reverseviperhold

at May 31, 2021

1. Josh Barnett vs. Jon Moxley, GCW 4/8/2021

Opening grappling with Moxley using finger manipulations and face rubbing to keep with Barnett wasn't exactly U-Style but tremendously entertaining. Moxley hanging with Barnett was about as well done as possible. As soon the blood started happening the match basically turned into an incredibly intense gorefest. Moxleys DDT looked a little weak, but that's a very minor compliment. Loved all the further struggle over suplexes etc. I thought Barnetts performance was incredible here. I wouldn't be shocked if this ends up being a Match of the Decade contender.

2. Black Terry vs. Ricky Marvin, LUCHA MEMES 4/25/2021

I loved Black Terry as a near 60 year old man ten years ago. I didn't not expect him to show up in a match this great as a near 70 year old man in 2021, but here it is. Was I expecting to get some mild enjoyment out of watching a 70 year old lucha legend? Yes. But this was a kick ass match. The type that isn't just "Good for 2021 standards", but legit stands up to any bloody brawl in any other era. Terry is older, slower, obviously. I imagined my almost 70 year old grand dad doing the stuff Terry did in this match. Suffice to say what Terry is doing is outstanding even by tough old man standards. There was no holding back, no get-arounds that would mask a far too old wrestlers inabilities... instead, they went at it and had a bloody, violent, seedy brawl. They traded hard shots, punches, shoot headbutts even - Terry takes a full on not-thighslapped kick from Marvin to his bloody face here, they brawled, and it was everything this kind of match needed. Marvin was great too, kicking Terry in the face, hitting an insane dive right into a piece of plywood. Terry hitting the shoot headbutt may be some serious "going out on his sword" material. This was just fantastic and if I can find like 5 more matches just half as good as this 2021 won't be so bad.

at May 31, 2021

I am not the biggest fan of the current wrestling scene, but here and there matches pop up that do tickle my fancy. They will be listed in this post.

THE LIST:

at May 29, 2021

Minoru Tanaka vs. Sanae Kikuta

Sanae Kikuta was in RINGS?! Oh, apparently this was his sole appearance. Fun match do Kikuta grappling the fuck out of Tanaka, so it was better than Tanakas usual match. Kikuta tapped him pretty quickly too.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Chris Haseman

This was awesome. They actually made Otsuka wear kickpads for this. Haseman is a big beastly dude. He throws really fast savate kicks, and is pretty aggressive and uncooperative on the mat. Otsuka doesn‘t really wrestle like his BattlARTS self here and you get to see him throw some strikes he normally wouldn‘t. He really connects hard with some palm strikes and even a big thai knee, but Haseman splits his brow open. It builds to a pretty great second half with some great heated slugging it out and fighting to the ropes. The finish is totally awesome as Otsuka escapes a number of shoulder discolating arm holds from Haseman and cranks in an armlock of his own. Haseman makes the ropes but can‘t get up. It feels like Otsuka took on a monster here, and he broke that monster.

Wataru Sakata vs. Dominic Delaney

I assume Delaney is a kickboxer. He can throw kicks and hands but on the ground he has to go for the ropes pretty much immediately.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Elvis Sinosic

Yes, Tamura vs. A soviet shooter named Elvis! This started out fun. Elvis was this lanky guy who could grapple. Then Tamura decided to stand up and brutalize Elvis. Just tagging him hard with low kicks and open hands over and over again. That seemed like a 5 minute section of just Tamura circling around this guy and hitting him hard. Then Elvis makes a move and accidentally eye pokes Tamura. Tamura then takes him down and just ends the match cranking an armlock. Guess Elvis did something Tamura didn‘t like there.

Masayuki Naruse vs. Willie Peeters

Stiff non-cooperative looking shootstyle. Peeters works this like a great amateur wrestler who knows only one submission hold. He completely dominated Naruse on the ground and countered all his takedown attempts, but when Naruse rolled on his back Peeters would let him stand up. Naruse even gets a bloody nose and bloody lip from a failed takedown attempt. I liked Peeters immediately palm striking him in the mouth and then locking in a nasty facelock. Naruse keeps shooting for takedowns that always get reversed, and really has nothing on Peeters here. The camera keeps cutting at Maeda in the crowd and I‘m sure he would kick Naruses ass backstage. This was great when Naruse got fired up and laid into Peeters with strikes, but that was like 30 seconds of the whole thing. Naruse, why did keep going for those takedowns? You should‘ve realized you had no chance with them after he sprawled on the first 20. They also kept stopping the match due to the blood until they finally stop it at 17 minutes while Peeters never once looked in trouble. I enjoyed this, especially the sprawl show from Peeters, but it could‘ve been so much more.

THE LIBRARY

at May 28, 2021

Takashi Ishikawa & Ryo Miyake vs. Yuichi Fukaya & Shigekazu Tajiri, Tokyo Pro 2/23/1995

Is there anything that says 90s sleaze like a pair of sleazy heavyweights taking on a pair of random karatekas? Judging by the way Fukaya and Tajiri try to run the ropes here, it seems neither of them have had any wrestling training, and that rules. Both of them kick hard and they have some cool spinkicks. Miyake is pretty lame but gets his ass kicked and bleeds, and Ishikawa is predictably violent in this kicking the karatekas in the face. Fun times.

