Bob Backlund, champion of the WWWF

  

Bob Backlund vs. Antonio Inoki, NJPW 7/27/1978

A bonafide old school 60 minute grappling epic. Backlund goes a bit howdy and doody doo at the first lock up, but otherways he’s quite serious. The atmosphere here is tremendous with folks breaking out into “INOKI” chants constantly already in the first fall, even when Inoki is just locking in a headscissor. The wrestling is what you expect: Simple, occasionally sprawling into amateur-esque sections, both guys wrenching holds and working intense pinfall attempts already in the 1^st fall. Inoki is good at keeping things exciting and unpredictable, occasionally mixing in some rope running, hitting a slick hip toss, going for an enzuigiri out of nowhere because why not. There’s a moment where Backlund goes for his signature one arm lift and Inoki lands a bit awkwardly but they segue right into Inoki launching Backlund across the ring and into a big back body drop. The first fall is just Inoki catching Backlund in an octopus hold as he comes off the ropes. Just the kind of neat unpredictable thing that would keep folk excited.

2^nd fall continues in a similar vein with more mat wrestling and holds that have a clinical feel to them. You have your classic stuff like abdominal stretches into indian deathlocks. The crucial moment comes when Inoki hits this amazing Russian Legsweep to counter a side headlock and then follows up with a dropkick. Backlund is able to fire back with a dropkick of his own, but he is so knocked silly he can’t follow up. The crowd goes nuclear at the prospect of Inoki potentially winning 2-0. Inoki goes for a butterfly suplex but Backlund forces to the ropes like the move means death. Inoki keeps going for the offense and Backlund hits a butterfly suplex of his own! He lands another absolutely beautiful one that launches Inoki across the ring, but he is too damaged to make a proper cover. Some intense pinfall attempts occur before Backlund finds his groove and drops Inoki with an absolute beauty of an Atomic Drop to win the 2^nd fall.

The 3^rd fall begins pretty tentative and both guys trying some legwork. They eventually get to the 70s style bomb dropping. You get your abdominal stretch reversals, a belly to belly suplex over the ropes, Backlund totally nuking Inoki with a huge shoulderbreaker, even Inoki hitting a big knee off the top in a great moment. There’s also a bit of slow down and it feels not quite as tight as it should be. Inoki locks in a short arm scissor that feels so blatantly filler just to kill sometime before inevitable time limit draw, with the ending almost feeling rushed as it felt like they had to get in a bunch of stuff in under a minute, though there’s a really cool big bump on the floor.

There’s some slowdown here and there, but it’s a really enjoyable old school grappling epic, made to look as legit as can get by 70s standards.

Bob Backlund vs. Hussein Arab (Iron Sheik), WWWF 6/4/1979

They start with the 70s territory version of shootstyle, with both guys doing some great looking greco roman pummeling and struggling over takedowns. Sheiky baby does a nice job of keeping the crowd engaged through selling frustration and complaining about having his tights pulled and such. The MSG crowd is super into everything, just hollering with joy when Sheik is thrown out the ring during a scramble, and reacting with big indignation when he goes to pull the hair. They move into a lengthy section with Hussein putting some weardown holds on Backlund. They do a good job keeping things active even when working holds, and Backlund had some cool pin attempts as hope spots. After a bit of this kind of work they move back into back and forth holds, with Backlund getting the crowd excited here and there by doing things like hitting a hip toss or a flying headscissor because why not. At one point he goes to dive off the middle rope but the ropes are so loose he kind of struggles and catches a kick from the Sheik on the way down. Sheik goes to attack the arm bit, but it doesn’t really come together for anything and Backlund doesn’t sell it in particular. One cannot overstate how into it the crowd is. When Backlund goes for an arm stretch like 20 minutes in, they still happily count along as he tries to pull Sheiks arm off his torso. It’s looking like quite the clinical match. They do classic abdominal stretch reversal spot before they both bust out some suplexes, they are quite exhausted now but still kicking out at 1 for everything. Then, Sheik goes for a chair, beating on Backlund right in front of the referee, which is somehow not a DQ? They keep going with the 70s version of a nearfall-ladden 50/50 finishing stretch, Sheik even diving off the top rope and missing a big splash, Backlund getting the chair, Sheik trying to load up the boot only to have it used against him moments later. One cannot overstate how overjoyed the crowd was with Backlund, any babyface in the world now would kill to be this beloved. It could have been tied together a bit better, as it does feel meandering especially in the middle and the blatant chair stuff was a little baffling, but for what it’s worth they both worked hard and displayed wrestling in raw form. Both when it comes to the hold stuff as well as the spectacle with the gimmicks and big nearfalls and an engaging heel vs. face story.

Bob Backlund vs. Pat Patterson, WWF 7/30/1979

Alright… you want heat? This match was pure undiluted heat. A total house of fire. An inferno, even. Patterson tries to attack Backlund with the belt to begin with – WWF always loved belt shots – but Backlund avoids him and starts throwing him around like a laundry bag with these amazing body slams. Just launching him across the ring. Backlund goes to work an armbar and just proceeds to put Pattersons arm and shoulder through the wringer for like 15 minutes. It’s never boring – Backlund is really good at finding different things to do while working the arm. Stomping on it, grinding his elbow in it, dropping legs. Patterson tries a few different ways to fight back and bumps around for Backlund some more. You get some more amazing looking Bob Backlund bodyslams and your 70s staples like hip tosses and flying headscissors. Pattersons shoulder bump into the post was probably the highlight. Patterson finally manages to turn it around tossing Backlund over the top rope. Backlund comes back up with a bad leg and Patterson does some basic but vicious looking stuff smashing his knee into it. I liked how Backlunds attempts at comebacks became increasingly savage – smashing Pattersons head into the mat, punching at his bad shoulder. They both keep selling the damage to their arm/leg respectively. Essentially this match is a limb work lovers dream. All the while there is insane heat and the crowd going nuts for everything. Backlunds attempts to comeback keep getting hampered by his bad leg. Eventually there’s an amazing spot where Patterson gets his leg caught in the ropes and Backlund goes to town on him stomping the crap out of him. Another posting later Patterson is bleeding and Backlund starts throwing punches. Amazing spot where Backlund is able to hit his big atomic drop but can’t continue because of his bad leg. Patterson busts out the brass knuckles and some distraction finish occurs, proving those have been a thing for a really long time. It was all good though, not the kind that makes a match look meaningless. Regardless, the selling and layout here were insanely good. Both guys did a tremendous job and had the crowd in the palm of their hands. Perhaps Backlund could have sold a bit more desperately when he was in Pattersons leglocks but that’s a very minor issue. An all around great match that displays top notch selling and psychology to the tee while getting the most out of largely basic wrestling moves.

