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.  Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Yu Shimizu, Kobe Meriken 4/10
2. Senka Akatsuki vs. Chihiro Hashimoto, Sendai Girls 2/15
3. PSYCHO vs. Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 3/28/2026
4. Bocky Kong vs. TATSUYA, Health Pro 4/12/2026  
5. Sho Mizuno & Ryuya Matsufusa vs Tigers Mask & Aran Sano, Osaka Pro 2/22

Some 1980s New Japan

Super Strong Machine vs Akira Maeda, NJPW 8/20/1987

Pretty badass match. Machine is awesome here, facing an overwhelming challenge but trucking on and beating the shit out of Maeda with his straight forward pro-wrestling offense. Watching them wrestle here it’s hard not to think this late 80s New Japan/UWF influenced style is the best stuff ever. There’s intricate grappling, and a general caginess that makes everything really interesting. Great selling from Machine early on as he was quickly limping from Maedas attacks while Maeda was still strutting around confidently. Maeda would constantly get the better of Machine on the mat, and start to destroy him with kicks when standing, so watching Machine close the distance and trying to put Maeda through the wringer with punches, nasty short kicks and headbutts was pretty great. Maeda seemed to be holding back a little early on but once Machine really gets him fired up Maeda would just try to tear through him with spin kicks. Couple great moments including a few awesome counters down the stretch including Machine rolling out of an armbar and locking in a hammerlock to hit the Evil Windmill Suplex which totally ruled, and then we get Machine trying to gut it through his destroyed shoulder. Just really really good pro wrestling.

Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura, NJPW 12/6/1985

30 minutes of great old school pro wrestling. This kind of chess match NJPW style which is not quite shootstyle but done with the same sense of seriousness and spontanity may just be my favourite style of wrestling. What they do is fairly basic without much flash save for one or two moves, but they do it all with such spirit and my god do all these guys make basic stuff look awesome. It never feels like they are just going through the motions. There’s also some cool creativity like Kimura coming down on Inoki with a flying stomp while Fujinami had him in a sharpshooter because why not, the goal is to crush them. First half was pretty much an exercise in all 4 guys always doing something interesting and keeping the crowd engaged. Did I mention the crowd is white hot for this and constantly catching fire just for Inoki or whoever tagging in? It’s the 80s baby. Sakaguchi is always really cool to watch as he comes across as such a monster. There’s a bit of legwork on him that feels slightly wasted but I really liked how he resisted the figure 4. Second half was peppered with a few epic standoffs including Inoki throwing punches at Fujinami and Fujinami spiking him with an awesome suplex, the crowd rallying big behind Kimura while Inoki kept locking in Octopus Holds with the precision of an expert grappler. Kimuras leg lariat may be my favourite piece of offense ever. Pretty great ebb and flow here, anytime it would seemingly die down they would bring the sparks back up with something big like Sakaguchi absolutely launching a guy with a backdrop suplex, Inoki hitting out of nowhere enzuigiris or trying to pry guys apart with Octopus Holds. The last few seconds was right on the money with Fujinami going for the kill with the Dragon Suplex on Inoki and Inoki resisting with all his might. Simply but highly effective pro wrestling.

Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura, NJPW 12/12/1985

More great wrestling very much in the same vein as the above match, and to think they did both these in less than a week is frankly ridiculous. Lots of more great exchanges here, exhilarating pace, still no-nonsense while constantly turning up the heat. I thought it was not *quite* the house of fire that the earlier match was but it’s not much less. However, this one does have an actual finish that is built to in pretty great fashion as Inoki gets caught in a figure 4 and when Sakaguchi tags in his bad leg gave out and Fujinami and Kimura, hungry to get the win did a number on his leg. You rarely see 2 guys working as a team to just destroy a guys leg like this. When Inoki tagged back in he seemed to be limping too and was desperately throwing punches. Really good build to a finish without just going through a bunch of nearfalls. All in all, there’s plenty of really good action to enjoy here and you want to see it just for the conclusion.