Koji Nakagawa vs. Hayabusa, FMW 10/6/1998

I just had to see this match. Nakagawa is like a proto-Ogawa here. Very ratty and sleazy. I love me a good ratboy story and this was a good one. Hayabusa initially dominates the match, hitting a reckless dive and equally reckless kneelift until Nakagawa is able to catch him in a nifty backbreaker. We get a cool Bret Hart like performance from Nakagawa working over Hayabusas back - actually making the audience give a shit about things like a camel clutch. Hayabusa no sells his way back to offense, so Nakagawa says Fuck This and busts out a fork. He stabs the fuck out of Hayabusas arm and we get a full on Funks vs. Abby/Sheikh style end run peppered up with FMW style big moves. To be fair Hayabusa sold the arm work extremely well - dug that desperate tiger driver - and the last minutes of this were really good puro epic material. Seems like an extremely underrated match considering I enjoyed myself more here than during the usual late FMW era bomb throwing.

Kinya Oyanagi vs. Kazuhiro Tamura, Secret Base 3/22/2010

Exciting match on paper, which came out really fun. I was expecting some U-Style vs. T2P matwork, but instead they did more of a junior match. These are two guys who will hit hard and wrench tight holds, so they work a really cool juniors match. Tamura works over Oyanagis arm and Oyanagi works over Tamuras leg after a cool transition. Tamura completely neglects selling the leg, but he does blast Oyanagi with some stiff kicks, so I am ambivalent to his performance here. Lots of really really neat reversals in the finishing run. Especially dug all the teases of Oyanagis Octopus Hold and the flying armbar was extremely well timed. Good stuff, made me long for an extended run of Oyanagi singles matches that never seemed to happen.

at May 27, 2021

Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, Futen 10/24/2010 - EPIC

Cool matchup due to both guys feuding in BattlARTS undercard matches 10 years earlier. Hijikata went to All Japan and got kinda rotten there, but that is no problem for Ono who carries him to his career match. Opening minutes were just great as Ono demolished Hijikata with superior striking and some beautiful submission attempts. It was almost starting to look like a squash until Hijikata got it together and decided to fire back. His suplex no sell was pretty cringy (he didn‘t even do a goofy yell) but other than that, he was willing to get hit by Ono and fired back with some big shots of his own, including a big knee right under Onos chin and a deadlift brainbuster, all of which Ono sells great. Slick finish. Not an epic match, but an epic performance from our man Takeshi Ono.

Takeshi Ono & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Ryuji Hijikata & Minoru Fujita, BattlARTS 1/30/2000 - FUN

This was basically a juniors match with the addition of Takeshi Ono punching people in the face. Him vs. Fujita was a really fun match up and I‘m sure they had a great match on a BJW house show one time or something. I also enjoyed Hidaka and Fujita facewashing each other since the apparently had broken up their tag team. Some big dives, including one from Ono. This was perfectly watchable popcorn wrestling plus face punches.

Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 2/13/2000 - FUN

JIP match. This full on pro style. There were the usual cool Ono counters and technical moves, plus he just blasted Hijikata with a straight right coming from the ropes and that rules. Hijikata didn‘t show much, didn‘t even throw any stiff kicks, just a nice lariat at one point. Full BattlARTS worldwide point thanks to the Ono factor though.

Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda, BattlARTS 1/28/2001 - FUN

This was a Grappling Only match that delivered 8 minutes of slick grappling. I enjoyed it a lot. Dug all the leglock trickery, Ono using his judo and generally containing the bigger Usuda. Crafty finish. Strictly for the grappling purists, but it was really good grappling.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

at May 25, 2021

Toshie Uematsu vs. Sugar Sato

We only get a couple minutes of this, which is a shame because it looked like a really good match. Largely built around tight pin combos and Uematsu overcoming a leg injury. Uematsu is certainly giving that WCW Womens Cruiserweight belt some prestige in 1997.

Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Chigusa Nagayo

Hey look, it’s Toshiyo Yamada. GAEAs top rookies run right into a brick wall in this match. Satomura and Kato tried, but they got blown off and ate an ass kicking. The two brief runs of offense felt lucky and were over as quickly as they arrived. Nagayo was definitely giving them the business in this one. Fun semi-competitive squash.

Akira Hokuto & Maiko Matsumoto vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Chikayo Nagashima

A match that was unsurprisingly centered around the animosities between Hokuto and Ozaki. I really dig Hokutos broken down but still arrogant badass act. Ozaki was fun when she was throwing hands and kicking people in the face, but I thought she was kind of no selling most of the time. Nagashima is a fun workrate partner to Ozaki but doesn’t really bring the heat. Matsumoto continues to be really effective as an underdog to her overdog partner. I didn’t love the whole match but it was good one overall.

THE LIBRARY

at May 24, 2021

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa, NOAH 11/25/2001

Man, NOAH missed out not giving Kikuchi a big singles run. It would’ve made me care about NOAHs junior title much more than all that shit involving guys like Marufuji and Kanemaru. This was super raw, hard hitting pro wrestling. There was some no selling because Takaiwa is who he is, but they make up for it by trying to kill eachother. At one point Kikuchi was getting into his machoism asking Takaiwa to hit him harder and Takaiwa almost caved his face in with a sick dropkick. Kikuchi repaid him later with an insane headbutt. I enjoyed the leg work Kikuchi did, even if Takaiwa pretty much ignored it. Takaiwa kind of redeemed himself taking a really great corner bump and then almost dying on a spider german suplex. Finishing run had plenty of brutality, including Takaiwa swatting Kikuchi off the ropes and Kikuchi countering the endless Powerbomb in a really cool spot.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jushin Liger, NOAH 5/21/2004