 

Bob Backlund vs. Greg Valentine, WWWF 2/19/1979

This is a one hour draw.  Bob Backlund was building one hell of a body of matches in 1979 alone. Valentine has an amazing cocky smirk to begin and he disrespects Bob by handshaking his little finger before the bell. The match begins how you'd expect - with Bob hanging on to a side headlock, though they do keep it pretty lively. Backlund comes off the ropes and leapfrogs over Greg, catching him with a dropkick with Valentine doing his signature timber sell. They do a neat thing where Valentine tries to get out of the headlock by grabbing the leg, and Backlund monkey flips him over. Wild how you can see things in a 47 year old match that you've never seen before. Valentine starts going to town on Backlund earlier than you'd expect, trying to break him down with his knees and elbows, Greg Valentine style. I could watch Valentine beat the bricks off of someone with elbows and knees all day, everything he does looks so bone-crushing and awesome. He hits this brutal knee drop to the stomach that looks like something Super Dragon would do, and displays some creativity putting Backlund in an indian deathlock so he can drop some more knees and elbows across his spine. When Backlund comes back, he ends up putting Valentine in another side headlock. Which is to be expected, as they are only about 10 minutes into this 60 minute bout.

They keep going at this rhythm - working and wrenching holds, building up to explosions. Backlund as usual is really good at cranking back on holds - the crowd counting along when he goes for the rowing arm stretch. Between the holds they do a really good job of mixing things up and keeping it interesting without resorting to anything too trite. I especially dug all the missed attacks which were really well timed. Backlund takes some spills out the ring, which always feel like they could now be a turning point in the match. He also busts out some things like a sunset flips over the ropes which you don't expect to see in a 70s match. It's rock solid work oozing with old school charm, just feels slightly slow here and there as they keep going back to holds to kill a few minutes and they aren't always super interesting. They do some neat selling - Valentine slapping his own hands to get blood circulation going while in an armlock, Backlund also doing a nice job acknowledging some damage to his arm, but nothing overarching. Of course, you have the freakish spot where Backlund lifts Valentine up with one arm. 30 minutes in Backlund hits a huge bodyslam across the ring followed by a hard dropkick. This freak of a man just had endless stamina.

About 40 or 45 minutes in Valentine finally starts to get something going when he starts working Backlunds legs and trying to go for the figure 4. GREAT spot where Backlund hits the atomic drop but his leg gives out, seems to be a signature sell from him. They last 15 or so minutes are absolutely boiling hot as they make everything look like an epic struggle. Valentine holding on for tear life to resist an irish whip (into an abdominal stretch of course) , Backlund trying to gut it out to hit his suplexes and escape the figure 4. Valentine looks pretty fucking tough here surviving everything Backlund throws at him. Backlund throwing punches at the last minute was also pretty epic. The most oustanding thing here is that these guys pretty much never missed about - they were 100% on the whole time. You can say that they may have slowed down working some holds but they were never lazy with them. Just a bunch of basic, but ultra-tight believable work that came together beautifully, and that's where the art form really lies doesn't it. A great entry to the canon of old school epics.

A look at... Franz Schuhmann

   

Franz Schuhmann vs Dean Malenko, Bremen 11/12/1994

Great match. Dean Malenko sure has fallen out of favour but I have no problem calling this a great performance. This match was less about friendly sunset flip rollup sequences, it was more about Dean Malenko the great technician coming in and putting the local babyface under pressure by kicking the shit out of his leg. The crowd was absolutely boiling hot for this, totally backing Franz all the way although some chants for Dean broke out later. They absolutely were having a blast. In a way the crazy crowd heat and european rounds system alone helps a lot, there’s nothing quite like Franz Schuhmanns title defenses. Here Schuhmann was really milking everything for maximum drama, and Dean busts out a lot of cool stuff. Dean hits a really fast snappy dropkick to Franz neck, a really cool tiger spin into a low dropkick, then they do this extended sequence with Dean working a reverse surfboard to try and force a pin that I’ve never seen quite like that before. It helps that Schuhmann actually sells that he’s taking damage to the leg and favouring it, making Deans subsequent methods to get his leg even better, including a really sweet rolling takedown. Franz is very content taking his time here but when he does bust out a comeback he pulls of some pretty epic shit. He has this great surfboard stretch just as the bell for the end of the round rings, an awesome pop up dropkick where he just launched himself straight to the ceiling, a really sweet frankensteiner off the top rope into a straight pin. It also helps that things like a dive to the outside or German Suplex feel a lot harder and unexpected in this kind of European style match. My favourite spot may have been the flying crucifix pin that Dean tries to struggle hard against, it was straight out of an epic lucha title match. The final pin that Franz scores is totally awesome in the way that it’s set up and executed. The match is a bit slow here but can you blame them taking it slow when the crowd is this hot? And that fucking ending?! They had them celebrating this finish like Germany just won the football world cup, and Franz isn’t even a German. The start and stop rhythm of the rounds works very well for Deans somewhat disjointed approach to wrestling and there are some fun moments where he gets frustrated and heels it up a little. Most importantly the feel of a big time title fight is here with both guys pulling out some great stuff. Well worth powering through the video quality to watch this, don’t worry the guy starts zooming in about a minute into the bout and it gets more watchable, jesus can you imagine watching this on a VHS?! Great bout anyways, nothing quite like it.

