Tuesday, July 8, 2025

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 26

Shinya Ishida & Yu Shimizu vs Ari Najima & Masanori Watanabe 7/2

Really good match from Sportiva this week. Solid no frills pro wrestling early on and a bunch of really good stuff in the second half. Once again, I was really impressed by Yu Shimizu. His brutal elbows rule and he's always doing something nifty. His boot that knocked Watanabe off the apron was straight out of 90s AJPW. Ishida stuck to his stuff, but he looked slick and did a bunch of awesome quick exchanges with Najima in the second half. Najima has also grown to the point where he now keeps up with more complicated stuff pretty well. Watanabe is still green-ish but he's really good when he's grappling or attacking someones arm. The finish was Shimizu mauling him with elbows and Watanabe trying to break Shimizus elbow with nasty kicks and elbows. Very good stuff, I can't wait to see another singles match between these guys.

Senka Akatsuki vs DASH Chisako, Tenryu Project 5/21

Great little match that brought some sick violence worthy of WAR. DASH just beat the hell out of young Senka here, some crazy violent slaps and dropkicks and stomps on display. Senka takes a big beating, but you know it all can change when she gets her opponents shoulders down and starts working for the pin. The shoot pin still rules. I liked when DASH did the 'okay, hit me' Senka was immediately right there and started to maul her with open hands, Senka is pretty big. Some great cutoffs from DASH here. I'm digging this 2025 joshi resurgence, you know the passion is back when a throwaway match on a mens show is this heated, and it all started with Senka.


Ari Najima vs Yukito, HEAT-UP 5/3

This had the rule  that it was a rounds match with the 1st round being kickboxing with gloves, 2nd round being grappling only and the 3rd just regular pro wrestling. Kickboxing part was alright, they were holding back a little. Grappling part was really good, Najima is clearly really good at this kind of slick shootstyle grappling and it was nice that he get to test himself like this. 3rd round was also really fun with both guys kicking and slapping each other in fun ways and developing good intensity, check out Aris arm selling. Good stuff but I'd like to see just a proper shootstyle match between them because at just 3 minute rounds this felt a little short.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Taking a look at... Hot Shushu

 Chon Shiryu vs Samas (Hot Shushu 5/6/2024)

I’m a big fan of Chon Shiryu, and I’m naturally inclined to check out any match he’s in. Samas is a pretty interesting guy, he’s a tall-ish foreigner with a cool mask and odd agility which allows him to hit some cool looking high kicks. Samas was a bit dainty with his movements at times but he sure looked convincing when has dropping bombs, I can definitely see potential in him, plus I am sucker for guys who look straight out of a 90s Mortal Kombat game. This was a lot like how I would fantasy book a hypothetical Chon Shiryu run in a US TV promotion, really nice fast paced big vs little match with Shiryu hitting his awesome spots including the diving kick to the floor. Samas was really cool to watch in this, lots of cool hurty looking offense without being cliché big man stuff. Cool little match in that dojo,


Kiku vs Banako (Hot Shushu 5/6/2024)

So I was looking through the Hot Shushu highlight videos trying to figure out what match ups look interesting, and I thought this girl Kiku looks cool. Then I look her up on Cagematch and SHE’S 47 YEARS OLD??? And her debut was just in 2021? I have a fascination with wrestlers who start wrestling late, they always seem to have a better mind for wrestling and with guys like Yasushi Sato, Yuta Oya or Hiroki Sakai the genre has produced some greats, so to see someone like that show up in the cosmos of Ice Ribbon is fascinating. And yeah, watching this Kiku is definitely really cool. She has actually hard kicks, and cool submissions. Banako is another one of those wrestlers whose personality is pretty much ‘joyful clown in a world of asskickers’. Banako didn’t strike me as insanely talented – not really having more than a basic dropkick and roll ups – but the contrast with her and Kiku being a more serious asskicker and putting the boots to her with said hard kicks and cool submissions is really fun. Kiku sets herself up for Banako in ways that really help the match too. I’m definitely gonna have to watch more Kiku.


Takahiro Tababa & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Samas & Yoshikazu Yokoyama (Hot Shushu 7/20/2024)

Tababa and Takaiwa, what a team. Unfortunately Yokoyama may be one of the worst wrestlers I’ve ever seen, he’s just super low effort to the point where he shows up wrestling in a t-shirt, so this was a little rough. Samas also wasn’t in the match a ton. Takaiwa still looks insanely tough but can barely move. Tababa kicking Samas really hard was pretty fun, and Yokoyama did get it together to at least hit some nice Death Valley Bombs for the finish.