A match I‘ve never heard of until I decided to YouTube search Kikuchi today. I‘m surprised by that, because this was pretty excellent. I guess it didn‘t fit the kind of nearfall-ladden fast paced junior epic mold that was en vogue with fans at the time. But, this delivers the kind of scrappy, uncooperative exchanges you want from this. Kikuchi looks great here opening with an awesome sliding enzuigiri and big, microphone enhanced headbutts. There‘s some great dueling armwork, with both guys selling fantastically. I really liked Kikuchi playing hard ass shrugging off Ligers basic throws and Liger then gleefully tearing apart his bandaged shoulder. It‘s a great mixture of looking tough as hell and vulnerable which Kikuchi does extremely well. Loved the spot where Kikuchi went in turn to choke Liger with his bandage and Liger headbutting his bad shoulder. The match was full of gritty struggle like that, such as Kikuchi manhandling Liger by the mask, or trying to shrug off his palm strikes. Ref spots were fun and didn‘t hurt the match, and the match ended on two perfect nearfalls. Very refreshing stuff.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Akitoshi Saito, NOAH 7/27/2001

Kikuchi is ranked way lower than Saito, but he won‘t go down without a fight! This was two guys mauling each other and it was pretty great. Notice how the match never turned into a predictable „I hit you – you hit me“ slog. There were a few smart moments: Kikuchi rolling outside and the grabbing a streetfight leglock was really great. As was him going down from a single slap from Saito and having to go for the leg again. Really dug his leg stretch in the ropes. Saito doesn‘t really sell the legwork and wins pretty easily to show that he is much stronger, which prevents this from being great, but I really loved Kikuchis performance.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Akira Taue, AJPW 1/21/1992

Kikuchi vs. Taue, in 1992! What a matchup! And this is just wonderful. Taue gets huge heel reactions. He doesn‘t do much out of the ordinary, except try to rip Kikuchi in half with some mean submissions and just generally act like a jerk, but Kikuchi, man! He was at his best here, bumping big, selling, and being so ferocious when attacking Taue. At point Taue does a neck chop and Kikuchi does this pained collapsing sell. He really makes you believe in a neck chop like few other wrestlers. Last couple minutes had some fantastic and were just lovely. Kikuchi wanted that German Suplex like all hell, and YOU believe in it. Just a short little houseshow match, but an example of what makes Kikuchi so special.

at May 22, 2021

Jim Breaks vs. Young David (Davey Boy Smith), 2/23/1980

This was a great piece of pro wrestling. Breaks in his bumblebee trunks just carrying a barely in puberty Davey Boy like it's nothing. To be fair, David looked good in parts here, doing a decent job struggling out of Breaks holds and taking a big unexpected bump in the last round, but it was plainly obvious that he could only do a handful of things. Most of his comebacks are just him bodyslamming Breaks over and over. He did however do a great job palm striking his way out of a submission and bloodying Breaks nose. Breaks was great here at first playing a more subtle version of his usual character before turning it up to 11. His submissions were just ridiculous, trying to sprain Davids ankle at first and then zoning in on the arm and bending it as far as humanly possible. This just lead out in a great way. Fun post match too with Davids mentor Alan Dennison coming in to smash things over Breaks head.

Pat Roach vs. Pete Roberts, 2/13/1980

Pat Roach always looks like the hardest man on the planet to me. This was a pretty excellent contest with some nifty heavyweight grappling. Roachs judo throws rule, as well as his overhead arm suplex. Roach was playing nice early on, and Roberts was doing a really neat Fujiwara-ish performance trying to crack the giant. Once Roach was outsmarted, he just went beast mode and ragdolled Roberts about the ring. In the 3rd fall, Roberts made excellent use of ring positioning to chop Roach down. I liked the finish more than OJ as Roach was limping and in trouble only to launch an overzealous Roberts over the top rope, taking an insane bump on the outside. The smart player Pete Roberts being outsmarted himself was neat.

Jeff Kaye vs. Tony "Banger" Walsh, 1/28/1980

This was a battle between two great looking wrestlers. Walsh is pasty with a bowlcut and Kaye has kind of medieval mid length hair and is dumpy looking. Kaye is super fired up here cartwheeling around and Banger Walsh was looking to give it to him, throwing shots and grinding Kaye down with basic moves. Walsh has really good basic stomps and clubs. If you are familiar with these type of European give and give back face/heel matches you won't be surprised by the structure here but they worked in so many high end exchanges that it stayed entertaining. Unique finish too. Really really fun sprint.

Fit Finlay/Ian Gilmour vs Guy Mercier/Alan Mitchells 9/25/80

2/3 Falls match over about 25 minutes. Browsing through hundreds of French matches, and just out of nowhere a 22 year old Dave Finlay pops up in what is maybe his first ever televised match working like a seasoned veteran heel. Pretty cool. The saying about European tag wrestling is that they didn‘t quite know how to do it, but this match had pretty much the kind of structure you want: Fun babyface shine segment, followed by a heel beatdown before a series of cut offs before a comeback succeeds and then a finish. They fool you a bit here by doing a really long shine with the heels making several attempts at starting the beatdown and being cut off, but in the end the structure is there and even the 2/3 Falls formula is integrated well. This was a bit more holds and takedowns based and less about armdrags and ranas, similiar to what we know from British wrestling, but don‘t be fooled the pace in this match was lightning fast. These guys really do an absurd amount of stuff even in a long match, but everything is executed effortlessly. Guy Mercier is a former European champion and legit Greco roman wrestler with a look and aura that just screams tough old man, and while there wasn‘t a ton of extended wrestling in this match he looked like a classy worker. It speaks for the creativity of these old workers just how much they could do with moves like a body slam or hip throw. Finlay also did this cool thing where he misses a big splash in about the first minute of the bout and spends the next few minutes scurrying away while the faces twisted up his leg and launched him into the ropes. It didn‘t pay off in the long run, but it was a fun bit of selling to make the opening minutes more interesting. Once the heels got something going after what felt like 15 minutes of highly entertaining bumping and stooging, they basically focussed on getting the faces to the corner and stomping the crap out of them. Really simple and effective stuff that made me wish modern workers paid more attention to making simple things like a stomp look good, because Finlay had damn great looking stomps here. Another layer to the match was Michel Saulnier, who was grey and a referee by now. The match had some heel ref antics and comical amounts of babyface retaliation against Saulnier, while that is something that can ruin a lot of these Euro matches it was actually executed in a really fun manner here. The thing I loved most how delighted the fans were at the trick the heels used to get a pin here. No hard feelings, it‘s all good fun in France.

