Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #2

 

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI & Super Uchu Power vs. Issei Fujisawa & Yuki Nishino & Takashi Sasaki (DDT 1/16/2001) - GREAT

Man DDT used to be awesome, what the fuck happened to that company?! This was 6 dudes who have no problem cracking each other hard cracking eachother really hard for 11 minutes. Fujisawa is a Kensuke Sasaki lookalike doing a tribute gimmick, and while that would result in a lot of lame jokes nowadays here he plays his shtick completely straight. He makes for a really effective underdog and comes back throwing hard crowbar lariats. Super Uchu Power is so menacing and awesome in these matches, like Super Dragon without the humor, in a match where everyone is working stiff he cracks dudes extra hard, anytime he is in there with Fujisawa you expect him to kick that poor little dudes face in. MIKAMI also has no problem hitting stiff dropkicks and just crushing dudes with full bodyweight sentons and double stomps, how have I never heard anyone talk about how awesome that guy is?! Toba is of course the man punching everyone in the face. He had some particularily great exchanges with Takashi Sasaki (man I’m pissed about how that guy wasted the rest of his career) and busted out some fun out of nowhere rollups. The match was a grandstand Toba exchange in the finishing stretch away from reaching into EPIC territory and these guys were working an undercard match on a small show, why don’t we get pro wrestling this cool anymore?!

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Hiroyuki Nozawa (DDT 3/16/2008) - FUN

This was from DDTs Hard Hit shootstyle shows. Nozawa is an MMA fighter and kind of underdog against Toba here. Fun structure where Toba is anticipating Nozawas attacks early on to land some big KO blows until Nozawa is able to anticipate Tobas counters and finally able to bring the match to the mat where can score. Once again, Toba proves himself to have a knack for the dramatic finish, in this case Nozawa has only one point left and is frantically bombarded with strikes until he is able to catch a submission and get the surprise tapout.

Tanomusaku Toba & Koichiro Kimura vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Exciting Yoshida (DDT 7/6/2000) - EPIC

This was from the early period when DDT wasn’t yet a full on entertainment company but rather a diverse style blend that reflected the sleaze indies of the 90s that preceded it. This was a great sprint. I would’ve liked it a bit more if it was more of a straight up destruction of Takagi & Yoshida at the hands of the Toba/Kimura crowbar team, but it still ended up being really good. Takagi can be hit or miss with his WWF imitation shit, but the opening segment where he caught a Toba barrage and dropped him with a deadlift uranage followed by a People’s Elbow spot was kind of badass. Lots of violent exchanges throughout with Toba & Kimura throwing serious potatoes, there is an awesome floor brawling section between Takagi and Toba that looked like a street fight. Kimura was put over as a real monster at this point, whenever he would come in he would just crush dudes with kicks and bombs. He also did all those BattlARTS level violent saves that whenever someone put a submission on Toba he runs in to kick their head in. Exciting Yoshida is a guy who was doing an Animal Hamaguchi tribute act, and this is probably his finest performance ever. The cool thing about Toba is that he gets guys who are otherwise dull to throw potatoes and come up with realistic comebacks, and that was the case here. Him and Yoshida were just brutalizing each other, and the finishing run that saw Yoshida throwing brutal shoot headbutts and Otsuka level suplexes was totally awesome. Our boxing gloved hero just keeps delivering the good shit.

Tanomusaku Toba & Chotaro Kamoi & Ichiro Yaguchi & Exciting Yoshida vs. Kengo Takai & Yusaku Shimoda & King Lion & Kurokage (DDT 3/25/1998) - SKIPPABLE

Well, this was the flipside of watching old Japan indy wrestling. Boy there were some shitty wrestlers in this match. Yaguchi has to be among the worst Japanese wrestlers ever for someone who got booked so much, and Kamoi is like a super shitty version of Toba. There was also a heel valet with boxing gloves that would run in to hit shitty punches, really no reason for this amount of shitty boxers in a match that has TOBA. Takai continues to be brutally bad at his role, really barely hitting anything, and King Lion is some guy in a singlet and a goofy mask who looked like your big brother play wrestling a pillow when he was in the ring. Tobas punches and spin kicks looked awesome as always and he did a great turnbuckle run into a springboard move (which gives me my clickbaiting GIF of the week), but yeah. Outside of the Toba parts and a brief moment when Super Uchu Power ran in to brawl with Kazumasa Nihei this was just bad.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

JWP 3/4/1987

 

Plum Mariko vs. Maiko Tsurugi

Oscal Tomo & Smiley Mami vs. Ilia Yonemoto & Eden Mabuchi

Cuty Suzuki & Yu Yamazaki vs. La Venus & Dirty Yamato

Eagle Sawai vs. Xochitl Hamada

Diosa de Plata & India Azteca vs. Esther Moreno & Mayumi Ozaki

Miss A & Rumi Kazama vs. Yuki Ito & Harley Saito

Jackie Sato vs. Nancy Kumi

This was the earliest JWP I've seen so far. There are a few more handhelds from 1987, but most of them don't even have a date. Jackie Sato era JWP is an interesting obscurity to check out. Most of the wrestlers here were really green and much of the undercard felt very basic with wrestlers just trying to string moves together and not have the match break down. There were like a dozen back elbows thrown. Structurally, the matches were pretty lacking.

The one standout in the undercard was Suzuku/Yamazaki vs. Yamato/Venus. It had a clear face/heel structure with Venus engaging in some cool luchariffic exchanges. Dirty Yamato also did her dust powder attack and Yu Yamazaki looked good doing some heated exchanges with Venus and trying to unmask her. The other tag featuring Mexican ladies was also a bit more advanced although sloppy. Esther Moreno decided to do a dozen flips.

The best match before the main event was Miss A/Kazama vs. Ito/Saito. They were also green, but they really kicked the shit out of each other. They really made the right decision putting all the kickpadded girls in the semi main event. Miss A, even though she was a baby here, was already a serious bruiser, but Kazama may have been even more vicious and may have been the best girl in the match. Saito also looked good here and this was a foreshadowing of the cool tags JWP would be doing in the early 90s.

THE MAIN EVENT: Just getting to see Jackie Sato vs. Nancy Kumi in 1987 in JWP is something in itself. These two were great in AJW before the Crush Gals hype took over. These two were very technical wrestlers then, but this match really dialed up on their connection to the crowd. You can tell they were still major stars. The wrestling felt simplistic, certainly not on the level of what they were doing in 1980, but the heat they were garnering was far greater than everything they did in those days. They were working a bunch of tight submissions and scrambling takedowns. Kumi was the aggressor attacking Sato in the ropes and eventually bloodying her and punching her in the face a bunch. That alone should tell you how on fire this crowd ended up getting for the match. The wrestling in this match wasn't as important as their personalities, which may be underwhelming if you were hoping for a purists dream match, but if a heated 80s match between two legends with blood and a bunch of tight wrestling sounds good to you, this was a very good match.

RIP Brodie Lee

 Brodie Lee vs. Greg Excellent (CZW 5/10/2008)

This was a hardcore match between two burly truck driver looking dudes which is kind of the best type of indy hardcore match. Brodie takes a nasty bump on the floor to start but comes back looking like such a violent asskicker, really pasting Excellent with open hand strikes and elbows and driving massive boots in his face. Excellent is a fat guy who is willing to bleed, get head trauma and bump hard into plunder and a really fun match up for Brodie. The finish has Excellent hitting a big piledriver on Cheech only to get a boot loaded with barbedwire in the face from Brodie which is a finish to match.