Chon Shiryu vs Kouyo (Hot Shushu 4/7/2024)

Another Chon Shiryu showcase match baby. This was also really cool. Shiryu could just coast and hit his spots, but he strayed from his usual stuff to work an indy main event formula match with his opponent. That means a bit slower pace but we get to see what Shiryu can do, working some cool matwork, attacking Kouyos legs with some nifty holds. He did have some cool parkour spots where he used the walls of this tiny dojo to his advantage in awesome ways. Kouyo is a bit green and bland, but he’s solid enough, he does hit some nice kicks, his 619 setup was cool, although his thigh slappy kick combo was pretty weak, he did sell the leg work though. Pretty insane finish. I love watching Shiryu do his thing.

 Daisuke Sekimoto vs Samas, Hot Shushu 2023/7/17

Apparently, this was Samas 3rd match ever, unless he was working some place elsewhere before that Cagematch doesn't know about.  And this is wisely kept very basic. Sekimoto could probably wrestle in his sleep. With him, you always get your test of strengths, your shoulderblocks, your forearm exchange... he has a simple formula that works, and it tends to bore me to death so I can only watch him once every couple years. Samas being the opponent makes things more interesting than usual, since he's actually quite a bit bigger than Sekimoto despite how freakishly large this short Japanese mans chest and shoulders have gotten. Because Samas is bigger and hefty Sekimoto is actually forced to come up with a few different touches and when he hits the deadlift german it's actually impressive. Samas didn't show a ton here, none of the cool stuff he did in the Shiryu match really, but sometimes a 3rd match is just a 3rd match.

 

5 minute exhibition: Yoshiko Tamura vs Tanny Mouse, Hot Shushu 12/24/2023

It's Christmas and Tamura is dressed as Santa and Tanny is dressed as a reindeer. And well... they work this pretty much exactly as if it were a serious 2005 NEO match or so. Just both of them going really hard, nailing their signatures, not wasting much time with comedy (though Tanny does get her due here and there) All their stuff still looks good and you get the sense either of them could return to in-ring competition and be near top level still. Tanny looked especially slick still, like she had never stopped. And they do it all while dressed in those ridiculous costumes. Too surreal not to talk about this. It was getting awe inspiring when Tanny went for the muscle buster but then the time ran out. What a Christmas dream!

 

Thursday, July 3, 2025

XGF Backyard Brawl 7 5/10/2025

 Dekai Ichimotsu vs The Insect #2

I've noticed that my reviews have been getting a bit awfully normal lately, so let's change that with some XGF. This takes place in an amazingly creepy looking industrial hall with all kinds of trash laying around in the outskirts of god knows where, Japan. Insect #2 is a masked creep doing constant weird breathing noises and scuttling about. Naturally, Dekai chucks him to the mat and works some nelson hold variations to prove his wrestling superiority over the bug. Some surprisingly reckless strikes are thrown and Insect briefly gets the advantage when he suddenly connects with a foreign object, but doesn't seem to know what to do as he is a brainless bug after all. He does find his luck eventually biting Ichimotsus neck which is disgusting enough. We then get some attempted strangulation and Insect #2 going for the dreaded CROTCH BITE~! I wish Dean were alive to see this. The attempted hanging was gritty as fuck and Ichimotsu seemed to start bleeding from his mouth. When Ichimotsu falls to the floor, he comes up all dirty and dusty, adding to the grittiness. The Insect does fine mostly for someone who is probably not a good wrestler at all, as evidenced by his lousy punches whereas everything Dekai does looks great. Dekai does punch the insect in the face, hit a sick headbutt and then a piledriver on a pickup truck which is a finish to match. Very gritty and surreal, felt like a deranged version of a Survival Tobita fight, a great little match to set the tone for this Backyard Brawl.