Terry Funk vs Franz Schuhmann, 11/29/1996

Terry Funk in a European ring! It feels so odd but you know, he’s the GOAT so he can just show up wherever and do his thing. Knowing Terry was a really great technician in his prime made me wonder what him in a proper technical rounds match would look like but this is chaotic brawling Terry. It very much feels like Terrys doing his own version of his younger self vs Abby and Sheik here. 1^st round is all Terry trying to force the match to the outside and Franz thwarting it by rolling back in. They proceed to not waste much time as Franz starts going for punches early, with Terry doing some fun stooging and bouncing around in the ropes, Terry Funk style, before he takes a tumble over the announce table right into Otto Wanzs lap. There’s some fun logical wrestling as Terry is able to reverse an attempted suplex into a neckbreaker and then he drops Franz with an absolutely harrowing Ganso bomb on that completely unforgiving European style ring. Franz is able to reverse the next one into a rana and he does the right thing and instead of going for a pin he goes to pound on Terry with some more punches. Terry eventually gets ahold of his branding iron and is able to hit Schuhmann in the leg to take over. There’s even a bit where Tony St Clair who is seconding Franz tries to have a go at Terry with Terry hitting Schuhmann in the head with the branding iron again while the referee is distracted. Franz starts bleeding and Terry slaps him around and punches and this is pretty great. Schuhmann gets one brief comeback but soon looks like he is bleeding out, and Terry punches the referee for the DQ. Fun chaos and after match Funk takes another chair to Schuhmann (with St. Clair hilariously standing right next to it and doing nothing to stop it) and gets on the mic saying the word PISS a lot. Schuhmann wasn’t exactly a Memphis level puncher here but he knew what to do, and nobody could do it quite like the Funker.

Franz Schuhmann vs Fit Finlay, Reslo ??

Totally sick match which really feels like one of the greatest TV match ever. It’s just a total fight with both guys hitting each other in unhinged ways. Finlay was just trying to knock Schuhmann head off with insanely hard clotheslines, kicking him in the ribs and stomping on his fingers constantly. His signature apron spots also looked especially brutal here. Schuhmann was giving back as hard as he got, hitting some really hard clotheslines and uppercuts of his own. These two also must have fought each other like 500 times so all their stuff looks super good and seamless. They were just working some snug holds and back and forth, with Schuhmann busting out some fun wrestling. At points both guys would deconstruct the Reslo barricades to beat on each other with those planks. There’s something said about a wrestling match so wild they end up taking the arena apart. Loved Schuhmanns reckless dive over the top rope too. Great stuff, one of the hardest Finlay matches of the 90s.

 

Franz Schuhmann vs. Doc Dean, Hannover 9/27/1997 

Yes, Doc Dean, the British guy who was in WCW for a minute! This is probably his longest match on tape and it's a fun look at a worker that most people would remember as a jobber. At this more different influences were coming to a boil in the territory. You still have the rounds KO 10 counts, but also get some big bombs like Schuhmann busting out a really hard suicide dive, Dean spiking him with a totally nasty death valley driver etc. Dean is nice and aggressive early and goes for some more 'modern' submissions like straight armbars and rear naked chokes. The commentator talks about how Dean beat Jushin Liger in England and that sounds pretty fun. Loved how Dean would really fight for his life when Franz would try to lock in a surfboard hold or sharpshooter. Franz is still spry and his big suicide dive looked amazing. Then he honest to god tried to submit Dean with an ultra-tight headscissor that the crowd was hot for. Schuhmann ends up bleeding and we get Dean punching and biting the cut. The finish felt a bit random but I always like bomb dropping more in a rounds match with KO 10 counts, and they dropped some good bombs. 

2026 Matchguide #2

Yuki Ishikawa & Fuminori Abe & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Ali Najima & Kazunari Murakami, Kakuto Tanteidan 7/1

Impossible not to love this match. Chaotic and frenzied with everyone potatoeing each other a ton, which is probably the best possible approach they could have taken. While there wasn't much refined shootstyle going on I really liked that Abe armlock early on that nearly dislocated Najimas shoulder. Najima was pretty much a whipping boy here, eating punishment from all 3 opponents early on. Shuji Ishikawas a pretty effective crowbar as almost everything he does looks downright murderous.  It's also pretty cool that we got a little Yuki Ishikawa/Najima section. Ishikawa crowned him with a pretty sick headbutt too. I was also pleased that there was no stupid Abe comedy, instead he and Najima developed a really amusing hatred for each other throughout this with Najima going at him aggressively constantly. Really hope they can face each other at Sportiva sometime soon or something. Floor brawling section wasn't amazing but we got to see chairs being used and Abe knuckle punching Najima in the crowd. Ishikawa/Murakami exchange was fun and nostalgic with Murakamis mugging and Ishikawa still being willing to take some punishment. Match went to the next level with the Ikeda shoot headbutt section. Shuji Ishikawa seemingly trying to drill through Ishikawas face with his head may have been the moment of the match. I did not think they would be able to keep up that level of violence, but the Abe/Murakami section surprisingly delivered thanks to Abes punches causing hardway blood and the violence of Murakamis face kicks and punches. There was also an attempted eyerake that looked like Murakami was really about to rip Abes eye out, so just the right kind of grizzly violent little thing. Abe also may have had the most violent save of the match with his flying face stomp. Great match, delivering plenty of sick violence without overstaying its welcome, and a bunch of these guys pretty much had their best performance in forever here.

Kosuke Sato/Ryuma Sekimo vs. Ali Najima/Hinata Kasai, Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura Produce 7/1 

 
Pretty great hard hitting  high adrenaline opening  match like a Fu-Ten or WAR match. Basically they tried to put some scrappy violence into every exchange, along with a few unexpected moments and succeeded. I've not seen Sekimo and Kasai before, but they knew what they had to deliver here. Sekimo seemed a little goofy but he was throwing really violent hands and working a camel clutch like he really wanted to torture the guy. Also liked how he just rammed into Najima with his head. I also really enjoyed Kasais throat jumping outburst towards the end. I like how guys were really trying to crank necks with their headlocks so the way Kosuke Sato snatched a surprise front headlock was pretty great. Nomura was quite the bruiser here also and Kosukes dropkick on the armbar was another great moment. Other highlights include some brain-scrambling headbutts and a straight face punch as well as Najimas face stomping. 