Brodie Lee vs. Sugar Dunkerton (Chikara 2/19/2011)

Really good match built around two guys wailing on each other, Brodie was born in the wrong timeline, he would’ve been great as a foreigner tearing dudes up on a WAR card. Brodie had injured Sugar on a previous show so Sugar was fired up and showing a real mean streak, and Brodie is great as a sadistic redneck further beating on his taped up ribs and kidneys. Dunkerton does some fun legwork which Brodie sells in a really good way and there are some awesome punch exchanges down the stretch plus a smart finish.

Brodie Lee & Cheech & Cloudy vs. Jimmy Olsen & Dunn & Marcos (CZW 6/14/2008)

Lee, Cheech and Cloudy had formed a team at the time dubbing themselves the Ultraviolence Connection. I enjoy all the little dudes in this match and I would’ve had fun if it was just Cheech & Cloudy vs. Ringcrew Express, but Brodie adds something entirely different. He is so awesome here just walloping the little guys and also stooging for their offense. He was basically a wifebeater wearing Taue in this match, whenever Cheech or Cloudy got in too much trouble, Lee would run in and punch someone in the face or boot someones head off. The finish is doing a chokeslam double team with Cheech before sending Marcos skywards and planting him with a massive powerbomb. Really tells the story of what Brodie Lee brought to the table to this late 2000s indy scene, there were a bunch of little dudes flip flopping around, and then there was Lee dishing out big strikes and bombs.

Koki Kitahara Documentation #2

Koki Kitahara & The Great Kabuki vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Masao Orihara, WAR 7/14/1992 - EPIC

Do yourself a favour and make it a priority to watch this match asap. Literally one of the most awesome brutal spectacles I've ever seen. It starts out with Tenryu chopping Kabuki in the throat in the middle of an exchange, leaving him suffocating on his back, which sets the tone nicely. The early Orihara sections were pretty fun, as every couple minutes he would try something stupid and get punished swiftly. Kabuki & Kitahara end up putting a massive assbeating on him. Kitahara looks like such a killer in this match, just walloping everyone with kicks left and right and dealing them kicks to the eye and the skull, and Kabuki looks great aswell, dishing out extra mean punches and kicks. It also helps that you can really whip Orihara around, he would eat a neckbreaker and his head would just bounce off the mat. Oriharas initial comeback was pretty much perfect as he ditches his junior offense and just tees off with reckless kicks. Later he would hit these great looking dives. His springboard crossbody is an example of a perfectly timed highspot. Tenryu wasn't in the match a ton but he would occasionally walk in and remind you who he his. Earlier Kabuki had blindsided him so, after he Orihara hit a dive and left Kabuki prone outside Tenryu would casually stroll over and clock him with a chair. It's these kind of moments that help make this sort of match so much more intense. Tenryu going mad with the pre-PRIDE soccer kicks, not letting off and leaving Kitahara bloodied is why he's Top 5 all time. Note how he would also put over his opponents, with Kitahara almost KO'ing him and Kabuki pretty much beating him silly with the punches and super kicks. What a fucking match, I wouldn't be shocked if this ends up in my All Time Top 10 as far as tags go.

Koki Kitahara vs. Takashi Ishikawa, WAR 7/15/1992 - EPIC

  Absolutely brutal spectacle. The early going sees Kitahara establishing himself as a dangerous striker by chasing Ishikawa around some with his kicks. Ishikawa makes the mistake of running the ropes and gets brained with a high kick. To add insult to injury, Kitahara puts him in the Scorpion Deathlock (something Ishikawa used to do to piss off Choshu himself). Pretty stiff opening, but it's tame compared to what's to come. Ishikawa gets the advantage when he hits his great sumo charging shoulderblock. Soon Ishikawa goes to town on Kitaharas bandaged eye, hitting some punches that felt like they were intended to draw hardway blood. Ishikawa proceeds to just demolish Kitahara with some of the most brutal stomps, punches and kicks ever filmed. Kitahara is someone who can both dish out a beating and sell very well, and soon he is limping around with his vision clearly impaired like a beaten dog. The ending run is actually pretty hot with Kitahara making a big comeback kicking Ishikawa in the face repeatedly and hitting a huge moonsault aswell as narrowly avoiding a dangerous piledriver. However he soon falls to Ishikawas swatting lariats and gets brutalized even worse with PRIDE level stomps and knees. The finish felt like something that should happen in more matches. Brutal brutal match.

 Koki Kitahara vs. Samson Fuyuki, WAR 8/13/1992 - GREAT

Pretty ballsy undercard match as you'd expect from WAR. The cool thing about this was that the two could just be bastards to eachother back and forth and it would be a fun match, but instead we get a STORY~! with Kitahara not being at 100% and dealing with an injured leg while Fuyuki gleefully pastes him with shots. We start with some fun crisp chunky boy wrestling, nice leapfrogs and kip ups before Fuyuki starts the WAR-isms. Kitahara ends up bleeding and getting kicked in the face a bunch. The nearfall section was pretty much just right for an undercard match, they didn't get super grandiose but there were some awesome timed moments and reversals. I particularily liked Kitahara doing the "get backsuplexed but twist and land on top of the other guy" counter except he just crushed Fuyukis face with his hip. A very WAR touch to do such a basic spot in such a violent manner.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Thoughts on NOW 8/9/1992

 

NOW 8/9/1992 

1. Goro Tsurumi vs. Toshimitsu Naoi(?)

2. Don Arakawa vs. Kishin Kawabata

3. Apollo Sugawara vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka

4. Goro Tsurumi vs. Fumihiro Niikura (Boxing)

5. George & Shunji Takano vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Kenichi (Hisakatsu) Oya

NOW was one of half a dozen companies that SWS split into. And well this sure does look like an SWS card without the big stars or foreigners doesn't it? There is some fun stuff to be seen here though. The opener is a 3 minute exhibition with Tsurumi looking the best I've ever seen him as this match was nothing but amateur style grappling. SoTsurumi is not required to do any pro wrestling or match struture and instead is just there credibly putting a nondescript black trunks guy in his place by tapping him repeatedly with nasty crossfaces and toeholds in entertaining fashion.

Arakawa/Kawabata was also unexpectedly great as it was that classic japanese material of two tubby guys trading big fucking beatings. Arakawa is known as a comedy worker and while there are some laughs and exaggerated body language this is competitive. Starts great with Kawabata slapping him and Arakawa dumping him with a huge german suplex. Lots of hurty looking slaps and Arakawa punches ensue. We also get some fun Arakawa matwork aswell as a dive tease. This was the most inspired I've seen Kawabata look as he would really lay into Arakawa with kicks and palms and ram him like a bull. What does it say about Kawabata that his most inspired performance is some fancam undercard match against a comedy wrestler from some long forgotten offshoot company?

Sugawara/Hatanaka was a long, basic match. Both guys could lay in a stiff shot once in a while and had some nice offense (Hatanaka in particular), but I'd be lying if I said if they weren't slightly over their heads going 15+ minutes when these two belong in tags at this point. Tsurumi/Niikura was a boxing gloves match and much less exciting than Tsurumis grappling in the opener. Niikura always throws boxing punch combos in in pro style matches and that is much cooler than fake boxing.  

The main event had little story to it but was a string of cool moments. You had Shunji Takano working as sleazy Jumbo Tsuruta walloping everyone with huge kicks and knees, George Takano & Oya having a great moment trading shotais and Nagasaki in his working boots hitting the mat and dishing out big kicks. Oyas execution was sharper than later in FMW but he didn't seem to have a clue on how to add direction to the match. Just when things started to get heated when Nagasaki said Fuck This and went to blast Shunji Takano with the chairs as Kendo Nagasaki does an Umanosuke Ueda run in happens and the match just ends. Kind of a bullshit thing to end your main event of a Korakuen Hall show like this but I actually want to see more NOW now.