Great Zako vs MAD APE

MAD APE!! Perhaps a relative of Virgon? His low grunt is convincing, but otherwise he feels very much just like a dude in a mask, making this feel a bit less like a surreal monsterfight than the previous match. Other than that there is some good gritty brawling going on with both guys trashing things on each others heads. When they venture outside, there is this really nice shot following them before the lush green bushes and trees. Zako ends up going face first into a pile of rubble and ends up lying bleeding on the ground which makes this feel like a snuff film. Both of them go for rusty, dirty pieces of metal that are lying around, poking them in each others face, its concentrated tetanus horror when Zako starts bleeding. At some point they venture downstairs, continueing to beat on each other while the camera unsuccesfully tries to get a look. Eventually Ape is able to hit a chokeslam into a pile of sand or cement and bury Zako with a shovel for the win. It's Backyard Brawl, what do you expect?

Paul Ishida vs taku

Now we are talking. Paul Ishida has a creepy ponytail, lots of jewelry, tabi poots, is built like a troll. He seems like he crawled out of the deepest darkest hole. taku, who belongs to the mysterious group called Ignite, wears regular pants and a wifebeater, but also has MMA gloves and likes to punch and kick. He is a bit hesitant at first, and Paul Ishida punishes that hesitancy quickly with some hard punches and bulldogging taku into a car tire because that's how thigs go in this XGF. taku does wake up when Ishida starts stapling stuff to his arm, and it's on. There are reckless punches and kicks, some great fistfighting, gritty submission fighting on the dirty floor next to oil puddles, guys get thrown into a car and half decayed debries etc. Ishida summons some Mr. Pogo weapons and both guys bleed big. At one point Ishida kicks out of a move on the floor and a pile of dirty weed gets stuck to his hair as he gets up. Really awesome gritty mix of face punches, blood, ghoulish vibe and some big bumps.

Minoru Kido vs Ryunosuke Takeda

This was pretty gory too. I gather Minoru Kido is some kind of cult hero among people, and this is my first time seeing him. Based on his demeanor and freakish look I can see the appeal. This was a bit milque toast deathmatch stuff, which is a bit weird for an XGF match. It had the standard opening chain wrestling, chair duel, and then guys taking turns doing repulsive things to each other. There was a bit of a malaise here, an absence of the passion, recklessness and absurdity that the previous matches had. That can be pretty sick too, and all those deathmatch spots feel a lot sicker when they are happening on a grimy sheet laid over a mat in the middle of some warehouse. Still there is plenty of violence and gore to be enjoyed here, and the folks in attendance for this event noticably moved back a bit to be safe from what these two lunatics were doing.

 

The Library 

Monday, June 30, 2025

Pro Wrestling in 2025 Week 25

 Wolf Ozawa & Aesop vs Super Shimizu & Merman Masakazu, 666 6/6

Old ama-pro guys getting together in Korakuen Hall and worshipping Showa era wrestling. Pretty fun stuff. Super Shimizu is pretty rough, very much a skinny old man trying to move and struggling, but it's kinda fun. Aesop and Masakazu both look good, they actually get nice height on their jumping kicks and execute the technical stuff well, Masakazu even hit an enzuigiri into the steel pole. Wolf Ozawa doesn't do much in this match and its probably for the better.

Kenichiro Arai vs Nobutaka Moribe, Yoshino Aid 6/22

Haven't seen much of Moribe, let alone recent Moribe, but he looked pretty good here. As far as I know he's a Dick Togo guy who used to worship Eddie Guerrero. He looked pretty comfortable grappling with Arai here, never lost, adding a few neat touches. The grappling portion felt very lucharesu-tinged with small details like Moribes reversal of the reverse hammerlock or Arai using a leg grapevine to set up a headlock being the highlights. After that they morph into an old studio scientific match, like Pat OConnor vs Mike Graham. They did headlocks into hip tosses, flying headscissors, everything. If you like Kenichiro Arais work you will like this. I wouldn't mind seeing Moribe grappling with the other Mutoha guys after this because he lookde capable. Pretty short match though but sometimes short and sweet is cool, not every Arai match needs to be 60 minutes.