 

 Hideki Suzuki vs. Go Shiozaki, AJPW 5/17

 
I haven't cared about Shiozaki since he adopted the embarassing Fake Okada look, but his banged up performance was pretty good here. The gritty out of nowhere lariat was great. What followed was the usual tour around the ring, made a little better by Suzuki resisting some of Shiozakis attacks. After some mediocre minutes the match got back on track when Suzuki would use the guardrails to hurt Shiozakis taped up ribs. What followed was some nice violent work in which Suzuki took some pages out of the playbooks of Terry Rudge and Johnny Smith. I was even somewhat okay with Shiozakis no-selling comebacks as he looked like such a zombie, and him coming up with a bloody nose and actually starting to put some spirit into his Baba chops was a cool moment. The finishing stretch wasn't super interesting aside from Suzukis comical pedigree, but I did like how Suzuki went back to smashing the fuck out of Shiozakis rib section. I'm a bit lukewarm on this overall as it suffered from typical modern day Japanese big match problems but there was some fun violence here.

 

HII vs. The Wolf, fight of the ring 1/18/2026

The Wolf's return to pro wrestling is something I have glossed over a bit and I probably need to cover it more. I mostly remember him as a reckless kicker from his WYF days, but he was quite good doing maestros style technical work here, busting out a cool peterson roll amongst other things, and generally looking pretty adept. HII has also become a pretty interesting worker at this point. This didn't really shift into next gear with its intensity, but it was two old technicians doing some fun pro wrestling and that's always right up my ally. 

Chon Shiryu vs. Rina Yamashita, Choco Pro 2/25

 I'm a shameless sucker for Chon Shiryu, the representative of the 2 coolest martial arts in the world, pro wrestling and kung fu. Yamashita is not super interesting but she is big enough that she can credibly fight against Shiryu, and she has some good power offense including a nice harai goshi. That said the bulk of the match was carried by Shiryus crazy kung fu antics and unique spots. Early minutes had some good hard fought hold for hold wrestling, including Shiryu making sure to put extra torque into a basic wristlock like Pai Mei torturing Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Shiryu is able to make even a fairly rote strike exchange look interesting with his kung fu poses, he also makes even his basic kung fu strikes look pretty hard hitting. Most of the early parts of the match is the Shiryu show with him busting out crazy transitions and set ups for odd 619s, including a few things I've never seen him do before, he's always coming up with new tricks. He does take a pretty reckless looking bump when Yamashita catches him on an attempted springboard, and later he hits his springboard rider kick to the floor which is a crazy spot from a 47 year old guy. Finishing run had both of them selling damage to their legs when they got their knees up on flying moves and some crazy rollups, which was a lot more interesting than the usual bombfest, and Yamashita coming alive a bit. 

  

2026 Matchguide 

More from Cosmo Soldiers YouTube channel

     Cosmo Soldier & Tadahiro Fujisaki vs. Takeshi Sato & Yuji Kito, WYF 1998/3/15

Wrestle Yume Factory is one of my favourite promotions ever. WYF undercard matches like this are like pro wrestling in a lawless wasteland. There is a hearty dose of BattlARTS/WARish violence, general anarchy and an infusion of raw spirit that you don’t find like this often. It’s chaotic and glorious. This goes 15 minutes so they have some time. The first half of this was a lot of tight headlocks and groundwork, guys trying to ground each other but explosions did happen. Takeshi Sato who is IWA Japan scum is the first to really start the shenanigans as he lays with kicks hard as a brick into people. He goes for something like a dropkick or a high knee that lands awkwardly and his first instinct is to kick the other guy really hard again. Pro wrestling is a struggle against yourself as much as your opponent. Cosmo Soldier is likely here to just kick someone in the ear to get out of a hold, or dropkick them flush in the face. His dropkicks looked amazing and he is spirited trying to grapple it out with a kickpadded adversary. There’s hardly any rope running here and it makes the whole thing resemble a more serious wrestling match in the vein of BattlARTS. What these guys lack in polish they make up tenfold for by sheer willingness to bring the fight. Takeshi Sato continued to be a fiend here, randomly hitting one of the hardest enzuigiris I’ve ever seen to Fujisakis skull. Later Cosmos leg randomly gives out on him (element of chaos) and Sato would swiftly punish him by just landing this immensely beautiful and cruel high kick to his head. Fujisaki was pretty surely and great here too, working really solid early on, cinching headlocks, grabbing half crabs and leaning back hard, later uncorking his trademark hard headbutts, uncontained open hand strikes and lariating Sato straight in the face for all his sins. His turnbuckle headbutt spot looks so brutal, literally every member in the front row had their mouths open from amazement with how he drove into his skull into another persons face. Cosmo also had one of his finer days besides his leg giving out. I loved how he just absolutely spiked Sato with a uranage. Sato, of course, rolled out the ring to clutch his aching neck, and Soldier immediately followed up with a big dive. Nice and spontaneous, everyone here was living in the moment. Kito was sticking to fairly basic stuff at this point and he’s solid, his big spot was a double knee drop off the top that looked pretty hurty, and took a back-hitting headbutt from Fujisaki and got spiked on his neck by his big suplexes like a champ. Second half of this match is just a frenzy with guys trying to knock the soul out of each other, everything having maximum force and violence. Random spin kick from Takeshi Sato? Yeah, looked like it made the other guy reconsider his life choices immediately after taking it. Soldier going for his big cancun tornado? Yeah, this might as well kill the guy. At one point Fujisaki, when breaking up a submission made sure to really dig his foot into the other guys face before stomping like he was trying to crack a particularily tough walnut. Nothing held back, just for this small gym audience and a lone camera filming this to end up in storage and somehow on YouTube 28 years later. Comparing a match like this to something like Flair/Steamboat would be like comparing Cannibal Corpses A Skull Full of Maggots to the Moonlight Sonata. But sometimes I wanna listen to Cannibal Corpse. I love my Wrestle Yume Factory and this delivered hard.