1980s EURO COMPENDIUM

at May 20, 2021

Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yamato

Yamato is Tachihikari doing a face painted gimmick. Man, Hirai looks good here. Just rushing Tachihikari with big forearms and dropkicks, and even clocking him in the back of the head hard. Tachi fires back with sumo rushes and potatoeing Hirai and all is right in the world. Hirai does this cool thing where he powers out of a powerbomb attempt and weakens his own back. Later he hits a missile dropkick and can't get up because his back is messed up. And Tachihikari is kind of more effective as a goofy facepainted guy putting Iron Claws on people than as himself. I need more of this Hirai.

Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa & Ultimo Dragon & Masanobu Kurisu vs. Jado & Gedo & Ricky Fuji & Super Strong Machine (Elimination Match) - GREAT

Fun match that suffered a bit from one team being severely overpowered. There was just nobody to stand up to the violent asskicking that the Kitahara/Ishikawa/Kurisu trio can unleash. Strong Machine tried, hitting some stiff lariats and potatoes, and it was decent enough. Jado/Gedo were kinda clunky at first, but eventually settled into their rhythm when they started cutting off the ring and hitting double teams. Still, their stomp-punches don't quite do it for me in a WAR environment. Ricky Fuji was also clunky, but at least they eliminated him quickly. Ultimo Dragon was there to get his shit in. The finish was really cool with Kitahara standing up to a 3 vs. 1 match up and a hot finish between him and Machine.

Ashura Hara vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki

This was slow, but I still thought it bordered on nomination worthy. Two thick guys beating on eachother with lots of character selling from Hara. Fuyuki certainly was really good in 1994.

Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs. Chris Jericho & Ishinriki

Lucha guys did their thing here. Dos Caras looks very good, he really should've worked a WCW PPV or something. You can imagine how much offense Mascaras gave to his opponents. I could imagine better uses for Ishinriki, but Jericho looks where he belongs getting stretched by Dos Caras. Short and pretty much a complete showcase for the luchadores.

Arashi vs. Genichiro Tenryu (Rounds)

This Arashi is Daikokubo Benkei under a mask. He was part of a stable of sumo wrestlers and squashing his way through WAR for a bit in 1994, which somehow earns him a match against Tenryu. This was two angry ex-sumos mauling each other, which is why you watch WAR handhelds. Arashi was willing to take punishment here and Tenruy was just tearing into his blubber. Arashi wailing away with his sumo palm strikes at Tenryu in the corner was great. His basic throws also looked good thanks to Arashi being a massive fat guy. The crowd actually buys Arashi as a threat, which helps a lot. Tenryu sold those beatings in a big way, and he comes back in a big way himself cracking Arashi hard in the back of the head and then just destroying him. That stretch submission was a nasty nasty move to put on such a fat guy. Nice reminder how great Tenryu was that he could get a match this fun out of a guy like Benkei, who basically had no good matches ever after this.

Koji Kitao vs. Meng

Compelling matchup, when you consider that Kitao might blow a tantrum and Meng might rip his eye out. This was short. Both guys hitting the mat was fun, and then they move on to maul each other, so it was great. Kitao was squashing everybody in seconds, so the crowd went wild for Meng making him his bitch. Highlights include an awesome corner dropkick, and big piledriver and suplex on the big gi wearing slug. Wish Meng had went down with a little more fight but at least the finish looked nasty.

THE LIBRARY

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

at May 19, 2021

Tarzan Goto & Jun Kikuzawa vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Shinichi Nakano, WYF 8/9/1997 - GREAT

This was another piece of fucking great pro wrestling. This was not quite the same chaotic, savage massacre as the previous Goto vs. WDF guys tag, but more of a great southern style tag. Some really fun back and forth wrestling early on which was damn cool to see from such a fat guy as Goto, before Motegi ends up suicide diving right into a Goto chairshot (did I mention Motegi is actually awesome?) which sets up the heat section of Goto again mercilessly fucking up Motegi with various foreign objects, including drilling his face with an umbrella. Motegi screaming for his life while Goto was stubbornly trying to crack a beer bottle over his head before he just breaks it and carves him up gave the whole thing a Hillbilly slasher movie feel. Goto has fucking great punches, too. It all builds very well to Nakano getting the hot tag and in turn messing up everyone with his simple, violent offense. Aside from Goto being awesome you also had the future Kikutaro who at this point was a fun fatboy wrestler that gets messed up by the veterans for being a newbie, at one point Nakano just grabs him and drills his face with knee strikes. Really well worked match that blends southern psychology and japanese hierarchy thinking.

Tarzan Goto & Jun Kikuzawa vs. Basara & Shinichi Nakano, WYF 9/23/1997 - GREAT

Another very good entry in the shockingly awesome WDF vs. Shin FMW series. In this match Nakano teams with Basara, who is a pudgy low ranked guy in an awesome mask (it has a beard). This matchup gives Nakano and Goto the opportunity to work a really nice opening match section, where both guys have great armdrags, firemans carries etc. and then kick the shit out of the lower ranked guy on the other team. Nakano stomps the hell out of future Kikutaro (take that you unfunny motherfucker!) but Basara gets it worse as Goto piledrives him on the floor, ripping his mask open and bloodying him. Goto's awesome and unique use of foreign objects continues in this match as he grabs a broom, then breaks it in half and stabs Basara in the face with the wooden splinters. It's shit that happens in any lousy deathmatch but the way Goto does it makes it look like some horrific inventive abuse. The crowd actually gets into Basara as he absorbs a beatdown and he arguably has his finest moments ever in this match (not a high bar, but it's something), including landing a big diving headbutt that leaves a pool of blood on the other guys chest. Kikuzawa also busts out the fatboy moonsault and Goto makes uses of the ring bell guy's hammer which I am always a sucker for. Really good stuff, Goto always does the same shit, but he can do no wrong in this formular and the WDF guys were perfect foils as usual.