Yasushi Sato & Taro Yamada vs Akira Jo & Hideya Iso, Yoshino Aid 6/22

This was the raw Mutoha style action that your brain craves. 4 great grapplers squaring off and just having a bunch of great mat exchanges, and then a bunch of ridiculously awesome stuff in the 2nd half. Yamada vs Iso is known quality and they seemed pretty spry here, with Iso really not letting up for such an old seemingly outmatched guy, I really like his use of the Fujiwara Armbar and there were a few nifty moments that Iso has a knack for such as his reversal of a dragon sleeper. At this point I've seen a bunch of great Iso matches so I know the guy is really capable yet he keeps surprising me. I don't think we've seen Yasushi Sato and Akira Jo really match up, but my god they are a good match up for each other. We've seen Jo tap people out with a side headlock so when he cinches in just a basic cravate or wristlock its pretty intense. Sato trying to catch the more physically forceful Jo was really cool to watch and Jo had this grin on him all the time, you could tell he loved grappling with an old master. As always with Sato we get a bunch of nifty stuff centered around Russian Legsweeps and him tying someones legs up in a cool way. First half was pretty mat based but they really drop bombs in the second half with some sick headbutts, nifty team work and unexpected high spots. Sato busting out a perfect springboard dive looks pretty epic at his age, I also loved how they couldn't tag out, Isos out of nowhere enzuigiri and they made me flip out for the sleeper hold. Really really good stuff, once again affirming the greatness of the Mutoha guys there are few wrestlers in the world who can even hold a candle to this crew.

Chihiro Hashimoto & Mika Iwata vs Saouri Anou & Natsupoi, Stardom 5/31

Really entertaining, borderline excellent tag that felt big time. Basically like a warped version of Rockers vs Twin Towers. Anou and Natsupoi are two girly, dainty, skinny models, it's crazy how over the top they look even compared to the Takako Inoues of the past, and Hashimoto and Iwata look starkly like real fighters in comparison to them. The match is basically Iwata and Hashimoto kicking their asses and looking pretty impressive in doing so, Iwata has lots of spectacular kicks and Hashimotos juggernaut-like power is in full bloom. Loved all the moments where Hashimoto came in to clear house and blow people away with her charges. Loved when Hashimoto said 'fuck your flippy bullshit' and did a cartwheel. Anou and Poi have minimal offense in this, a surprising choice considering this is their produce show, but they work pretty well as overmatched faces. When they get on offense it's well done, and they do display good skills, Anou at one point hit a really stiff forearm smash, and Natsupois cartwheels are fun. Thought this was shaping up to be one of the best matches of the year, until they kinda overreached with the kick sequence between Poi and Iwata. 

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Random Joshi

Yoshiko Tamura vs Emi Sakura, NEO 5/5/2009

Nearly perfect 15 minute war, I know both these two can be pretty great when they’re inspired, and they still surprised me with how great they were. A big part of why the match rocks is Emi Sakura, who brings a ton of spunk and clever spots outsmarting Tamura and doing damage to her higher ranked opponent. Tamura cutting off Sakura by viciously strangling her with a cobra clutch was pretty perfect. There isn’t a ton of groundwork but they do a few neat inventive holds that are well worked. Sakura working the back was brisk, pretty violent with Sakura dropping her body weight on Tamuras spine in nasty ways and sold very well by Tamura. Final minutes were really good high end workrate stuff with Sakura desperately trying to pull off a flash pin, some really good dodge and counter move stuff and Tamura just demolishing her with her awesome pummeling elbows, I think her spin kick also gave Sakura a bloody lip. Do yourself a favour and go out of your way to watch this match.

 

Dynamite Kansai vs Sonoko Kato, Oz Academy 9/11/2016

This is definitely something I should have checked out in 2016, because this was pretty awesome, hard hitting pro wrestling with no padding. It’s one of Kansais last singles matches, but she goes all out here and still has her moments where she looks like a monster and kicks her opponent in the face. Thought Kato was pretty great here, really giving Kansai a working over with badass kicks and staying on her with submissions. What was best about this was that they went out and delivered 20 minutes of straight up non-formulaic pro wrestling. Loved the opening second as Kato kept stubbornly going for a waistlock to hit the German Suplex on Kansai. Build to the big bombs was really good as there was plenty of facekicking and struggle. I loved how even with the bigger moves, a basic kick to the face from Kansai could be a near finish. Great match, made me think I should go back and watch like 200 Sonoko Kato matches.