Kishimen vs. Kuraudo Kondo, KAGEKI 2009/2/15

Who is this mysterious Kishimen? Perhaps Cosmo Soldiers cousin from another dimension. Online sources tell me Kuraudo Kondo is a student of Masashi Aoyagi. That might mean that he took a karate class of Aoyagi once when he was a teenager, or it might be the truth. Kondo looks like a UWF fighter, and he actually fights like a student of Aoyagi, e.g. he kicks a lot and he kicks really really hard. This is also in a kickboxing ring so you know any fall in that ring hurts like hell. Kishimen takes him down to hit a really hard elbow to his face. A not-clean break later Kishimen waffles Kondo some more with open hand hits and then absolutely spikes him with a shootstyle-DDT on his head in that unforgiving kickboxing ring. This causes Kondo to have enough of Kishimen and just starts kicking the absolute shit out of him, absolutely not holding back on any of his kicks, and slamming him right in the middle of that unforgiving ring. Kishimen takes back over with a damn abdominal stretch and it’s all awkward violence from here on. Kondo continues to hold absolutely nothing back on his kicks and I’d like to see more of his short career. Kishimen flies ass-first into Kondos face twice in this match, at first it seemed like an accident, but the second time you fully understand this man was trying to break his opponents face with his ass. Kishimen ends up cranking the nastiest chickenwing crossface I’ve ever seen for the tap. If the previous match was A Skull Full of Maggots then this is like Last Days of Humanity or Rompeprop, or your little brothers band sloppily covering Carcass or Autopsy where the singer loses his voice halfway into the song and just starts screeching… eitherways, still pretty enjoyable violent chaos.

Cosmo Soldier & Raging Bull vs. Tadahiro Fujisaki & Shigeo Kato, WYF 1/23/1998

The WYF streak continues. This starts with all these guys working holds and hitting the mat, and it has the vibe of something like a MUGA match but with that rugged WYF charm. Looking at this match is like looking at a wrestling fractal, you see deeper and deeper flourishes and details even in usually mundane things as all these guys have a unique way of doing things, and sometimes will bust out things that no one else would think of doing such as the slick entry into a stepover armbar Cosmo does here to get out of a sleeper hold. There’s some genuinely slick stuff going on between Fujisaki and Cosmo, but a big part of the fascination is that these guys might just pop each other in the mouth in totally uncalled for ways or suddenly kick someone in the face to get out of a hold. Really exploring how you can break submissions in painful ways, either by driving our own foot in someones face or having your partner come in and dropkick them right in the skull. Kato is all about ratty old school ways to hurt opponents, and doing things like randomly squeezing a cravate really hard. Raging Bull is this odd guy from Texas who somehow ended up getting trained at the WYF dojo, he’s unspectacular in the sense that he will tag in and just hit some elbow drops, but he’s kind of likable as he realizes he needs to make this stuff look urgent, so he doesn’t dull things. As always with these matches the first half is ground-based and solid peppered with guys potatoeing each other in uncalled and unpredictable ways. There are some hard Fujisaki headbutts, but things really start kicking when Cosmo breaks out of a hold by kicking Kato in the head, following with a sick enzuigiri also to the head and then absolutely spiking him with sick uranage before stubbornly trying to snap his arm. Things really get cooking in the last 7 minutes or so with all kinds of awesome scrappy action and details. You get chaotic and wild, such as Cosmo eating some reckless face stomps from Fujisaki only to grab onto his wrist and slingshot him across the ring, really making the absolute most of ‘I need to get this guy to my corner’ in an unconventional way. There are more violent submission breaks, Kato wincing in pain after taking a basic double axe handle to his bad shoulder and deciding to absolutely spike Cosmo with some mean piledrivers. The finishing run ends up being Cosmo vs. Fujisaki and it’s pretty much 3 minutes of gold. Loved how Fujisaki would stop a charging Soldier by just grabbing on to his face then headbutting him right between the eyes, then almost knock his head off with one of the hardest lariats I’ve ever seen. There’s also this amazing moment where Cosmo tried to reverse into a Fujiwara armbar, Fujisaki would stomp on his ankle really hard and Kato came in at the same time just obliterating him with superkick to the face, then Fujisaki would dump him with these awesome Otsuka-esque deadlift suplexes. Just a multitude of awesome things happening at once, and it made for a really exciting finishing run built on the solid build up of this match. Also gotta love Cosmo for being able to pull off something genuinely impressive like a big leaping rana or cool jumping kick despite all his flaws. He ended up pulling off something chaotic for the finish too and that rules. Another chapter in the book called Why Wrestle Yume Factory Was Awesome And I might Name My Three Children Cosmo Soldier, Tadahiro Fujisaki and Raging Bull

Cosmo Soldier vs. Koji Niizumi, KAGEKI 7/22/2017

I am always interested in Koji Niizumi. From what I’ve seen, he’s just this crazy hard hitter who makes people cry for their momma. To my surprise though, Cosmo Soldier was the unhinged one here. He was laying into Niizumi full force constantly, smacking him in the face, bending his legs at nasty angles with cool and unusual submissions and landing some of the hardest stomps you’ll ever see. Cosmo Soldier was so hellbent on trying every evil idea he could come up with here it made me long to see Niizumi tee off a bit more, so when he does it’s really satisfying. When it was time to give the beating back Niizumi was hitting Soldier with elbows and lariats that looked like they would take years off someones life. It built to some fine fine moments of really violent and fun pro wrestling. It seems Cosmo had overreached at the end and gassed himself out leaving him open for Niizumi to kill him off with an elbow that looked harder than the one Misawa knocked out Hansen with. A well earned victory in this title match that deserved that name. I really wish I could see more of Niizumi but until then these rare appearances of him are gems.

BattlARTS History #5 - January + February 1997

1/21/1997

Ikuto Hidaka vs Shoichi Funaki

Hidakas debut match! And it’s a fun 5 minute scrap. Hidaka is bald, bandaged head, wearing kickpads, he looks nothing like the guy he’d become later, but you could see he was brimming with talent. There’s some really nice amateur rides, and Funaki busts out a crafty set up for a Fujiwara armbar. Funaki realizes he’s on veteran duty here and starts smacking Hidaka around and kicking him in his bandaged head in dickish ways and it’s really fun. Hidakas few highspots (dropkick, flip senton into an armbar that really popped the crowd) were integrated really well.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa

The first half is kinda eh. Hoshikawa can engage in some decent grappling exchanges, but then drags things down with his tendency to try and force in irish whips. Otsuka at least makes him work hard for that irish whip, but it takes one out of the match, and the general lack of intensity does not help. It picks up when they start fucking nuking each other with Hoshikawa hitting an insane kick combo and his awesome looking diving kick, and Otsuka nuking him with his suplex, including an insane struggle over a dragon suplex that lead to Otsuka headbutting him in the back of the head. Always love two BattlARTS guys trying to nuke each other.