Tarzan Goto vs. Battle Ranger, FMW 7/31/1994 - EPIC

Really great match which was way better than a Battle Ranger match had any right to be. To be fair, Ranger brings it hard, as hard as you need when you are fighting Tarzan Goto. Ranger goes right at Goto throwing hard palm strikes. Goto goes to par terre and challenges the Ranger to grapple him which rules, but Ranger throws a stiff kick at his shoulder instead. It's an awesome beginning to a match and it leads to Tarzan in turn levelling an epic gruesome beating on the Ranger, as he rips his mask open, bloodies him and kicks him around, all the while Tarzan was surprisingly great at eating Rangers surprise high spots. Battle Ranger was hitting hard and getting punched in the face, selling big, taking big bumps and getting tables chucked at his head, clearly having the night of his life. The fans got really into Battle Ranger too, after they initially saw him as having no chance, and Goto is really great in his psycho Tenryu role punching Ranger in the face and throwing great looking headbutts and lariats. It builds to a finish that feels extremely dramatic and violent even by FMW, they made it look as if getting your ass kicked was just as bad as getting blown up in a cage, and the stretcher job really underlines that. Fantastic Goto show against an inspiring opponent, and another case for Goto being so much more than just a gorehound.

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION MASTER LIST

at May 18, 2021

Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone vs. Tamon Honda & Kotaru Suzuki, NOAH 3/14/2002

Random undercard match ends up being good thanks to Ikeda having a vendetta against Honda. Ikeda trying to aggress against Honda, almost getting choked out and then taking out his frustration by using Kotaru as a punching bag was pretty great. Yone also decided to lay in his strikes for once, although nothing that comes close to Ikeda brutalizing him with Futen level punts and punches. Hondas hot tag was great but the Yone-centric felt a little underwhelming. Dig Ikeda taking a random loony bump to the outside for the hell of it.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Jun Izumida, NOAH 4/6/2002

Fun match with two lumpy guys trading hard blows. Izumida kinda looked like he was just figuring out what to do as he was on offense, but Ikeda sold for him as if he was the heaviest hitter on the planet. Ikeda unloaded some really nasty looking kicks to Izus arms and shoulders, which Izu sold in a fun way. Izu has some fun spots, particularily his judo sweep and bicycle kick, but his dumbfoundedness kinda detracted from the match. Really fun finish with Ikeda barely edging out the victory with a surprise sleeper.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Takashi Sugiura, NOAH 3/18/2001

Sugiura probably had a fun BattlARTS career as a second rate Otsuka in him but instead got the NOAH career as a second rate Kurt Angle. This was clipped down, but looked like a good little match. Sugiura was green and I didn‘t like his spears, but Ikeda just brutalized him with violent kicks. Ikeda had a really neat reversal of the Karelins Lift. I also liked spot where Sugiura dived right into Ikedas knee.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yoshinari Ogawa, NOAH 6/6/2003

I‘m not sure why I haven‘t heard of this match before; it delivers exactly what you want. Not an epic main event or something, but more than fun midcard match with both guys doing what they do best. Ikeda comes in with a blunt force approach coming at Ogawa with big lariats and kicks, and Ogawa employs all his scuzzy ratboy tactics that we love him for, including some actually cool water bottle spots. Short, with not a dull moment.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Masashi Aoyagi, NOAH 9/2/2001

Fun little match. Aoyagi is way over the hill and this is just an opening match, but god you can tell Ikeda respects the hell out of him the way he puts him over here. Ikeda takes every single kick Aoyagi knows in brutal fashion. I liked how Ikeda would initially kick out at 1, to remind people that Aoyagi had been retired to undercard old man tags at this point, but then Aoyagi just kept landing the hits, until he almost KO'd with a kick combo in the corner that harkened back to the days of his Onita feud. Aoyagi does 1 or 2 things you don't expect from him, and Ikeda pulls off a neat finish. This is a showcase for Ikeda, the generous worker selling a beatdown, not something people know him for, but he does it very well.

at May 17, 2021

So IWA Japan continues to be the most watchable non-MUGA promotion in 1998. The awesomeness of IWA Japan is sorely underappreciated, so allow me to breakdown the ingredients that makes a fun indy card!

The „who are these guys“ improbable fun opener! Yuji Kito & Yoshiya Yamashita vs. Turtuger & Hiroki Achiiwa.

It's 4 rookie nobodies beating the shit out of eachother! Even the turtle guy is laying it in, in between jokes! The ref hits a suicide dive! Brutal elbow drops and kneedrops that land with full weight and bad intentions! Nasty boston crab finish!

The tease! Cosmo Soldier vs. Hidetomo Egawa.

This was 6 minutes clipped down to 2 and a half. The full match was probably an awkward botch ladden mess, and I wanted to see every second of it! Awkward attempts at shootstyle/lucharesu style experiments and cool suplexes!

The utterly bizarre! Freddy Krueger vs. Katsumi Hirano.

Freddy Krueger and a blonde japanese guy in a black gi hit the mat! Krueger has a noisy sleazy glamourus valet! Krueger puts the Fujiwara armbar over like a champ, while everyone is eyeballing the whip carrying lady.