 

Azumi Hyuga & Command Bolshoi & Ran Yu Yu vs Misae Genki & Yoshiko Tamura & Carlos Amano, JWP 10/13/2002

Insane 45 minute iron woman match with everyone going insanely hard right from the start and never really letting up, just busting out one great exchange after another. The stiffness her was outstanding, they all decided to put some extra oomph and hatred into every blow, things like a headstomp or dropkick were really cracking people her. They mostly stuck to your classic match ups of Hyuga/Tamura, Genki/Ran and Bolshoi/Amano, although they cycle through here and there so you get a little bit of everything. Hyuga is a reliable tireless dynamo as always and her jumping knees and face kicks were sick, Tamura hits some of the hardest elbows as always and it seems she had gotten the hang out of how to work a more meaningful pace. Yu Yu vs Genki is always reliable and gritty, just two tanks with awesome offense barraging each other. Bolshoi/Amano is an all time great match up and they were going hard as fuck here. Tons of slick grappling, at one point they both were in a leg ride and twisting each others legs up in ridiculous ways. Their later exchange in the match was completely awesome with amazing submission counters, Amano hitting a Honda-style deadlift German with Bolshoi desperately trying to resist, incredible stuff. For a long match I think they did a great job mixing up the offense without repeating their moves too often, everything still felt meaningful, and because of the rules and the length of the match you buy something random like a dragon sleeper counter 40 minutes in as a potential finish. For that they did a great job, and like I said holy fuck did they go all out guns blazing in this, just ridiculous wrestling. Crazy this was done for 200 fans and a shitty one camera production. The business may have been nosediving but these women were still pushing the envelope when it comes to in-ring action. Great shit, really a bit of a hidden all timer in the rubble.

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Pro Wrestling in 2025 Week 24

 Super Taira & Ali Najima vs Ishikiri & Grand Passion Mask #4, Sportiva 6/18

Fun match with again the only problem being that it was short. I mean this went like 7 minutes or so. It's a cool look at a Velocity style short tag though. Grand Passion Mask from what I've seen mostly does comedy style wrestling but he worked some serious lucha exchanges with Taira here that were fun. Ishikiri is a thickly built dude with some cool moves squishing opponents under his size, and Najima is always reliable with his kicks. I like that little sliding firemans carry thing he added to his arsenal recently. Still, to short for a match with someone as talented as  Super Taira in it.

Robert Martyr vs Shoji Ohno vs Kohei Sato, Marvelous 6/10

Shoji Ohno is a must-watch guy for me, and this Robert Martyr kid seems really talented. Unfortunately this just had to be a 3 way match for some reason, and a 3 way that went only about 6 minutes to boot. I bet literally any of these guys in a singles match against each other would be really good. In this constellation we got some fun Ohno palm rushes and Martyr hitting a nasty powerbomb but not much more. Sato can still hit a hard kick and mean knee lift so maybe even he would've been better in a singles match. Whoever is booking Marvelous, please give us Robert Martyr vs Shoji Ohno at some point.

Nanae Takahashi vs Mayu Iwatani (Marigold 5/4)

Big Matches Nanaes run continued. I'm not familiar with Iwatani. She is certainly skinny, and not really a very impressive wrestler. But the crowd is super into her, so even a basic test of strength had heat. Nanae largely carries this in the first half dominating on the mat and with some hard punting kicks. Mayu struggles to hit even a bodyslam on Nanae which is compelling. Nanae ends up cracking Mayu with a chair which was really unexpected, and even tossing her down a flight of stairs then dragging her to the ring by her hair. It settles a bit into a more generic finishing run with Iwatanis crucifix driver looking blown and her seemingly hitting Nanaes face with a moonsault. Nanaes Tenryuisms were really fun and there was a pretty hard headbutt at some point, so it's a wortwhile match just went a hair too long at 25 minutes length.

Toshiyuki Sakuda vs Keito Murota, DIE 2/23

I decided to check out some DIE, because they are nice enough to upload some stuff on YouTube. And what do ya know, I really really liked this! I've been burnt out because of deathmatch wrestling thanks to BJW. What set this apart from your typical BJW deathmatch is the SELLING. In BJW, for years I've seen guys deliberately running into the lighttubes, cutting themselves, jumping into broken glass and not selling it, just completely burying the danger and pain of the lighttubes. Here, these guys were making it excrutiatingly clear they were rolling around in broken glass and how much of a fucking nightmare that is. This match had maybe 20 lighttubes compared to the 100-200 of other deathmatches but felt way grittier. Sakuda actually works a two on one on Murota, trying to force the hand into the broken glass, with Murota selling that he really doesn't even want his hand in the glass, and then Sakuda goes for a far side cradle that just looks torturous. Moreover, when Murota grabs something sharp, Sakuda grabs a chair to defend himself. Murota also goes to grab a chair, but Sakuda rushes over to clock him with his chair before he can actually use it, instead of waiting for the stereotypical chain duel spot. Smart! Murotas selling is great as he is wheezing and whimpering like he wants to die just from getting slammed into a chair. When he starts to hit Russian Leg Sweeps, it really looks like he is crazy enough to destroy himself just to beat his opponent. He also hits some really sick headbutts. There is the mouth skewering again, which still freaks me out, and taking a stiff headbutt with a skewer stuck in your face is pretty insane. The pulling the skewer out of the mouth is also one hell of a strap drop. Also the sound mixing for this is really great, we get a ringside camera and really get to enjoy all the nightmarish crushing of the glass and clonking of chairs. Little bit long and slightly slow, but the grittiness of it all kept me enthralled and they end it with a suitably insane big spot. Deathmatch wrestling still has something in it in 2025.