Some 2020 pro-wrestling worth watching

 I am admittedly pretty hard on wrestling in the year of our lord 2020. There is more of it than ever, and it all sucks harder than ever, not to mention the virus delivering a near-death blow to an already struggling industry as promoters and wrestlers failed to come up with experimental solutions to the given problem and instead gave us some pro wrestling that feels even dumber, even more forced and more Jackass-like than ever before. However, there have been some bright spots, and I am going to highlight some of them in this post.

Junichi Hanawa vs. Takahiro Tababa, H-Production ?/?/2020

Meth lab BattlARTS style match taking place in a small bar without a ring. Hanawa is dumpy and balding. I've never seen him before, but the way I know Japanese sleaze indies he probably has been running his own micro-shootstyle shows since 1993. This was really entertaining thanks to some unexpected psycho stiffness and Hanawas tough old man charisma. Tababa was doing some subtle heel tactics in between crowbarring his opponent. The brawling portion where they ventured into the street was a bit of a letdown, but there was a funny spill down a ramp and a kneedrop off of a railing. The finish was very good with both guys throwings some brutal strikes and the German suplex on the floor has to be the spot of the year.

Junichi Hanawa vs. ZIMA Yoshida ?/?/2020

This seems to be taking place in Hanawas backyard garden in the pouring making it essential pandemy era viewing material. Another fun unexpectedly stiff little match that had some pretty nasty low kicks and shotais and some neat matwork. ZIMA describes himself as the self-declared Volk Han of Adachi but with the hair and condition of Andrej Kopylov.

Takanori Ito vs. Yutaka Yoshie (GLEAT ?/2020)

GLEAT is uploading random exhibition matches to their YouTube. I didn’t really like the first GLEAT show, but if they are to continue giving Yutaka Yoshie things to do they are getting on my good side. Takanori Ito is one of the GLEAT boys with a shooter gimmick. He isn’t very impressive, especially not if you compare him to Pioneer Senshi rookies, but he has a decent enough variety of strikes, and he didn’t do any stupid shit like 99% of modern pro wrestlers too. So this ended up being a good no frills match. Yoshie doesn’t really enage in shootstyle, but he is really fun here potatoeing the young guy, working simple pro-style holds in a very snug and no-nonsense way, and absorbing Itos strikes with his blubber. Nasty nasty finish.

Pioneer Senshi / JWP Joint Show 4/28/1990

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gJ5UCcVtSw

Devil Masami vs. Harley Saito

I wonder how this Pioneer Senshi/JWP joint show came to be. Was it a case of Ryuma Go not having enough wrestlers to run a show of his own, so he asked JWP to borrow their ring and some wrestlers? Then again, JWP was running some wrestler vs. martial artist matches on their own shows during this time period, so maybe there was more Pioneer Senshi inspiration than usual in JWP. Maybe there was a Rumi Kazama vs. a korean taekwondo artist main event on this show that went unfilled. As far as this Devil Masami/Harley Saito match goes, joshi matches that serve as undercard to mens matches tend to be filler, and that was the case here, although there was a nice Devil Masami control segment where she worked over Saitos wrist, and an especially nice Harley Saito control segment where she started by kicking Devil in the back of the head and then working over her back with more thudding kicks. Devils comeback is kinda lame as she catches a kick for a leglock, briefly acknowledging the work on her back before hitting some lariats and powerbombs for the win. I was surprised how easily Saito was defeated here as she was on her way to the JWP main event in 1990, but maybe they didn’t expect JWP fans to pay attention to this show.

Hiroshi Itakura vs. Hideki Kawauchi 

These two had a fantastic match the previous year. This was more of a hybrid junior match than the shootstyle of their first match. There are lockups, side headlocks, hammerlocks and tope rope moves, but the stylistic marks of their first match – crunching suplexes, ultra tight submissions and some brutal strikes where still there. If you ask me, this is the style that should’ve dominated 90s junior wrestling. In this match, Itakura was pushing the pace by giving Kawauchi a nasty hiding, who kept coming back using his grappling and occasionally a big kick of his own. Itakuras spin kicks were absolutely brutal as he came close to crushing Kawauchis face. There was also a crazy stiff baseball slide that launched Kawauchi to the outside. Kawauchi for his own had a really beautiful belly to belly suplex into a bridging pin. Some crazy deep, joint popping arm submission nearfalls. The match was a bit clunky in some parts as I felt these guys are better when they are just doing straight shootstyle, but overall this was everything you can ask for from a grimy 90s indy undercard wrestling.

Miss A (Dynamite Kansai) vs. Eagle Sawai

This was a bit better than the opening Saito/Masami match. It was also filler, but Miss As kicks are just sickeningly violent even for Pioneer Senshi match and the match develops around Sawai trying to not get kicked to death. Some fun big girl fighting ensues and both hit some nice elbows drops, body checks and lariats. These two had a very good match on a proper JWP show and while this was by no means essential viewing it was a cool piece in Miss As work during the time period.

Ryuma Go vs. Masashi Aoyagi (Rounds)

Love these two, but there was absolutely no reason for this to go 30 minutes. I guess they were trying to one up the Onita/Aoyagi feud by going broadway, but matches like this really don’t work like that. As a result of the length there wasn’t much going on and Gos submission attempts felt like restholds. Once both guys were bleeding, things got pretty intense, but it took them about 10 rounds to get there, and then the match went another 10 minutes or so. Still love the variety of strikes Aoyagi threw, though. Also the crowd got super into this so who am I to judge.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #1

Tanomusaku Toba & Takashi Sasaki vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Super Rider, DDT 4/19/2000 - EPIC

Here's your 2000 indy MOTY. No kidding, this was just awesome and shockingly better put together than you'd expect. Really makes me wish there was more footage of the DDT crew doing BattlARTS style matches. I liked the opening matwork between Sasaki and Rider a lot. It felt very raw and unrehearsed, but they still whip out some cool transitions. Watching Sasaki here made me extra sour he spent the rest of his career as a go-through-the-motions bleeder because his stuff was inspired and he hit everything with a lot of snap. He looked like a rich mans Yuji Nagata here, a slick pro style wrestler who can hang doing stiff shootstyle. Ishii was in CAPTURE mode here - basically trying to crush his opponents with every single move he did. He opens this with one of the nastiest lariats I've ever seen against skinny thaiboxer Toba and basically doesn't let up after that. Even his basic "throw guy into corner to set up a tag" looked really violent. Toba is the DDT guy who works as basically a boxer which works very well in this kind of sleaze shootstyle match. He does exactly what you want, by punching guys in the face hard a lot and getting ragdolled around. I was also really impressed with Super Rider here - he made some brief Sasaki legwork that could easily have been filler compelling by selling vulnerability. He would then shoot for takedowns and submissions to protect himself, and also maul opponents on the ground. I also loved his Volk Han like ragdoll throw on poor Toba. The Ishii/Sasaki pro style section was probably the weakest point in the match but still had enough neck compression and potatoe shots to keep you entertained, with Sasaki doing some cool things that he would later drop - presumably because his athleticism declined. I liked how Ishii, when reversing a basic suplex, immediately went for the kill by dropping Sasaki on his head. The finish is between Super Rider and Takashi Sasaki, which is a match up only the most hardcore tape nerds (i.e. me) would anticipate and it totally delivers with Rider whipping out some genuinely awesome reversals.