Gran Naniwa & Gran Hamada & Great Sasuke & Masato Yakushiji vs. Dick Togo & TAKA Michinoku & Shiryu & MEN’s Teioh

The Michinoku Pro crew rolls in on a BattlARTS card and hits one of their greatest matches ever, does that rule or what? Yeah it’s not a BattlARTS match but this kind of stylistic diversity is what made the promotion great. This is less of a crowd-pleasing showcase, it’s more of an intense frantic battle. These guys have all gotten so good now they can just hit their stuff shooting from the hip and mix things up no problem, and Korakuen Hall is absolutely excited going nuts for every single dive and complicated headscissor that they nail. It’s a frantic fight from the get go though with Kai En Tai going for outside brawling. We get some awesome Fujiwara-ish reversals from Gran Hamada here, really stealing the show while being in with a bunch of guys half his age, and Yakushiji hitting some beautiful stuff. The centerpiece of the match though is Naniwa with everyone trying to bully him and the little crab fighting back with gritty WAR-ish lariats. Eventually they rip his mask off, chair him and bloody him and we get some of the greatest grizzliest bloodiest minutes in wrestling history as he fucking gushes a fountain of blood and in turn tears up Shiryu. Chaos during the last couple minutes was awesome, I especially love Togo going with a chair after Sasuke while Sasuke dove off with that asai moonsault, before Togo himself eating that same chair in brutal fashion later. It’s a blazing hot match that delivers all the spectacular action and insane dives this crew can deliver along with some grizzly hateful violence and the incomparable underdog aura of GRAN NANIWA~, not much more needs to be said here.

Minoru Tanaka vs. Original Tiger Mask

A match that exceeed my expectations. Probably the most competitive you’ll see Tiger Mask being in the 90s, as Tanaka forced him into an actual contest instead of just running through his spots (something that he liked to do a lot post-return). Tanaka, to his credit, brought the fight and sold Tiger as this legendary behemoth of the ring that could crush him in an instant if given the chance. That low kick being the perfect example of this. He also came across as less spotty than usual, with his flying armbar looking like he really wanted to tear Sayamas arm out. At 10 minutes it’s packed with pretty good action. Perhaps the best match for either guy in the 90s?! Eitherway it’s really good and surprisingly a standout. Good action, good struggle, cool moments and a sense of Tanaka trying to topple a legend rather than old Tiger just being brought out to hit his spots for a crowd pleaser.

Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Takeshi Ono - EPIC

This was some truely high end BattlARTS tag team action. The first thing you notice is how on point all 4 guys on the mat were. The opening exchanges felt slick like U-Style matwork and always highly competitive, with the violence upgraded to BattlARTS standards. The brutality was of the charts here. The "tag team partners running in to make the save from a submission" where some of the must vicious I've seen and felt like PRIDE ground stomping, Ikeda at one point started throwing mule kicks on the ground, and Usuda and Ono threw some kicks that looked like nobody would get up from them. Man I don't even care whether there was a story or anything this match because the work was so frantic, hard fought and believable and sold so, so well I was 100% engrossed the entire time. The match also felt like it could end at anytime: at one point, Ikeda got his leg worked over with a few kicks from Ono and nice holds by Ishikawa (note the teamwork there), then Ono landed a series of skull crushing kicks on him. Ikeda believably beat the count, but his entire body language was such that you could see he was moments away from being finished, so he did the only reasonable thing and quietly slipped to his corner to tag out before collapsing like a broken man. That may have been my favourite moment of the match and it made the finish feel even sweeter where it feels like Ishikawa and Ono have the match in the bag and Ikeda just comes in and turns Ono's lights out to set up the finish. All 4 guys had career highlight performances, Ono did some stuff on the mat only he could do, Usuda stepped up big time and Ishikawa and Ikeda had some incredible exchanges together. Great, great match and a really compelling fusion of top notch shootstyle matwork, brawling and top level stiffness.

 2/20

Shoichi Funaki vs. Ikuto Hidaka

Hidaka is still rocking the kickpads and shooter look. He barrages Funaki with some pretty hard kicks to begin. Funaki is not thought of as much of an asskicker, but he is pretty effective smacking Hidaka around and leaning back hard when he grabs a half crab. It even builds off of Hidakas debut match when Funaki scouts his dropkick and just tries to rip him in half with a camel clutch. It’s just a 3 minute match and Hidaka brings a lot of fun energy already.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Katsumi Usuda

Otsuka had grown his hair out a bit here which just looks weird on him. This was decent shootstyle action early on, kind of slow paced with not a ton to stand out. Things pick up when Otsuka bodies Usuda with an insane German suplex. They get a bit more aggressive from that point forward including a great mat sequence with Otsuka trying his mightiest to force a Fujiwara armbar and Usuda trying to roll into a legbar, until he’s able to succeed and crank it back for the tap. The early goings weren’t much but the second half is worth a look if you want to see Otsuka being a suplex freak.

Takeshi Ono vs. Minoru Tanaka - Skippable

Well this was a bit of a waste. They went over 10 minutes but didn’t really have the material for it, so they basically spent 5 minutes dicking around with ‘cautious’ standup, and things didn’t exactly get going after that either. They tried to have a contest with more suspense and such but it just didn’t really build any intensity. I liked the bit where Ono ambushed Tanaka as he went to do a kip up. Really not a lot to this otherwise.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Carl Greco

For a 8 minute match this was pretty beastly. Ikeda knew he was up against a monster, so he brought his A-game. The result was a bunch of really good exchanges. Whenever Ikeda saw an opening he would just go for the kill with his strikes, including almost stomping Carls face in with a vicious stomp. Carl was a fiend as we know him, always scrambling for submissions and hitting some big throws. Loved that back trip that spiked Ikeda. This was a reminder of how good wrestling can be even as an undercard match when both guys care to be competitive.

Viktor Krueger vs. Yuki Ishikawa

Krüger was getting better. Everything he does is kind of overshadowed by his freakish size, but he was getting more adept at the grappling and he wasn’t afraid to engage in some sicko headbutt exchanges with Ishikawa. As such this was a pretty fun match. It was perhaps a bit long at 17 minutes but for the most part it was pretty compelling action. They told the david vs goliath story about as good as possible while Ishikawa still looked like the grappling master. There was one reversal to Kruegers powerbomb in here that was pretty awesome Fujiwara-esque, and later they even went for the Andre/Mighty Inoue powerbomb counter. They had the right idea too with Krueger constantly going for the deadly powerbomb and Ishikawa trying to lock in an octopus hold on the big man. In the end Ishikawa was able to survive the powerbomb but a big double axe handle from Krueger did him in which was a pretty cool finish.