The spot-a-ton! Asian Cougar & Palomino vs. Akinori Tsukioka & Kyohei Mikami.

Match contains half a dozen leg drop variants and half a dozen tope atomicos! They hit ALL the spots. Match is actually fairly competitive. Palomino, the masked Ikuto Hidaka, looks ultra polished working pseudo lucha exchanges. Tsukioka lands an Asai Moonsault into nowhere! Swank moves and dives are rolled out. An almost unrecognizable Mikami hits the neat-o Victory Roll into Kneebar because that was en vogue in 1998. Tsukioka does another insane thing which the camera misses completely! They go BROADWAY (but we will never get the full experience, because they clipped a few minutes from the bout.) This match was praised in an old DVDVR and is still fun today. Manly and whip ass etc.

The girl match! Emi Motokawa & Sumie Sakai (Jd') & Sachie Nishibori vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Miho Wakizawa.

It's somewhat light hearted and also mayhem! They do all the moves. The AJW girls don't look good! Neither does Motokawa. Sakai tries a moonsault off the top to the outside and NOBODY catches her at all! The announcer calls it a „Flying Sausage“ everytime a chubby wrestler attempts a flying bodypress. Nishibori hits some nice flying headscissors, but probably isn't polished at anything else. They already had the foxy S&M valet earlier, why have this match be overly cute? Bring back Chiharu Nakano.

The sleazeball fest! Keizo Matsuda & The Great Takeru vs. Masao Orihara & Takeshi Ono - FUN

The Not So Great Takeru is in his goofy Power Rangers costume! Masao Orihara & Takeshi Ono are the Tonpachi Machine Guns, and they will kick you in the balls a LOT. Takeshi Ono actually works STIFF. Golly gee he is roughing up those IWA Japan dudes. The Machine Guns are slick and sloppy at the same time, if that makes sense. This was mostly an extended squash for the guns, which is a good thing, because Takeru ain't so great, and Matsuda with his wrestling school level leg drops is laughable. Takeru atleast lays in his spin kicks and hits a moonsault kneedrop. Orihara hits the stupidly gorgeous Orihara moonsault to the outside following a spider german suplex to make up for all the horrible moonsault awrygoings of the evening. Likely the classiest thing he's ever done.

The crusty main event! Great Kabuki & Kendo Nagasaki vs. Shigeo Okumura & Keisuke Yamada.

Kabuki train 98 continues! Everyone in this match gets WALLOPED and it rules. Yamada & Okumura get all uppity and Nagasaki fucking wastes them both with chairs. Kabuki & Nagasaki turn into the worlds lumpiest Anderson brothers and procure some brutal armwork and stomps, with Nagasaki rocking the shoulder dislocating Armbars. It's improbable and strange and great. Kabuki hits his awesome fist drop and starts working the ARMPIT CLAW and it's fucking gross. Okumura & Yamada are not technically great but they are willing to smack the shit out of the crusty old bastards and in return get punched in the face, elbowed in the chin and kicked in the throat a LOT. Kabuki & Nagasaki actually have enough cardio to keep things moving for 15 minutes and we get a handful of great spots and thrust kicks. FEAR THE GREEN MIST! Also, SICK piledriver finish. I loved this.

THE LIBRARY

at May 16, 2021

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

In 2021, Toba can be considered semi retiered. This is his sole appearance so far, and he did his thing. Match was semi-comedic and during the opening portions every move seemed to be followed by a joke, so it was never going to be a great match, but I was entertained due to everyone playing their role and some sense of hierarchy being displayed. Urano impressed me during his opening grappling with Shuji. Then, Owashi, who wrestles like an even lazier Akira Taue, employs some scummy tactics to avoid getting hit by Toba. I was starting to zone out during Uranos and Owashis standup routine but thankfully Toba salvaged things by punching Urano in the face hard. Ishikawa did the bare minimum. I mean, when Owashi is outworking you (by doing a forward roll, in this case) you really are just collecting your paycheck. Toba tagged in for the final segment and looked good potatoeing Urano as he always does. Match seemed to be building to a bigger ending stretch but in the end what we got was basically a working boots old man comedy tag and I had fun.

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

Two guys who have no problem beating the shit out of each other being given 5 minutes. Exactly what you want, no downtime, not much cooperation, and plenty of brutal hits and neat offense. Yamada is a Nightmare Pro/ex-WYF young boy with some fun hybrid powerhouse offense including an Oklahoma stampede and a nasty STO. And Toba just beats the shit out of him and dares him to shoot back. Really dug how the last KO was sold. I think Yamada was lost in the shuffle soon after or became a forgettable seedy brawler.

Added to 2002 MOTY list at #61.

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

Toba is older and slower, but he can still bring it in a wild fight. This was Abe basically working a sleazy 90s West Japan or CAPTURE match, which is kind of the height of the artform for a guy like him. This was probably the best I‘ve seen Abe look, simply because he slotted right into Tobas style of wrestling, and busted out some slick submissions. Opening minutes were pretty damn stiff already. Toba looks old, fat, and kind of alcoholic, so him taking these blunt force kicks from Abe looked brutal. Then, Abe decided to put on boxing gloves too so he could punch Toba back. It made the match feel even more like a mixed rules match from a 90s sleaze card. Floor brawling with both guys basically eskimo boxing was pretty insane. Finishing run had both guys eating and dishing out some pretty brutal kicks and punches and a cool strap drop moment when Abe takes the gloves off again. Toba almost getting his foot snapped by an Abe Dragon Screw and then punching his way out of a figure was damn great. Brutal finish. Toba was a champion in this, and crazy as it sounds it ended up being Abes best match I‘ve seen too. There‘s just something about Tobas formula of compact, wild and violent matches that is so much better than the usual main events.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

at May 15, 2021

15. Hijo del Santo & Mascara Magica & Shocker vs. Tarzan Boy & Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Buccanero, CMLL 6/7/2002)