So there you have it, great ultra stiff quasi-shootstyle action that was actually well put together while retaining some of that sleazy underbelly of pro wrestling rawness. Maybe a low end nomination when it comes to all-timer discussion, but golly I loved checking this out. The whole thing is on the DDT Universe streaming service. 

 Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Takashi Sasaki & Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 4/20/2000 - EPIC

Another wonderful slice of DDT pro wrestling with touches of BattlARTSian greatness. This wasn't quasi-shootstyle like the tag from the night before, altough it's still quite the stiff-fest. No idea what went into Takagi here, because he has an unusually mean edge and decides to work a rough no nonsense style, even approximating a poor mans Otsuka in his sections against Toba. Speaking of Toba, I think he is a guy mostly everyone with a little japan wrestling knowledge knows as the fun boxing guy from DDT, but is it crazy to say he might actually be an underappreciated indy great? All the involving him where once again manly as fuck and he mixed in some cool unique spots aswell as taking punishment and setting himself up as a foil to make Sasaki & Takagi look badass. Loved his crazy flying apron kick. Mikami was the weak link but still pretty good. He threw some poor punches which especially stick out in a match with Toba in it, but he also had some insane bumps and dives and hit some 2000 sleaze indy level brutal looking high spots, such as a rib crunching twisting senton. All the reckless looking headdrops – which basically saw Takagi muscling Mikami up and driving him headfirst into the mat were pretty nasty too. Sasaki once again handles himself in this kind of stiff main event. Brilliant finish. Crazy to see the DDT crew at one point did a stiff heavyweight potatoefest as good as anyone else. 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Takashi Sasaki, DDT 1/30/2000 - EPIC

Awesome CAPTURE-esque spectacle. All the strikes were just brutal and the shootstyle floor brawling a suitably crazy moment. I wasn't sure how Toba would work in this kind of main event singles match but the whole thing comes out fine. He certainly knows how to throw that spinning backfist as an exclamation point. Sasaki muscling Toba around to drop him on his head was suitably gritty. The series of violent strike exchanges and Sasaki throwing jaw loosening lariats was close to any Ishikawa/Ikeda raining hell end run I've seen, not just due to the stiffness but also due to the excellent sense of timing and Tobas sympathetic selling. Stiff as fuck brawl, DDT should go back to this stuff.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

 

Tanomusaku Toba is one of the most unique wrestlers in history, making a lengthy career in a company largely associated with weird comedy, while following an extremely single-minded approach focussed on being a skinny motherfucker with boxing gloves who will waffle the shit out of you with punches and kicks. Due to him being a DDT regular (although trained by Koki Kitahara), much of his career has been oversighted by shootstyle fans who would appreciate his style, and much of his career is generally in the dark due to DDT being a niche product during the early 2000s. He has had a solid number of main events though, and despite his simplistic style has proven to have a knack for epic Rocky-style finishing runs, ragdoll bumping and nifty moments. This project will not only explore how how much you can do with a pair of boxing gloves and the willingness to beat the shit out of your opponent, but also how good the early DDT crew really was. As always, matches are broken down into SKIPPABLE, FUN, GREAT and EPIC.

1998

w Chotaro Kamoi & Ichiro Yaguchi & Exciting Yoshida vs. Kengo Takai & Yusaku Shimoda & King Lion & Kurokage (DDT 3/25/1998) - SKIPPABLE

w MIKAMI & Takashi Sasaki vs. Great Takeru & Phantom Funakoshi & Asian Cougar (DDT 5/25/1998) - GREAT

w Chotaro Kamaoi & Ichiro Yaguchi vs. Takashi Sasaki & Kurokage & Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 6/30/1998 - GREAT 

1999

vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/27/1999 - GREAT

w Takashi Sasaki & Nihao vs. Asian Cougar & Super Rider & Yuki Nishino, DDT 11/25/1999 - GREAT

w Nihao vs. Takashi Sasaki & Asian Cougar, DDT 11/27/1999 - EPIC

w Super Rider & Neo Winger vs. Phantom Funakoshi & Exciting Yoshida & Yuki Nishino (DDT 12/22/1999) - EPIC

 2000

w MIKAMI & Kengo Takai vs. Onryo & Neo Iceman & Masahiko Orihara, DDT 1/30/2000 - FUN

vs. Takashi Sasaki, DDT 1/30/2000 - EPIC 

vs. Survival Tobita, EWF 2/27/2000 - FUN

vs. Fake Onita, EWF 2/27/2000 - SKIPPABLE

w Takashi Sasaki vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Super Rider, DDT 4/19/2000 - EPIC

w MIKAMI vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Takashi Sasaki, DDT 4/20/2000 - EPIC 

w Koichiro Kimura vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Exciting Yoshida (DDT 7/6/2000) - EPIC

vs. Takehiro Murahama, KINGDOM EHRGEIZ 9/2/2000 - GREAT

vs. Takashi Sasaki, DDT 11/19/2000 - GREAT 

w MIKAMI vs. Takashi Sasaki & Yuki Nishino, DDT 12/14/2000 - GREAT

2001

w MIKAMI & Super Uchu Power vs. Issei Fujisawa & Yuki Nishino & Takashi Sasaki (DDT 1/16/2001) - GREAT

vs. Shintaro Karasu, Onita Pro 5/4/2001 - FUN

w Tsunehito Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Tomohiko Hashimoto, DDT 5/26/2001 - EPIC

w Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Super Uchu Power & MIKAMI (DDT 7/19/2001) - GREAT 

w Takashi Sasaki vs. Super Uchu Power & MIKAMI, DDT 8/30/2001 - GREAT

w Takashi Sasaki vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Issei Fujisawa, DDT 9/6/2001 - GREAT 

w MIKAMI & Sanshiro Takagi vs. Asian Cougar & Asian Condor & Takashi Sasaki, Onita Pro 9/23/2001 - GREAT

w Takashi Sasaki vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Shoichi Ichimiya, DDT 9/30/2001 - FUN

vs. Takeshi Ono, BattlARTS 10/14/2001 - FUN

w Showa vs. Tomohiko Hashimoto & Asian Cougar, Onita Pro 10/28/2001 - GREAT

w MIKAMI & Super Uchu Power & Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Gentaro & Shoichi Ichimiya & YOSHIYA, DDT 10/30/2001 - FUN

w MIKAMI vs. GENTARO & YOSHIYA (DDT 11/30/2001) - EPIC

w Tomohiko Hashimoto & Jason the Terrible vs. Shigeo Kato & Tomohiro Ishii & Issei Fujisawa, DDT 12/12/2001 - FUN 

2002

vs. Takeshi Yamada, Nightmare Pro 2/2/2002 - GREAT

vs. Tomohiko Hashimoto (DDT 5/21/2002) - FUN

w MIKAMI vs. Super Uchu Power & Poison Sawada JULIE, DT 8/25/2002 - EPIC 

w MIKAMI vs. Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO, DDT 10/24/2002 - EPIC