2/28

Takeshi Ono vs. Ikuto Hidaka - FUN

This was when Hidaka had just debuted and he was introduced to the world of BattlARTS the hard way. Ono just destroys him here, punches, kicks with abadon, Hidaka is able to take him down and immediately Ono elbows him in the back of the head and tries twisting his leg off. Hidaka is able to score a single go behind, with Ono frantically selling the threat of a German suplex for a moment before Hidaka hits a scrappy Mysterious Rana in a super cool moment. Shortly after Ono puts his lights out though. For under 3 minute rookie squashes this was really cool.

Shoichi Funaki vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa

I was thinking they would just do a junior style match, and well they did pretty much just that. Although there was some slick matwork with Funaki looking pretty impressive. I thought he would do his thing where he goes for leg attacks on the more aggressive Hoshikawa but instead it was Hoshikawa who had to resort to stopping Funaki after he got dropped by a nasty fisherman buster. It wasn’t much of a BattlARTS style match but their shit looked good. Funaki took the win pretty easily with the Shawn Capture.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka

Well these two are BattlARTS gods and they can’t have a bad match. There was some great matwork here, really slick stuff with Otsuka always doing something more interesting than everyone else. That guy had such a way of rolling in and out of odd positions and into submissions, there’s no one else quite like him. There was also a surprising amount of animosity as they both hit each other with some evil god forsaken headbutts. Otsuka was also hellbent on killing Ishikawa to death with his suplexes as usual, there was one pretty unreal uranage where he lifted him from the ground. So while it was a 10 minute undercard match they pretty much went hard and had a great little wrestling match.

Minoru Tanaka vs. Gran Hamada

Gran Hamada working BattlARTS style huh? He isn’t much of a shooter, but he did his best I thought. Tanaka kind of ate him up early on the mat early and didn’t look bad while doing so. It gave the match a bit of a story and Hamada was smart enough to not try any rope running or anything like that, unlike a certain Naohiro Hoshikawa. Tanaka was pretty gentle besides one hard kick to the chest. This was kind of deliberate and not super explosive but it was a decent match, if you can get over the fact Hamada has such plot armor that Tanaka cannot beat him even in his own style.

Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda vs. Carl Greco & Viktor Krueger

A lot of good shit in this tag to close out this TV block. Anytime Carl is in it’s just great straight forward shootstyle action, and Usuda ain’t lazy either. These two are a great match up and always deliver. Krueger was continueing to get better, really finding his way into becoming a really fun monster. He was doing lots of actively cool stuff, he had a wrist takedown that came across really believable thanks to his bear paw hands, he also had this great twisting headlock into a guillotine choke. Ikeda was stepping up to the fight and it’s some compelling big vs. small action. Also because Ikeda is involved there’s always a chance you might just see the most evil kick you’ve ever seen any moment. At the end Krueger hurled Usuda to the side and dropped him with one of the most brutal powerbombs you’ll ever see and an unexpected and chaotic finish occurs. Really nice stuff and shows you how loaded 1997 BattlARTs was getting with action this good even on small shows.

Complete Takeshi Ono

The Library 

2026 Matchguide #1

 Masanori Watanabe & Yuta Oya vs. Ryutaro Ono & Ali Najima, Sportiva 1/7

Good main event from Sportiva to open the year. Opening floor brawling wasn't anything brilliant though it was energetic hard hitting pro wrestling and just watching Yuta Oya do anything is always interesting. Second half of the match is quite fun - there's a great exchange between Najima and Oya culminating in Najima hitting a really violent headbutt. It comes down to Ohno vs. Watanabe as Ohno has been kind of in Watanabes shadow so he tries to put him down with basic boston crabs etc while Watanabe is always angling for a leg submission. They make it pretty interesting and it's good shit along with the continued interactions between Oya and Najima. I cannot overstate how incredible Oya is, and because he's blind you get those odd plausible moment like Najima just sneaking past him to break up a nearfall.

Sho Mizuno & Ryuya Matsufusa vs Tigers Mask & Aran Sano, Osaka Pro 2/22

An enjoyable big match, the recent Osaka Pro resurgence is really cool. Some modernisms hampered this a bit (kind of slow pace, some thighslapping) but overall it delivers a lot of good hard hitting action. Matsufusa is the ace of Osaka Pro right now and he has some fun athleticism and I guess that's his thing. Aran Sano is quite generic - though he has some good offense later in the match, he showed pretty much 0 personality. Nothing against guys like that, but it does make one long for the days of the likes of Ashura Hara or Hiromichi Fuyuki when it comes to secondary guys. The main reason I liked this match was Tigers Mask and Sho Mizuno. Tigers Mask in his old days has become a really cool wrestler, like a sleazy hybrid of Takeshi Ono and Tajiri, nonchalantly kicking guys really hard, employing scummy tactics, and his out of nowhere Necro bump was really gritty. Really made me want to check out more of him. Sho Mizuno is the guy who was coming up in the sleazy ranks of Kobe Meriken last year and now he's looking like quite the budding talent. He's a really enjoyable underdog with his hard kicks. His jumping knees ruled and the finishing run between him and Sano is quality stuff. Naturally I enjoyed Tigers and Mizuno the most in this match because I am just that kind of person though Matsufusa and Sano were also bringing it. 

