Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #5

 

Tanomusaku Toba & Tsunehito Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Tomohiko Hashimoto (DDT 5/26/2001) - EPIC

More good shit from the early DDT shootstyle division. This was a crazy thaiboxer teaming with an a UWF trained grappler against a straight judoka and a killing machine, you have to love it. Toba/Ishii exchanges were once again so fucking violent and great. Initially Ishii was blowing off Tobas strikes and just mauling him. This whole match Toba really works like a guy who is too small to have enough hitting power to KO the big guys right away, but he will absolutely pummel guys with shots until he is able to land a big one. I dug Naito here, having some cool judo vs. UWF style grappling exchanges against Hashimoto, throwing some great neck-spiking suplexes and reversing an STO into a backdrop in a pretty great spot. I also loved his little floor browling section with Ishii where he threw a reckless dropkick with Ishii launching a chair right back at him. I continue to enjoy Tomohiko Hashimoto as a guy with nothing but cool judo throws, and he was ragdolling the shit out of Toba with his throws and suplexes and even a cloverleaf giant swing at one point. TOBA was great as he usually is in the matches, throwing crazy kicks and punches while absorbing said massive beatings and bumps on his own. I probably would’ve preferred a Toba vs. Ishii ending run, as you could tell Hashimoto is limited and pretty green here (not sure if his early judoka phase wasn’t actually his peak as he spent the rest of his career as a crummy garbage brawler), but the Toba vs. Hashimoto end run was about was well put together as you can do thai boxer vs. judoka, with Hashimoto throwing out crazy suplex and Toba backhanding the shit out of his face.

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

Talk about a contrast. Hashimoto has no strikes and is a judoka, Toba has no grapples and is a thaiboxer. It could have been a pretty esoteric match, but they made it digestible for their mainstream audience. Toba punches really hard and hits big dives, and Hashimoto tosses the fuck out of him. Really good example of Tobas ragdoll bumping as Hashimoto just threw him around like a child. It was like a 5 minute match (probably for the better) and I would think this is what US TV matches could look like in a cool parallel universe.

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

4 youngins beating the soul out of eachother. Ibushi was wild here, he really should've kept working like a slap-happy kickboxer instead of turning into a flip machine. Even in a match where everyone is throwing potatoes Toba stands out, he throws his combos a little faster than everyone else, really understands how to anticipate his opponents strikes, and he lands his big punches with a slightler bigger thud than everyone else. Whenever he gets put in a submission, the intensity increases drastically. I remember Yoshikawa being pretty hit and miss in his BattlARTS days, but he looked good here putting some stretches on Toba early on and giving Ibushi a nasty facewash later. His section with Toba was an easy career highlight. And then you had that bare knuckle boxing finish. Great stuff.

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

Good times. Munenori Sawa was a shot in the arm for DDT at this point. He and Takagi had formed "Team Hentai". This was basically a mindless spotfest, but the spots were cool and unpredictable and there were enough violent Toba exchanges to push this into GREAT territory. Starts with a cool shootstyle floor brawling section between him and Sawa. Sawa could be pretty good at this time as an asskicker, and when he went for his Muto tribute spiel Toba punched him in the face hard, so that was good. MIKAMI did a bit of a weak looking reverse lungblower early on which is the kind of shit I don't want in my wrestling, but he looked good for the rest of the match. He is a bit trickier, a bit slicker than your typical junior and when he brought his ladder into play the spots were cool and unpredictable. Takagi had a bit of a bumbling middle aged cop vibe at this point, but he still had very good chemistry with TOBA.

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