Keiichi Yamada vs. Tatsutoshi Goto, NJPW 3/26/1986

You would associate NJPW young lions stuff with black trunks and ultra simplistic wrestling, but they were both wearing bright blue tights here and doing lots of different stuff. With Goto its more of a fun oddity to see him fresh faced and busting out things like a crossbody or chest kicks – I would have thought he was simply born with a mustache and a shit stirrer. As we all know, young Yamada is yoked as hell and bristling with energy. The matwork here they do is really nice – really torturing each other with basic things like a facelock and moving through their holds swiftly without losing the competitive edge. Goto in control is a bit drawn out, though he does crown Yamada with an absolutely harrowing piledriver. He would also do things like hit a powerslam straight into an armbar because that was how things were done in 80s New Japan. You could tell Yamada was a boiling hot talent and the crowd was already buzzing for him even though he hadn’t quite hit his stride yet. It’s fascinating to think he might have joined UWF and become a peer of Tamura or something. His matwork was great obviously, and he also busted out a ridiculously backflipping flying chop. Really liked how Yamada seemingly couldn’t hit a comeback, then survived Gotos (already beautifully deadly) backdrop and was able to score a flash pin for the win. Is it a surprise the top of the cards of 80s New Japan was some of the most fierce and best stuff ever when even the lower card stuff was this good and competitive?

The Trials of Hiroyoshi Tenzan

  

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinya Hashimoto, NJPW 2/4/1995

I have been kinda dismissive of Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Thought he was a not super interesting guy with some goofy offense, based on a few mishappen performances in the 2000s. However, over the years my tastes may have changed, so maybe he deserves another look from me. I’ve grown to see the point of his persona – he is not meant to be a kind of refined martial artist like other NJPW peers, he has more of a raw primitive vibe i.e. he is just a tough savage beast that will try to chop your head off. It’s a trope in Japanese wrestling that harkens back to the likes of Thunder Sugiyama, and Tenzan at the very least brings an awesome mullet.

This, for starters, was a good fucking match. Well, no shit, it’s a Shinya Hashimoto big title match. It’s physically impossible for those to be not good. That said, Tenzan brings his unique personality. He’s young, mullet not quite at peak level yet, but he has already embraced his persona of a guy that just never stops moving forward and trying to hurt his opponent with blunt force. It’s a really cool dynamic as Hashimoto is such an artist with the way he uses his kicks. There is some really great use of basic strikes here. Hashimoto would just absolutely blast him with kicks right under the chin. Tenzan would look outgunned, but he could occasionally lunge forward and chop Hashimoto down with something because he’s still a dangerous animal.

Hashimoto brings some nice intricate stuff to the match, almost working like Regal has he goes to take out a leg with a slick drop toe hold, or doing this ridiculously great armbreaker from a sleeper hold. He is great at bringing a chess match feel even to a slugfest, some cool strategic feeling and mirroring like when Tenzan is able to catch him with a spin kick. He also had this great DDT/Kimura thing that spiked Tenzan right on his shoulder.

In the end, strategy can’t stop a charging bull. The audience can’t quite take Tenzan seriously as a challenger, but then he is able to drop Hashimoto with some rough as fuck bombs, including a powerbomb that looks like it could kill any regular man. Suddenly Hashimoto has a busted nose and looks in trouble and the crowd goes white hot. Hashimoto busts out this awesome sprawling armbar counter to Tenzan and nearly takes his head off with an absolute beauty of a high kick because that’s what Hashimoto does. Tenzan gets absolutely spiked on a brainbuster because that’s what it takes.

Verdict: Another absurdly great Hashimoto performance. Tenzan was pretty cool too although this would definitely be filed as Hashimotos work.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinya Hashimoto, NJPW 8/3/1997

They are in the semi finals of the 97 G1, so there is quite a bit of wear and tear on both mens bodies already. This was like watching two battleships launching missiles on each other until one would sink, the way Hashimoto would take Tenzans spin kick really sells that. Hashimoto was a freaking tank here, and the crowd by now had taken to a liking to Tenzan. The hissing noise really emphasizes his animalistic vibe, like you are entering a pit of snakes. Hashimoto was really kicking the shit out of Tenzan here, to the point where Tenzan would get a bloody mouth, while Tenzan kept chipping away including hitting Hash with a shoot headbutt. Hashs arm/shoulderbreaker was downright demonic. Chono ended up distracting the referee, proving shit like that already happened in 90s New Japan, but Tenzan ended up getting his foot stuck in the turnbuckle somehow when he went for his diving headbutt in what may have been the defining moment of the match with how silly and yet dramatic it was. Tenzan is able to soldier through though just based on his sheer toughness bombing Hashimoto into oblivion with diving headbutts.