 

Senka Akatsuki vs Chihiro Hashimoto, Sendai Girls 2/15

Awesome match, it was kind of inevitable. Akatsukis whole thing the past year has been being this tenacious rookie who shoot pins people and doesn't back down, now she faces the grappling monster herself. This was allll about tenacity, struggle and making the most out of basic things, so it was pretty much my kind of pro wrestling to a tee. Opening headlock work was basic but fairly great as they made everything look like a struggle. That opening sequence of headlocks and shoulder blocks may have been about 500 times better than those things usually are. Hashimoto always looked like the more expert wrestler when grappling - dug that headlock escape - but Akatsuki would always try to forearm her hard or catch her with basic shoulder blocks. Akatsukis entire thing at this point is that her moveset is still very basic but she can still chip away, do some damage, get the most out of everything and eventually force a pin, and it's really gold. Hashimoto cinching in a body scissor only for Senka to reverse into a boston crab may be the closest we get to Jaguar Yokota/Jackie Sato in 2026 and that rules that I'm even watching a match that forces the comparison. Hashimoto getting slapped and trying to bash Senkas head in in retaliation was reminescent of a Shinya Hashimoto match. Intense pin struggle with Hashimotoo reversing to get on top and then slamming Senka was also perfect. One of the best rookie/veteran matches in a long time.

 
PSYCHO vs. Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 3/28/2026

Great 10 minute match. PSYCHO is awesome as a dirtbag technical wrestler who just wants to steal a pinfall, and Katsumura has gotten quite good by now. Really liked how Katsumura immediately went for the arm after hitting a kick to PSYCHOs shoulder which always adds to the 'everything matters' feel. PSYCHO taking control by catching Katsumura with a dirty trip and hitting a really fast kneedrop was great. Him hitting the springboard backflip was also pretty awesome considering he must be pretty old by now. Katsumuras counters were downright masterful, especially loved the Yoshida-esque sweep to armbar. I am not sure how I feel about Katsumura using the Go 2 Sleep as a transition move and then hitting an elbow drop like a CM Punk tribute, but it was kinda funny. Great finish courtesy of PSYCHO, too.

 

Mari & MARU vs. Rio & Sakura Mizushima, AWG 5/16

Another fun match from AWG. Again, the match had a complex layout and told a story, making it more interesting than your typical Japanese match these days. Rio and Mizushima are still a bit on the goofy side, but there was plenty of serious wrestling with Mizushima showing she could keep up better and better against the heel duo of Mari and MARU. She looked quite good, of course it's not hard when you're facing two pro heels like these two but she looked on point. Rio was the story of the match as she was the one who would have to dig deep and push herself and it made for some compelling moments. The highlight was easily the creatively set up 3 on 1 splash they did. Mari and MARU were reliable as ever providing some punishing offense and stooging extremely well.

Yujiro Yamamoto vs Yu Shimizu, Kobe Meriken 4/10

I'd be shocked if I see a more violent match this year. This was a midcard match on a sportsbar show, I like both guys and expected a decent effort, but these two unleashed hell on earth at each other here. Just some of the hardest elbows and slaps you will ever see. Shimizu was trying to scramble Yamamotos brains to paste and Yamamoto looked like a demon here. Initially Yamamoto was shrugging off anything that Shimizu threw at him, probably not taking him seriously, until Shimizu was able to knock him back. After that Yamamoto started targeting Shimizus leg with some brutal low kicks and knee-crushing technical moves. This was definitely the most inspired I've seen Yamamoto in a long time, he was torturing Shimizu in Fuchi-ish ways and also busted out a bunch of great flash submission counters. He also kept increasing the violence, by the end he was cracking Shimizu with FUTEN-esque kicks to the head. Shimizu was mostly the underdog here, while he was mostly getting trashed I always dig his scrappy vibe and simplistic backdrops/sleeper/elbow approach. Really liked how he just car crashed into the back of Yamamotos head with an elbow, and his flash rear naked choke may be my favourite spot in wrestling. There was also some great struggle over the backdrop suplex. That said this was just a downright evil fight but pretty great for what it was.

Bocky Kong vs. TATSUYA, Health Pro 4/12/2026

Hell yeah. Give me 2 tubby asskickers like this painting out their pro wrestling vision. This also happened to be a titanic 30 minute epic were they basically worship 90s IWGP heavyweight or WAR style. Can these two men who exist in the most obscure bowels of pro wrestling pull it off? Hell yeah they can. What I liked about this was that it felt not a single minute was wasted. They make the whole thing competitive, every single move here feels like offense intended to damage, never like time wasting. Most of the early goings they spend grappling with a lot of hanging on to side headlocks and cravates. Those holds seem fairly basic but with the way they were hanging on and really wrenching them they make it really compelling. There were a ton of cool moments too. I loved the way TATSUYA would keep clubbing his way out of the cravate hold, really making it look like he was trying to chop Bockys arm off. So often escapes from holds just look graceful or buttery smooth with all the struggle missing, these escapes looked painful and brutal. Really loved Bocky Kongs Honda-like arm takeover. It feels like it's 10 or 15 minutes of both guys just trying to squeeze heads into grape  juice or crank necks with their holds, with the occasional explosion. Only 15 minutes in does a shoulderblock exchange occur, and it really feels like two guys recklessly crashing into each other. I even liked the bodyslam war they started, so exhausting and they both were rolling dropping bombs with those body slams. When they start hitting they really hit each other insanely hard. Kong worships Hashimoto like no tomorrow so he's all chest kicks, neck chops and neck-cranking DDTs. TATSUA works really simplistic with his chops and lariats but it's all cool. Again, they do simple stuff but with a lot of intensity and in an unpredictable things-happening-as-they-do way that makes it really compelling to watch. Yes, it may be a bit long, but I was hooked all the way through. What these two lack in refinement they make up for in spades with attitude and spirit. Really loved how they tied it together by going for their headlocks and cravates again towards the end to set up the finish. A hard fought, hard hitting war with lots of awesome moments, I really enjoyed this.
 

2026 Matchguide 

2026 Matchguide

 Better late than never, folks.

 

GREAT MATCHES:

1. Yuki Ishikawa & Fuminori Abe & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Ali Najima & Kazunari Murakami, Kakuto Tanteidan 7/1
2. Kosuke Sato/Ryuma Sekimo vs. Ali Najima/Hinata Kasai, Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura Produce 7/1  
3. Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Yu Shimizu, Kobe Meriken 4/10
4. Senka Akatsuki vs. Chihiro Hashimoto, Sendai Girls 2/15
5. PSYCHO vs. Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 3/28/2026
6. Bocky Kong vs. TATSUYA, Health Pro 4/12/2026  
7. Sho Mizuno & Ryuya Matsufusa vs Tigers Mask & Aran Sano, Osaka Pro 2/22
8. Chon Shiryu vs. Rina Yamashita, Choco Pro 2/25