2003

vs. Shinjuku Shark, WEW 5/3/2003 - GREAT

2004

vs. Futoshi Miwa, DDT 5/29/2004 - FUN

vs. Takashi Sasaki, DDT 9/30/2004 - FUN

w Seiya Morohashi vs. HERO! & KUDO, DDT 11/2/2004 - SKIPPABLE

2005

w Seiya Morohashi vs. Nobutaka Moribe & Tomohiko Hashimoto, DDT 3/27/2005 - SKIPPABLE

w MIKAMI vs. Kota Ibushi & Daichi Kakimoto, DDT 12/28/2005 - EPIC 

2006

vs. MIKAMI, DDT 12/29/2006 - GREAT

2007

vs. Shuji Ishikawa, DDT 2/7/2007 - SKIPPABLE

w Kota Ibushi vs. Munenori Sawa & Yuta Yoshikawa, DDT 4/1/2007 - GREAT 

w MIKAMI vs. Harashima & Kota Ibushi, DDT 4/11/2007 - FUN

vs. Munenori Sawa, DDT 5/4/2007 - GREAT 

w MIKAMI vs. Daichi Kakimoto & Chon Shiryu, DDT 5/23/2007 - FUN

vs. Daichi Kakimoto, DDT 6/3/2007 - FUN

w Kota Ibushi vs. Manabu Hara & Katsumi Usuda, DDT 6/13/2007 - EPIC

w Sanshiro Takagi vs. Manabu Hara & Katsumi Usuda, DDT 6/20/2007 - GREAT

w Ranbo Yoshida Okuntun vs. Kota Ibushi & KUDO (DDT 8/8/2007) - EPIC

vs. Shinjuku Shark (Apache Pro 12/30/2007) - GREAT

2008

vs. Kota Ibushi, DDT 2/3/2008 - FUN

vs. Hiroyuki Nozawa (DDT 3/16/2008) - FUN

w MIKAMI vs. HARASHIMA & Poison Sawada, 7/6/2008 - FUN

vs. Masashi Takeda, Hard Hit 7/20/2008 - FUN 

w Munenori Sawa vs. Hoshitango & Kota Ibushi, DDT 8/5/2008 - FUN

vs. Yasu Urano, DDT 8/10/2008 - FUN

vs. Shinjuku Shark, XWF 9/8/2008 - EPIC

2009

w HARASHIMA vs. Masashi Takeda & Takashi Sasaki, 1/25/2009 - EPIC

w Yasu Urano vs. Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Hikaru Sato, DDT 2/10/2009 - GREAT

w MIKAMI vs. KUDO & Choun Shiryu, DDT 4/1/2009 - GREAT

2010

vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/4/2010 - GREAT

w MIKAMI vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Munenori Sawa, DDT 5/10/2010 - GREAT 

vs. Keisuke Ishii, DDT 5/23/2010 - FUN

2011

w Hikaru Sato & Rion Mizuki vs. Tsunehito Naito & Akito & Kazuki Hirata, DDT 3/27/2011 - GREAT

2013

w MIKAMI vs. Hikaru Sato & Akito, DDT 9/29/2013 - GREAT 

2018

vs. Fuminori Abe, BASARA 4/20/2018 - EPIC 

2019

vs. Shinya Aoki, DDT 1/3/2019 - GREAT

vs. Yukio Sakaguchi, DDT 11/15/2019 - FUN

vs. HARASHIMA, DDT 11/15/2019 - FUN

2020

w Hayato Sakurai & HARASHIMA vs. Masa Takanashi & Yukio Naya & Mizuki Watase, DDT 2/5/2020 - FUN

w MIKAMI vs. Naomi Yoshimura & Yuki Ueno, DDT 8/15/2020 - GREAT

2021

w Shuji Ishikawa vs. Touro Owashi & Yasu Urano, DDT 2/19/2021 - FUN

2022

vs. Fuminori Abe vs. Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 1/8/2022 - FUN 

2023

w Ikuto Hidaka vs Hikaru Sato & Brother Yasshi, Kakuto Tanteidan 10/12/2023 - EPIC

2002 MOTY List Update #2 - Online US Indy Wrestling Edition

 Super Dragon vs. Bobby Quance (APW 10/25/2002)

This was a serious contender for the greatest US indy match I've ever seen. Virtually flawlessly worked 30 minute junior epic which had everything – matwork, storytelling, selling, devastating moves and guys slapping eachother in the mouth. We start with 10 minutes of nearly uninterrupted matwork which was ultra tightly worked, smooth stuff. Quance is someone nobody really talks about anymore, but he was a great talent and just mindlbowingly good for a dude in his 2^nd year of wrestling. The matwork they did here was much better than the wristlocky WoS imitation stuff you usually get in US indies and closer to lucha matwork with a bit of japanese influence sprinkled in. Quance would shoot for double leg takedowns and judo legtrips, while Dragon just pounces on him like a snake, in between working ultra tight pin attempts and slapping eachother. Quances tiger feint rana may be the single coolest move a skinny US junior has ever invented. This is 2/3 falls and both the first 2 falls have really smart finishes that pay off in the long run of the match. Dragon was incredibly vicious here, modifying his signature offense to work Quances arm, but he also did a great job selling a big head kick. Quances arm selling was pretty much flawless as he was struggling to hit his offense for the rest of the match and he looked quite sympathetic trying to take down his bigger, more vicious opponent. There were also numerous great counters from Super Dragon, ranging from Fujiwara armbars to turning a DDT into a powerbomb mid-air. He also had this amazing flying armbar. Match also had all the usual brutal offense, neck-compressing suplexes, huge double stomps and lariats etc. The finish is fucking infuriating, but please don't let that detract from the amazing work these two did here.  

Ian Rotten vs. Chris Hero (IWA MS 5/4/2002)

More meth lab BattlARTS. This starts out with some somewhat conventional, good lock ups and grappling, altough quickly devolves into a gritty seedy fight. Watching these two fight over pin attempts and submissions is way more interesting than skinny juniors running through choreographed reversals. Hero looked good working over Ian with stiff strikes and Ian once again just pasted him with european uppercuts and crossfaces. There was some nasty as hell legwork with Hero wrapping tape around his leg to protect himself. The vocal selling was pretty outstanding too. Great post match with Ian having his knee popped back in place. The IWA MS crowd proves they are true connoisseurs by giving this a standing ovation.  

Super Dragon vs. Bryan Danielson (EPIC WAR 6/16/2002)

INDY KINGS ROAD! It's almost needless to say this was very good, stiff pro wrestling between arguably 2 of 3 most talented US dudes in 2002. Match had good build and Super Dragons arm selling was excellent, textbook stuff. He was struggling to hit his signature move, even intentionally fucking up a springboard dive and whiplashing into the ropes. Outside interference was a little goofy but lead to a huge double stomp from Dragon. Danielson in this early stage was a pretty fun wrestler of his own, busting out a lot of things that will come unexpected if you are used to the later WWE or RoH version.

Steve Corino vs. Barry Windham (2/19/2002)

Damn, 2002 Barry Windham was pretty good still. He could still throw a great punch and bump around, and he knew exactly what to do. Then, he even decided to blade. The highlight of this was Corino viciously attacking Windhams cut and if it had more of that this would've been really great.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

Takeshi Ono Documentation #2

 Takeshi Ono vs. Wataru Sakata (RINGS 12/24/1994) - FUN

This is Takeshi Onos earliest match on tape and supposedly his 2^nd match ever (probably not true). Wataru Sakata was only 3 fights into his career at this point. 7 or so years later this would’ve been a great battle of dickhead shooters, in december of 1994 it was a fun undercard grappling match between two rookies in spaced out neon trunks and kickpads. The match was worked like a size mismatch with Sakata dominating through his size while Ono had to stick to slipping underneath. Some nice mat scrambles, and I really dug all of Onos throw attempts which he chained into rolling legbars, he has no chance of throwing Sakata but he can use them to hopefully set up a nasty leg submission. Wataru Sakata wasn’t as much of a dickhead as later in U-Style and ZERO1, but he did get a warning for kicking Ono on the ground also did some nasty face grinding. He also had a really fun finish where he just yanked into an armbar. You kind of have to be a grappler yourself to appreciate this kind of match and I definitely felt that forearm to the jaw choke attempt and that heavy north south position before the finish.