Verdict: Hashimoto is still by far the cooler wrestler, though Tenzan gave a good fight completely lacking any finesse and getting by on sheer toughness.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Kensuke Sasaki, NJPW 8/3/1997

The finals of the tournament in the same night. Tenzan had just taken a monster beating, really looking like even just walking is painful, but fuck does he take to the fight to Sasaki. The way he just moved forward right away punching through the standard lock up and going right at Sasaki was awesome. This is like watching two caveman fighting, or Conan The Barbarian taking on some half bull half man creature, Tenzan was unrelenting and Sasaki would try to punch his hard head in. It’s simplistic but it’s molten hot and Tenzan almost kills Sasaki when he comes down with the diving headbutt. Not exactly Baba/Destroyer but delivers in spades if you want to watch two dumb try to smash each other into oblivion in a raw as fuck battle for less than 10 minutes.

Verdict: Tenzan has looked primitive next to Hashimoto, but compared to Sasaki he comes across almost like an artist.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, NJPW 7/14/1998

In general, I have loved the 1998 Fujinami big singles match run, but I skipped over this match due to my resentments of Tenzan. Turns out it was a pretty fun match. Fujinami opens with a fast start, then pretty much toys with Tenzan who is not very technically adept. Tenzan is able to get by on toughness and start chipping away at Fujinami with his repetitive offense but also hits a pretty nice calf branding, but Fujinami would keep outclassing him. There were a few pretty nice moments, including Tenzan catching Fujinami in a surprise dragon screw of his own and hitting a diving headbutt to the leg. He even teased hitting a Dragon Suplex on Fujinami which was pretty outrageous. Fujinami kept slipping into chokes and by the end he had outclassed Tenzan again, even slapping him silly like he was disappointed in his poor performance. It was definitely a bit long and it could’ve been much better if either guy had decided to actually sell their leg but in the end the point was to show that sometimes a challenger can completely shit the bed in a big match.

Verdict: pretty effective Tenzan performance if you believe that his gimmick is that he’s a hapless simpleton with a lucky punchers chance.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Kensuke Sasaki, NJPW 2/15/2004

The first round of a 1 night tournament. We JIP like 2 minutes into a 1 night tournament and Tenzan is bleeding like crazy and Sasaki is just mauling him with nasty shots. What the fuck is going on here. Tenzan comes back and he is just beating the shit out of Sasaki and this is the just the grizzliest thing you’ve ever seen. Tenzan almost kills Sasaki with a scoop piledriver turned into an emerald fusion. I’ve no idea why Sasaki hated Tenzan this match but he keeps biting him and pulling him up and hitting him with insane lariats while Tenzan is losing so much fucking blood. So. Fucking. Bloody. Tenzan fights back hitting shoot headbutts and everything. Sasaki ends up getting distracted by Makabe like the idiot he is and Tenzan is able spike him with another tombstone for the 3 at about 10 minutes. What the hell was this. Visceral as fuck, would it have killed them to show the whole 10 minutes?

Verdict: if this was a match between Kamala and Tully Blanchard or something and even just slightly less violent it would probably be considered a legendary mega-classic. This was fucking sick. 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata, NJPW 2/15/2004

The same night. Tenzan comes in with a big bandage on his head from the previous match. They lock up, and almost immediately the bandage comes off. They mat wrestle a bit, and the blood already starts flowing out of Tenzans face. It gets all over Nagata. Tenzan frustrates Nagata, until Nagata has enough and starts kicking him in his bloody face. Nagata may be no Hashimoto but he knew how to precisely kick somebody in his wound. Great drama here. Tenzan is able to survive with sheer toughness and angry shoot headbutting Nagata some. He’s able to mount a string of offense, until he’s finally able to land a moonsault which legit Kos Nagata and allows Tenzan to go to the final.

Verdict: Pretty great stuff here, no question about it. 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Genichiro Tenryu, NJPW 2/15/2004

The finals. What do you think happens in this match? Tenryu goes for the kill right away kicking Tenzan in the head with a rolling kick then circles him like a shark smelling blood, kicking and punching him in his bleeding face. Lord, has anyone ever lost as much blood in a single night as Tenzan did here? He looks like he’s lost enough blood to kill a person and Tenryu smacks him so hard the blood flies off. Tenzan survives some inhuman punishment and Tenryu making him eat shit on the floor with a northern lights bomb from the motherfucking apron. But Tenzan is inhumanly tough and the people keep hissing for the mongolian chop. Tenryu gets shoot headbutted and by sheer resilience Tenzan is able to outlast him and win the IWGP title. I can’t even hate the man for his limitations, he was an animal that night and won it all like a king.

