Lawler/Mantell style headbutt exchange while selling the accumulating brain trauma. Eventually they start shit talking each others promotions (causing the 20 people in attendance to start a “BattlARTS” chant). They move back into a straight shootstyle finish. I love how Takeshima laid on that Achilles Hold, he really looked like he wanted to force the tap more than anything else in his life. Good, really competitive feeling stuff, pretty unexpected from a match with no ring in front of 20 people.

PSYCHO vs Koju Takeda, Mutoha 1/14/2018

Bit of a different favour for Mutoha with this match. No extended technical wrestling section this is just PSYCHO putting a scumbag rudo beating on Takeda. A lot of really cool stuff from PSYCHO in this, trying to screw Takedas neck with some nasty moves, knees to the face, hard elbows, and his cool cross armbar variations. Takeda is a 666 guy who is ridiculously good looking, in terms of wrestling he does just basic stuff but all well executed and I guess that’s just fine, he is a good foil for scummy PSYCHO. Really fun match that serves as an excellent showcase for all the cool stuff PSYCHO can do.