Takeshi Ono vs. Tanomusaku Toba (BattlARTS 10/14/2001) - FUN

The sorry motherfuckers at Samurai TV only showed us about 30 seconds of this dream matchup. Still, we get to watch them trade awesome punches and a cool finish where Ono does a Gannosuke Clutch into an armbar which is enough for me to list this was FUN.

Takeshi Ono & Hiroyoshi Kotsubo vs. Carl Greco & Super Rider (BattlARTS 8/25/2001) - EPIC

We get about 10 minutes of an undercard which was thankfully centered around the Takeshi Ono vs. Carl Greco exchanges. That is a million dollar matchup and they were absolutely awesome here. Holy fucking hell I’ve said it before, but to reiterate: Carl Greco was a bloody wrestling machine. He always fights like a devil, never a lazy moment, and his technique is something else. His exchanges with Ono were awesome as he would try to grapple and Ono would just target him with brutal strikes including some insane sliding leg kicks and sprint across the ring knee in the face. Ono is an assault machine even in these undercard tags, he never throws a strike that doesn’t connect with a nasty thud. Rider & Kotsubo manage to not suck as they tag in and the finish is up to Greco and Ono and it is short but sweet, with both guys busting out super fast slick counters and just blasting each other with near KO strikes. Awesome stuff, love Ono, love Carl Greco, love BattlARTs.

Takeshi Ono vs. Daisuke Ikeda (FUTEN 9/26/2010) - EPIC

4 MINUTES 27 SECONDS! I must've have watched this match a dozen times, and it never stops being awesome. They just THROW DOWN and the world explodes. Awesome savage punch exchanges, general recklessness, Ikeda going for any weird move he can think of, while still keeping a general sense of defensiveness/evading. The counterwork is just stellar. The selling is sublime, and kind of different - guys would get hit, and sell he trauma of getting hit, but straighten themselves out and stop themselves from buckling "DAMN he got me good... but I'm not going down now, fuck you", like you would when the adrenaline is rushing, and then swing back and try to crush the other guy. Most matches are lucky to have 1 or 2 great moments. I counted 4 great moments in the first 35 seconds of this.

 

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling for if you have 20 minute to spare

Takeshi Miyamoto vs. Masahiro Tsukuda, Go Gundan 1/16/1996

These two guys were from a mysterious martial arts gym/indy company called CMA. They had a few appearance on mid 90s sleaze indies and this is probably their masterpiece as they potatoe the living daylights out of each other in front of a bewildered Korakuen Hall crowd. Miyamoto is the guy in the green karate pants while Tsukuda has the boxing gloves. Whole thing felt like a fight to the death in every second. Can't tell which was my favourite moment, the punch to the back of the head from the top or Miyamotos insane internal organ rearranging comeback combo. Truely a life changing 4 minutes.

 

Black Cat vs. Masanobu Kurisu, WKA Memorial 7/7/1992

Only a 6 minute match where the ref blows the finish, but I'd still say this is must watch due to a sick bladejob and it's basically two big bellied stocky guys slapping the shit out of eachother. There really needs to be more Black Cat footage as his strap drop and punch comeback was quite epic. Kurisus chair shots, headbutts, punches etc. are up there with the most violent in history. Kurisu making his way to the ropes doing pushups while in the Scorpion Hold looked rough for a semi in shape middle aged guy.

Jason The Terrible vs. Crypt Keeper, W*ING 7/7/1993

This is a casket match. If you can't enjoy two movie monsters walloping the shit out of each other and bleeding in Korakuen Hall I guess you should just quit pro wrestling entirely. Crypt Keeper is great here just beating the everloving shit out of Jason with punch combos, boots to the head, kendo shots to the face etc, whole deal. It was a truely awesome one sided beating. The fancam view is also great as the guy catches almost all the outside brawling and you see these masked killer rummaging around the stages of Korakuen like it's a found footage movie. Jason has a few amusing comebacks and bleeds a ton while taking a major beating, somehow I really dig his "I'm indestructible" shit, and Keeper just kept beating on him harder and harder. Crypt Keeper also keeps doing a "crazy laughter". Very very inspiring material.

NEO 9/16/2002

 

Kaori Yoneyama vs. Haruka Matsuo

Joshi undercard match which means it’s two workers doing some holds and trying to hit their spots. I’ve never seen or heard of Matsuo before. Her shit mostly looked weak. Yoneyama even at this stage is very good and she probably was one of the last really talented joshi workers to debut. She hits all of her dropkicks etc. with a real thud and never looks lost. That is enough for me not mind this kind of 8 minute match.

Yuka Nakamura & Tetsuya Koda vs. Yuka Shiina & Ayako Ishida

Weird 5 minute comedy match involving two non-wrestlers. Apparently Ishida is a ring announcer. Tetsuya Koda was some skinny guy who I’m assuming is a comedian or radio personality or something. Nakamura worked a few actual wrestling segments but this was basically a “let your buddy get in the ring for a laugh as he slips off the ropes and breaks his ankle” match. Ishida takes the win with the iron claw over Koda.

Captains Fall Match: Kyoko Inoue & Chaparita ASARI & Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Yoshiko Tamura & Misae Genki & Yuka Nakamura and Haruko Matsuo

Long match where I basically only liked the 3 minutes or so where Kyoko was in the ring. She quickly eliminated Nakamura and Matsuo early, which could’ve set up an interesting match, but then it just wasn’t. Tamura and Genki should’ve either ended up working in peril and making comebacks or destroying their opponents. Instead the match ended up being a mishmash of things that was neither here nor there. Also, Genki sucked. She’s a crowbar powerhouse so has the potential to be fun, but she kept blowing spots and no-selling. LCO did their thing, basically working on autopilot. I liked ASARIs ranas. The match built to this dramatic showdown of Genki facing 4 opponents and then eliminating 3 out of 4 in a really phony way before a stiff face off with Kyoko. Kyoko tagged out after her first segment and basically didn’t tag in for the next 15 minutes. She hits really great lariats which was enough for me to like that last segment. Still, you probably don't want this.

Tanny Mouse & Yuki Miyazaki vs. Ran Yu-Yu & Azumi Hyuga

Really fun main event that was way better than it looks on paper. Tanny Mouse has a reputation as a dreadful comedy worker, but she had her working boots on here. She came across as this tenacious grappler with a hard head, which is kind of my favourite Japanese wrestler gimmick. There were also multiple moments during the rest of the match where she looked very good, particularily during a segment where she tried kicking Hyugas head in. Tanny & Miyazaki are the NEO Machineguns and they are huge underdogs against the JWP ace team of Ran and Hyuga. The match was smartly laid out allowing them to take control using smart tactics and double teams. Lots of elaborate sequences that worked. When Yu-Yu and Hyuga got to comeback, they dished out some series punishment with their usual mix of suplexes and precise strikes. It built to a pretty hot run of nearfalls that actually felt earned, with the finish feeling like a fucking finish. Most importantly, the match was laid out in such a way that the selling weaknesses of Ran Yu-Yu and Azumi Hyuga were never exposed. I am not overly familiar with Yuki Miyazaki, but she looked solid, booting Hyuga in the face and taking some big bumps down the stretch.