Verdict: What can I say? Tenryu was amazing as usual. Tenzan was basically a bloodbag here but this kind of inhuman toughness deserves respect. This was as great a title win as you can imagine.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, NJPW 3/28/2004

Hey – this is a pretty great match! Of course it’s from the era of NJPW that nerds will tell you sucked but this actually ruled. It was pretty much in full bloom when it cames to mid 2000s blurred-lines pro wrestling meets MMA influence, with Nakamura being the submission artist and Tenzan a really good primitive blunt hitting monster. Nakamura tries to strike early with Tenzan – his knees look really good – but he gets met with Tenzan ramming his head into his face repeatedly. That headbutt to the jaw Tenzan landed may have been the greatest thing he ever did. He would also stomp on Nakamuras head pretty hard. Nakamura would try to choke him out and armbar him, and he had some really good submission entries. It turns into a Tenzan onslaught with Nakamura just trying to tap him out, but it’s really compelling, high end stuff. For this kind of pro wrestling meets PRIDE this was excellent.

Verdict:  Probably Tenzans single greatest performance that I've seen. Almost too refined for him, felt like match needed some blood and a cracked skull or something.

Ito Dojo - Kaoru Ito Debut 20th Anniversary 10/25/2009

     Ayumi Kurihara vs Ayako Sato

Really fun, scrappy joshi opening match. No choreographed sequences or waiting for the other person to get in position which is always refreshing to see, they both just went for dropkicks and armbars. There was also some matwork that actually felt like two people fighting rather than going through the motions. Sato was really straightforwardly solid with her quick dropkicks, while Kurihara was obviously set to be a big prospect in the joshi scene. There was one really fast sequence of pin attempts that they pull off insanely well. True to joshi form, the finish is Sato kicking out of one Uranage suplex, so Kurihara would hit her with 4 in a row and then force the pin like an olympic match. Miss these kinda joshi undercard matches.

Manami Toyota & Jaguar Yokota vs Aki Kambayashi & Shu Shibutani

Can you believe Jaguar Yokota was 48 years old and a 32 year vet here? She was still moving pretty smooth. Toyota is like in any other match of hers that you’ve seen, just hitting her spots. Front dropkick, armdrag from the ropes, rolling cradle, you know the deal. She could still fly around but it’s less impressive when she’s teaming with Yokota who moves better and can actually work while being much older. Shibutani got popped by an elbow in the mouth early on, causing her to bleed and it made her powering through the rest of the match a bit more interesting. Shu and Aki (who is Miss Mongol of all people) were outmatched early on but they had a few fun ways to get in some offense on the legends, and it made the match more interesting than had it been even steven. Aki looked energetic but then her big spot was a bronco buster. They actually end up losing to one of those double submissions and now that’s damning.

Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs ZAP-I & ZAP-T

The ZAPs feel rather bizarre looking back. My guess is they were an attempt of AJW to recapture the spark of Gokuaku Domei, but obviously that wasn’t going to work. They both seem like they could be folklore creatures, like urban monsters or something. Anyways this was pretty fun and kinda delivered more than you’d expect. Action was solid with lots of brawling and weapon shots but also enough in-ring stuff to not feel lazy. Shimoda still has her working boots on busting some cool axe kicks and a big flip dive that was pretty crazy from someone who was basically semi-retired at this point. I think one of the ZAPs is a Kaoru Ito because she hits a sick double stomp and the other one only hits Blue Thunder Drivers. 

Takako Inoue & Tomoko Mori & Yumiko Hotta vs. Cherry & Hanako Kobayashi & Noriyo Tateno

Craptastic match unfortunately. The previous match actually did well as a brawl, here they tried to have all action but nothing looked good or had gravitas. Mori and Kobayashi tried to have a section in the middle with Kobayashi bleeding but they looked painfully mediocre. Hotta looked pretty immobile and checked out as she tends to do in her late career matches. Not good, not good at all.

 

Aja Kong vs Kaoru Ito, Ito Dojo

Pretty insane, violent and gory match. Pretty much just two tough middle aged ladies out to destroy each other and it was glorious. Ito has such violent offense that fits perfectly in a kind of reckless brawl. Her double stomps – including double stomping Ajas arm – were downright insane. Her bladejob was also amazing as she looked like she got shot in the eye. Kong was freakin gold here – as we all know her. She looked great both beating on a bleeding Ito, shoving her elbow into the cut, hitting her with the point of umbrellas, as well as taking some downright insane punishment from Ito. Her selling was fantastic as she really looked like she was falling apart. It wasn’t exactly Baba vs Destroyer but there was a bit of strategy at play with Ito trying to take out the arm. Loved Aja desperation kneecapping Ito and locking in a submission to regenerate a little. This will probably mainly be appealing to fans of violent bloody matches but for that it was pretty A+.

The Library