Great, heated trios full of unpredictable bumps and quite hate filled brawling. Very smart layout with the rudos starting strong only to get cleared out by a series of Santo topes. The finish to the second fall that saw a guy get taken down and jumped 3 on 1 was fantastic and added to the unpredictability. 3Rd fall breaking out into another brawl was great, too. The Guerreros were on fire that night. I especially liked Rey Bucaneros unexpected bump over the top rope. Shocker looked spry trying to boot peoples heads off and he had fun chemistry with Tarzan Boy. The Santo/Magica double tope was insane. Top stuff, maybe the best trios of the year.

24. Yoshiko Tamura vs Tanny Mouse (NEO 08/17/02)

Tanny Mouse carries Tamura to her best match of the year. No, I’m not kidding. Tanny was great here as she avoided Tamuras usual bullshit and actually got something interesting out of her. Her offense was also pretty great and varied. It kind of exposed how dull and repetitive Tamura is in comparison. Tanny mostly kept this on the mat, forcing Tamura to actually grapple a bit for a change, and during the standing sections she was mixing in awesome strikes and suplexes. There were also some amazing, perfectly timed cradles. So, Tanny was working this as a grappler with a hard head relying on cradles… was she high on Tamon Honda tapes that year? The nearfall section was slightly into overkill, but Tanny never was able to hit her finish and Tamura actually got to look badass for a change as she hit the worlds nastiest senton and later scored a great KO victory.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

at May 13, 2021

Takeshi Ono vs. Junji.com, BattlARTS 10/1/2000 - GREAT

As much as I loathe Ono not getting main events in the early 2000s anymore, he was just a great undercard wrestler having these awesome 7 minute quasi shootstyle WCWSN matches. This match was a banger, damn great for a junji.com match. Junji, to his credit, went at him hard and was just fierce trying to take Ono to the mat and heelhook him, who in turn blasted him with kicks from all sides. Onos agile striking is so great as he kicks you in the face even when you are working the other side of his body. The ending run was veering into EPIC territory as there were a number of super slick submissions and Junji fighting like mad.

Takeshi Ono & Mick Tierney vs. Katsumi Usuda & Rasta the Voodooman, BattlARTS 10/15/2000 - FUN

This happened at a martial arts club way out in Okinawa. It‘s crazy shows like this aired on TV. The match was just a really fun 5 minutes. Ono matched up with Usuda and that is a quality matchup. Even on a small show these guys traded some stiff kicks and punches. I also really enjoyed the Tierney/Rasta matchup. Tierney was a WWE development guy who somehow ended up in BattlARTS and it‘s fun to watch a big buff US dude give his impression of a shootstyle match.

Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda, Futen 11/24/2010 - EPIC

Really great match which was basically straight shootstyle with FUTEN level violence and aggression. Ono was leathering Usuda with kicks and punches both standing and on the ground, and Usuda was just trying to slip beneath and take him, with Ono having to figure out counters to the takedowns. The finishing run was just fantastic and up there witht he best UWF main event endings, just at a faster pace. Ono was against the ropes by Usudas counterwork until he busted out an ultra slick move of his own.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

at May 10, 2021

Toshie Uematsu vs. Yuka Shiina

A surprising amount of stiffness and intensity in this. The moves and sequences they did were basic, but heated. Uematsu is higher on the totem pole and Shiina never mounts much offense against her, but she does give Shiina some nice token nearfalls including a great one where Shiina caught her with a missile dropkick to the back of the head. Pleasantly surprising match.

Akira Hokuto & Maika Matsumoto vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Reiko Amano

Amano is wee rookie here, but she is spunky, oh so spunky. Nagashima just betrayed GAEA and joined Oz Academy. They both want a piece of Hokuto, who is so hilariously unphased. Matsumoto acts like a big shot, then gets her shit pushed in! Hokuto makes no secret about how she could end this in 20 seconds but still takes glee in torturing these rascals! Amano gets a kneebar on Hokuto in what feels like a great moment! Hokuto kills Nagashima to death in the finish! Matches like this will never win workrate awards, but it was a super fun little piece of character driven pro wrestling and adances the GAEA/Oz Academy storyy. Ozaki is at ringside, and doesn’t care at all about Hokuto abusing her underlings. Cold.

Meiko Satomura & Devil Masami vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Sonoko Kato

Another virtually perfectly laid out sprint. Numerous great spots here. It wasn’t the moves they did (although everyone whips out cool shit), but the moments of teamwork, assisting spots and surprising twists is what made this match. Masami was basically just a juggernaut here tagging in to drop bombs and kick people in the face. Chigusa vs. Meiko sections were just great. Chigusa can kill Meiko with just a few moves, so anytime she was mounting offense it felt like Meiko was desperate for survival. She also hit another Ikeda level punt to Masami. Kato sections weren’t as great, although her teamwork with Chigusa was stellar. The finish with Nagayo failing to drag Kato back to her corner before Masami just nuked the poor girl was also not only visually impressive but an effective payoff to the story. I think GAEA may have been the best promotion in the world doing these type of matches in 1997.

THE LIBRARY

at May 09, 2021

Ken Joyce vs. Tony Costas, 1/9/1980

Ken Joyce was this British maestro who had a knack for cool submissions in reversal without getting all too jokey. Costas was this gentleman wrestler from Cypris with a mustache. How many wrestlers from Cypris do you know? This is why you gotta love European wrestling. Match was full of tricked out technical works. Lots of holds and pin attempt worked in a way you haven‘t seen them before. Joyce seemed to be in control but Costas got a fall on him. I liked how Joyce just palmed striked Costas when he did something he didn‘t like. Very good technical bout.