 

Note: Main event added to 2002 MOTY project at #37

 

Koki Kitahara Documentation #1

 

Koki Kitahara vs. Shinjuku Shark, SPWF 3/11/99 - GREAT

This was a mixed rules match from SPWF which is the exact stuff that inspired the creation of this blog. These matches can be predictable but that wasn't the case here. The first round was boxing gloves and built around Kitahara trying to rush his smaller opponent and being surprised when the afro wearing Shinjuku Shark refused to go down. Shark had good technique and these guys absolutely were not holding back with the punches. Then, in a classic Kitahara moment, he decided to just launch Shark over the top rope and blast him in the face with a chair. The 2nd round is no gloves and it quickly turns into a fight for survival for the poor Shark. The CAPTURE boss def. looked like the ultimate sleazy payama wearing version of Shinya Hashimoto here.

Koki Kitahara & Daiyu Kawauchi vs. Shoichi Ichimiya & Kazunobu Nakamura (Capture 10/5/2002) - EPIC

I assume this is like the quintessential Capture match. Lots of wild swinging punches and kicks that connect with full force. Kawauchi, who I saw in his debut match at a 1998 KAGEKI show against Masakazu Fukuda would go on to work Osaka Pro as Hideyoshi and is now grizzled veteran GENKAI in Kyushi Pro, so he has quite the history of japanese indy wrestling. Kawauchi is good as the energetic youngster here with explosive takedowns and pummeling violently on the ground. Ichimiya who is some comedy character in DDT looks credible here as a heavyweight shooter. His super violent, quick assault on Kawauchi in the 2nd fall using the guardrail may have been the highlight of the match. His extremely vocal selling also added some more grit. Kitahara is as you expect. His punches and kicks were Ikeda level but I was also surprised how brutal his chokes (or choke setups) felt. He also got his "Kitahara is a bastard" moment when he kicked Ichimiya in his bandaged arm. The matwork here is mostly working punches from mount and has a really smothering feel to it, though there is the occasional submission attempt and the finish is a neat submission counter. The match is short enough so it totally works.

Koki Kitahara vs. Genichiro Tenryu (WAR 11/29/1994) - EPIC

This was what the matchup promises. Two guys infamous for doing grossly violent things to their opponents doing grossly violent things to each other. It stards with both guys working a standard side headlock sequence and then Kitahara going "Hm, that isn't going to work" so he starts just clobbering Tenryu with thudding kicks left and right. Tenryu fires back with throat chops and kicking Kitaharas head like a football constantly. I love the savate kicks Kitahara will mix in, and Tenryu is really great at selling an assbeating from a kicker. He is much higher than Kitahara in the hierarchy, but he will sell that he get caught in a painful spot. So it's basically a constant stream of Tenryu trying to brush off Kitaharas kicks until "Damn, he kicked me in the elbow! Ow, now my chin, too!". Great spot where Tenryu tries for the Flair turnbuckle spot but Kitahara just kicks him in the face and he slowly sinks over. By the end Kitaharas legs were giving out because he just spent 10 minutes kicking Tenryu as hard as humanly possible. This is exactly what you want.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project

 

Koki Kitahara is in some ways the ultimate 90s Japan indy wrestler: mulleted, tubby asskicker in an oddly colored gi who will try to snap your arm and kick you in the eye. Also started his own experimental shootstyle organization CAPTURE International. He began his career in AJPW but followed Tenryu along, dedicating himself to the path of Wrestling And Romance. He was around for a long time and has quite a number of under the radar hidden gems, so a detailled evaluation is long overdue. As usual, matches will be broken down into EPIC, GREAT, FUN and SKIPPABLE.

1990

vs. Masao Orihara, AJPW 4/9/1990 - FUN

w Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Shinichi Nakano & Shunji Takano & Akira Taue (AJPW 5/14/1990) - GREAT

1991

w Takashi Ishikawa vs. Masao Orihara & Naoki Sano, SWS 6/26/1991 - GREAT

vs. Akira Katayama, SWS 10/29/1991 - GREAT

w Yoshihiro Asai vs. Bestia Salvaje & Masao Orihara, SWS 10/30/1991 - GREAT

1992

w Shinichi Nakano vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara, SWS 2/14/1992 - EPIC 

w Shinichi Nakano vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Ishinriki, SWS 4/18/1992 - EPIC

w Great Kabuki vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Masao Orihara, WAR 7/14/1992 - EPIC

vs. Takashi Ishikawa, WAR 7/15/1992 - EPIC

vs. Samson Fuyuki, WAR 8/13/1992 - GREAT

w Tenryu & Orihara vs. Kimura & Aoyagi & Koshinaka, WAR 10/21/1992 - EPIC

1993

vs. Akitoshi Saito, NJPW 2/5/1993 - GREAT 

w Hiromichi Fuyuki vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura, WAR 2/14/1993 - GREAT 

w Nobukazu Hirai vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Masashi Aoyagi, WAR 3/5/1993 - GREAT

vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi, WAR 3/7/1993 - GREAT

vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi, NJPW 6/25/1993 - EPIC

1994 

w Genichiro Tenryu vs. Keiji Muto & El Samurai, WAR 1/5/1994 - FUN 

vs. Shiro Koshinaka, WAR 1/16/1994 - EPIC

vs. Koji Kitao, Kitao Pro 1/21/1994 - GREAT 

w Genichiro Tenryu vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiromichi Fuyuki, WAR 2/24/1994 - EPIC

w Takashi Ishikawa & Ultimo Dragon & Masanobu Kurisu vs. Jado & Gedo & Ricky Fuji & Super Strong Machine (Elimination Match), WAR 4/27/1994 - GREAT

vs. JR Carson (Kitao Pro 6/14/1994) - FUN

vs. Akio Kobayashi (Kitao Pro 6/14/1994) - FUN

w Genichiro Tenryu & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Ryo Miyake & Kishin Kawabata, WAR 6/30/1994 - GREAT

w Genichiro Tenryu & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Masao Orihara, WAR 6/30/1994 - EPIC

w Genichiro Tenryu & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo, WAR 6/30/1994 - EPIC

w Ishinriki & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Koji Kitao & Masaaki Mochizki & Akio Kobayashi, WAR 7/17/1994 - GREAT

w Pierroth & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Vampiro & Atlantis & Rayo de Jalisco Jr., CMLL 9/23/1994 - GREAT

vs. Genichiro Tenryu (WAR 11/29/1994) - EPIC

1995

vs. Akio Kobayashi, Kitao Pro 2/21/1995 - FUN

vs. Al Snow, Kitao Pro 2/21/1995 - FUN

vs. Koji Kitao, Kitao Pro 2/21/1995 - FUN

vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki, WAR 4/2/1995 - EPIC

w Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Jado & Gedo, WAR 12/8/1995 - GREAT

1996

vs. Shinichi Nakano, WAR 5/26/1996 - GREAT

vs. Tatsuo Nakano, WAR 5/27/1996 - GREAT

vs. 150% Machine, UWFi 6/26/1996 - FUN

w Riki Choshu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami, Rikidozan Memorial 6/30/1996 - EPIC 

vs. Masahito Kakihara, WAR 7/21/1996 - GREAT

w Yuji Yasuraoka vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Arashi, WAR 10/11/1996 - GREAT

w Nobutaka Araya vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Takayuki Iizuka, WAR 12/13/1996 - GREAT

1997

 w Jun Kikuchi vs. Abdullah the Butcher & Koji Kitao, 6/6/1997 - GREAT

w Lance Storm & Nobutaka Araya vs. Koji Kitao & Tommy Dreamer & Nobukazu Hirai, WAR 7/6/1997 - FUN 

w Osamu Tachihikari vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Koji Kitao, WAR 10/6/1997 - FUN