 

2025 Roundup 

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Ice Ribbon Club Ice Ribbon Match Vol. 2 3/30/2022

 Adversity Nine: Tsukasa Fujimoto vs Kaho Matsushita vs Saran vs Nao Ishikawa vs Yuuki Mashiro vs Asahi vs Ibuki Hoshi vs Totoro Satsuki vs Tsukushi


Adversity 9 baby. I really really enjoyed the 2011 version of this crazy concept, so I was really curious what the 2022 Ice Ribbon roster would do with the concept. To remind: This is a double gauntlet match, everybody fights each other, twice, in about 72 consecutive singles matches each with a 1 minute time limit. And for the most part, yeah this is really good! Basically 8 rounds of grueling hell sprints that got incredibly intense in parts. The thing with the 2011 match was that the weakest wrestlers would get moved to the back, here it was the other way around with everyone facing the weaker opponents first and at the end having to survive against Tsukushi and then Tsukasa Fujimoto. That made the dynamic a bit different, but still really interesting. The format is great because it makes any basic pinfall, roll up or boston crab into credible nearfalls. And you get these intense, unique moments like the almost amateur-like forcing of a pinfall, or having to survive a boston crab. So anything can finish, and everyone is in out of the match quickly enough to not get exposed, and when they have to face the gauntlet each individual character shines.


So like with most modern joshi I am hardly familiar with the kind of wrestlers that Ice Ribbon had in 2022. I vaguely know Tsukasa and Tsukushi. Tsukasa is a good ace figure with some hard kicks and works well as a tough final test for everyone, she was also hellbent on hitting people with the Japanese Ocean Suplex, but I was surprised by the kind of violence Tsukushi brought. She’s under 5 feet tall but was really brutalizing people, crushing faces with sick low dropkicks, trying to drill through people with double stomps. Her double stomp to poor Nao Ishikawas spine was especially evil as Ishikawa had just spent a minute surviving a boston crab. I’m pretty sure she also kneed someone in the throat at some point.


Of all the wrestlers I didn’t know I think I liked Satsuki the most. She’s just a big old tank and having her in there to crush people with splashes and slams is a nice different vibe to break up the dropkicks-and-rollups generic joshi stuff that many others in the match were doing. Thought her segment was really impressive as she worked some great stuff with everyone, I also got a kick out of when she submitted someone by simply squishing them when they attempted to backslide her, really unique and made perfect sense. Ibuki Hoshi is a fun chopping machine and Asahi had some cool submissions. The others were a lot more basic and generic, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and had some moments but didn’t stand out in a major way. The one negative standout was Mashiro who really took out the intensity with her silly bullshit a few times, unnecessary in a match where everyone else was working hard to keep the intensity high for like 70 minutes, even when she tried to wrestle seriously she wasn’t much good, she hit some dropkicks where even the commentator was yelling that she’s not hitting her target at all. Also Saran is like 13 and the others weren’t going easy on her at all which made her gauntlet part quite insane, though she did get a kind of epic rush at the end, pretty unique and one of those ‘pro wrestling is real as fuck’ moments that you only really get in Japan. In total this wasn’t as good as the 2011 match but definitely still really good. The wrestling didn’t reach the same heights as you didn’t really have any Emi Sakura-Hikaru Shida-Chii Tomiya type in the match to elevate things to that level but the intensity was great and there lots of great moments.


The Library

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 26

Shinya Ishida & Yu Shimizu vs Ari Najima & Masanori Watanabe 7/2 Really good match from Sportiva this week. Solid no frills pro wres...