1998

vs. BADBOY Hido, Fuyuki Army 2/19/1998 - FUN

1999

vs. Shinjuku Shark (SPWF 3/11/1999) - GREAT

vs. Nihao, WAR 6/20/1999 - EPIC

2000

w YUSAKU vs. Tomohiro Ishii & DAISAKU (CAPTURE 5/30/2000) - EPIC

vs. Nobutaka Araya, WAR 7/13/2000 - GREAT

2001

w Arashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Mitsuya Nagai, AJPW 11/24/2001 - GREAT

2002

w Daiyu Kawauchi vs. Shoichi Ichimiya & Kazunobu Nakamura (CAPTURE 10/5/2002) - EPIC

w Johta vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima & Masayuki Mineno (CAPTURE 12/8/2002) - GREAT

 2003

vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima (CAPTURE 3/8/2003) - GREAT

vs. Daiyu Kawauchi (CAPTURE 3/8/2003) - EPIC

2018

w Mitsuya Nagai vs. Super Tiger II & Naomichi Marufuji, Fortune Dream 6/11/2018 - FUN

Pioneer Senshi 10/26/1989

 

Pioneer Senshi feels like a fed unfairly lost to obscurity. After all, this is one of the founding blocks of japanese indy wrestling, being the first "true" japanese indy founded by Ryuma Go and a few ex-IWE guys frustrated with their spot in AJPW, and a small but potent handful of wrestlers got their starts here, later cohabiting the cards of 90s indy feds. Most Pioneer cards are young workers filling up with a few guys who'd be undercard nobodies in NJPW and AJPW working main events. Go is the only one who's achieved significance through his battles with Fujinami in the late 70s, so he gets to play the ace role.

The Pioneer Senshi debut show had only two matches, due to a lack of wrestlers. I am assuming this is either the 2nd show or they had been touring regional places for months. Style-wise Pioneer was pretty interesting, as it resembled almost a proto-BattlARTS with a mix of pro and shootstyle influences, all the young guys could grapple and you really get the sense Pioneer Senshi would've made an awesome fusion partner for Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi.

Kazuhiko Matsuzaki vs. Kazuhiro Hashizume

I am assuming this is both guys debut match. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki would go on to work every sleaze indy there was in the 90s. Hashizume would disappear back into the void. This was a shootstyle match. Pioneer Senshi shootstyle is slightly different from the UWF shootstyle of the time, it’s more grappling and suplex oriented but also more dynamic. Guys don’t wear kickpads and it very much feels like something out of the 1930s. This definitely had the feel of two guys with a background in amateur wrestling who had only learned a few basic holds like a side headlock and an armbar going on to to have match. It was pretty fun, Matsuzaki is bigger, but Hashizume was aggressive and even went to slap the shit out of him a few times. These guys grappled hard and never slowed the pace down, and they both took a few stiff shots proving they had the guts. This was rounds for some reason, maybe Ryuma Go being nostalgic about his early career spent in Germany, in anyway it helped them stretch out and work a draw to earn the respect of the audience. I would’ve liked a bit more aggression before the ending occurred but as an introduction to the mysterious world of Pioneer Senshi it was good and I don’t really see why we can’t have this kind of pro wrestling anymore.

Hiroshi Itakura vs. Hideki Kawauchi

Damn great match, possibly the greatest black trunks rookie match of all time. The reason for that is that this isn't your regular black trunks rookie match, instead it's two very young guys basically working a high end 20 minute shootstyle match that resembled 1950s pro wrestling here and there. Itakura ended up some kind of unfairly shafted 90s indy undercard hero, and Kawauchi was never seen or heard from again, and the concept of this kind of experimental indy shootstyle pretty much fell off the radar until BattlARTS was created 7 years later. It feels earned that these two went all out on a random card that just happened to be filmed so we can watch it and declare it an awesome match 30 years later. Kawauchi is the smaller of the two but he doesn't look outmatched at all. The early parts of the match see Kawauchi pushing the pace with superior amateur skills. The cool thing about this is that they work in some basic pro wrestling moves, like a drop toe hold or headscissor, but they really work these as shootstyle moves. Kawauchi's ground moves were inspired and when Itakura caught him with an awesome flying armbar (a holy shit spot in 1989) it felt like an awesome moment. As soon as Itakura got the advantage he would throw his smaller opponent around like a ragdoll, altough Kawauchi fired back with some nasty stiff kicks and then awesome suplexes of his own. While the matwork wasn't super slick and flashy, there are some crafty reversals (especially dug Itakura wringing his way out of a legbar) and some of the deepest Fujiwara armbars you'll ever see. While the striking wasn't a huge focus in the match as both guys were hellbent on forcing a tap, anytime both guys threw strikes felt suitably epic. There are some awesome 1950s like dropkicks and spin kicks. I also got the say the suplexes in this match were just awesome and some of the best I've ever seen. Even the more pro style suplexes, like a gutwrench or double underhook suplex felt like the guy was brutally hammered into the mat. There was also a great Randleman-like side suplex. Kawauchi going for a flying armbar of his own and failing feels like something that should happen more often. So, a really intense match with awesome suplexes and striking and some of the tightest submission work you'll ever see, with Kawauchi giving a cool gutsy performance fighting of his bigger opponent... damn I wish all pro wrestling felt this real and intense. 

Apparently this was Itakuras debut match. Probably Kawauchis too. Talk about starting out with a bang.

Masahiko Takasugi vs. Masato(?) Ueno

No guarantee on Uenos name. He is another guy who disappeared into the void. Maybe he ended up becoming The Scalper in Oriental Pro Wrestling. Ueno is thick and has a beard, but due to him not showing up anywhere else ever I assume he is also a rookie in his debut match. This was another rounds match. Takasugi is an IWE vet who I enjoy not because he is a well rounded pro wrestler but because he will usually beat the snot out of some hapless rookie in violent fashion. This was the least one sided Takasugi vs. Rookie match I’ve ever seen as Ueno was inspired and got in quite a bit of offense, throwing Takasugi around with some suplexes of his own and hitting stiff kicks to the mid section. Of course Takasugi comes back crushing him, dropping him with big suplexes and hitting those cool short kicks he does with a thud every time. This style they were using here was really cool, Takasugi was working a bit more like a typical pro style worker, but Ueno would just keep on staying on him and continueing to grapple. Ueno ends up dropping Takasugi with a big damn powerbomb and it really looks like Takasugi is in trouble and he is forced to try and work the legs. Then the last round happens and he just grabs a super nasty half crab and leans all the way back forcing a tap in classic Takasugi fashion. Still, this was way too fun considering it could’ve just been a flat one sided squash.

Ryuma Go vs. Fumihiro Niikura

This was a really fun cagey bout between two veteran workers who'd never get a chance like this in an established fed. Almost all on the mat, and it felt like quasi shootstyle as both guys constantly went for submissions with intent to force a tap. The real story here may have been Niikura, there's probably no other match where he gets to do his thing like he does here. He gets to look sharp blasting Go with mean kicks (including an enzuigiri that caught Go flush in the mouth), busts out his signature cool punch combo and hits some gnarly suplexes. This needed a bit more selling to be GREAT - as a  +20 match of mostly matwork between two not super flashy, aging workers without a story can be a little rough. Still the action was good and if you are even reading this hell you are probably totally down for two obscure workers in the twilight of their careers stepping out to hit the mat hard and trade big suplexes for 20 minutes anways. Here's to you Fumihiro Niikura, you made the most of this night.