Jon Cortez vs. Jeff Kaye, 2/5/1980

Jon Cortez was a wrestling machine, always putting on top notch TV performances. All his holds he worked with a certain intensity. This was a technical bout with some pretty great scrambles. It was a friendly match but things got pretty intense for a minute when Cortez was down a fall. Kayes acrobatic moves, such as walking on his hands across the ring or cartwheeling out of holds were impressive for a tubby aging guy. 3Rd fall was super short but intense as Cortez sensed a weakness and just went for the kill with backbreaking holds on Kaye.

Mark Rocco vs. Pete Roberts (5/28/80)

Battle of the goofy bodysuits. Marc Rocco is infamous for innovating a much faster paced, more thumpy wrestling style than what you usually saw in the British rings, or anywhere else really. Personally, I don‘t like him as much as other British heels, but this was one of his better bouts. Starts with a cool opening round of slick matwork before the hothead Rocco antics kick in and he starts kicking the hell out of Roberts. Rocco started kicking the tar out of Roberts leg and Roberts looked good sprawling on his takedown attempts. Roberts also took a big bump to the outside. The problem with the match was Rocco got two public warnings and just kept on cheating even though he should‘ve been DQ‘d. It got good heat though. Roberts was also slow to follow up on the finishing pinfall. It felt like both guys got a bit carried away after working abroad. It stuck out because in old British wrestling mistakes are few and far between and usually well covered.

at May 09, 2021

About a year ago there was a plan to revive the DVDVR 1980s Europe project. That plan kind of went back to sleep, but lots of matches were reviewed and those thoughts shouldn't stay buried in my text files. And with a recent wave of World of Sport uploads, it's a good opportunity to dive into some of the more elusive bouts of the era. I will try to rank the matches as I go through. Expect lots of British wrestling, with the occasional match from France, Germany, Austria, and maybe even Belgium to make an appearance.

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1. Johnny Saint vs. Robbie Brookside, 4/28/1987

1988

1989

at May 09, 2021

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Tiger Mask IV, Michinoku Pro 3/10/2001

Fun match between two juniors who like to kick hard. Mochizuki had a some scumbag seconding him who kept interferring on his behalf. It didn‘t detract from the match much and made for some fun moments. Tiger Mask IV looked slick. Mochizuki controlled a bit and he looked good potatoeing TMIV. The groundwork was a bit like a curt angle match as they just slapped on a hold and waited for the other guy to make the ropes. Good match overall.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Magnum Tokyo, Toryumon 7/1/2001

The first 10 or so minutes of this were really good. Mochizuki was super fun here working over Magnum with stiff karate punches and kicks. He was like a Mini Akitoshi Saito. Tokyo‘s counter armwork was really good but had no consequence at all. There was one moment where Tokyo hit a tornado ddt to the apron in a great spot but instead of going for a cover just robotically moved on to work Mochizukis arm because that was what they had planned for the match. The second half dipped pretty hard with lots of interference from Mochizukis posse. Tokyo is athletic and had some good spots particularily the springboard ranas, but most of his offense looks so dainty and weak. Some of it barely seemed to graze Mochi. Finish run had maybe a fun strike exchange but overall was just the usual 2.9999 fest. This could‘ve been better.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. CIMA, Toryumon 4/14/2001

This was fine in terms of the moves they did, but was soul crushingly dry and uninspired. Both guys did heel spots, neither of them showed any fire, and they were going through their stuff so robotically that it felt like watching a match simulated by a computer. Mochizuki worked over CIMAs legs, which of course ended up being meaningless. As with the above two matches, there was also plenty of outside interference and more silly buggers going on with a plastic case. The finishing run had 1 or 2 cool moments but my god. This went 13 minutes and felt like an hour.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Minoru Fujita, Michinoku Pro 6/18/2000

I loved both these guys in the 90s, but man this was rough. They botch 2 moves in the opening sequence and it seems Fujita got injured. What followed was Mochizuki dragging Fujita around the arena for what felt like 5 minutes, lazily kicking him in an attempt to give him time to recover. Fujita kept dragging himself through the match although obviously things were off rails and they seemed to didn‘t have many ideas. They did some pretty lazy submission work. Fujita didn‘t even do the Reverse Viper Hold. This felt 10 minutes too long.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Great Sasuke, Michinoku Pro 6/25/2000

Fun match. This was one of those Sasuke performances where he lets his opponent kick the shit out of him and takes a bunch of reckless bumps to put him over. There was no outside interference, but Mochizuki brought a ladder and the ref went down for like 5 minutes at one point so they could do the ladder spot. You are supposed to be a martial artist, Mochizuki, your hands and feet are lethal weapons, wtf do you need a ladder for? Mochizuki kicked hard and at one point unloaded a nasty fist right to Sasukes jaw. Kinda silly finish as Mochizuki hit a Dragon Suplex but pinned himself with an improper bridge. I guess the morale is karate guys shouldn‘t do suplexes.

at May 07, 2021

Kinya Oyanagi vs. Skayde Jr.

Fun opening match. I‘m guessing this is actually Skaydes kid. He wrestles like the actual Skayde but is way skinnier. Oyanagi has some cool llaves of his own and bases well for Jrs. Stuff. A cool 7 minutes.

Spark Aoki & Go vs. Kazuhiro Tamura & Masashi Takeda

Fun sleazy undercard quasivshootstyle match. Dig Takeda as a deathmatch scarred punk who will kneebar you. Spark Aoki was in the tall awkward kid phase of his career here, and he got the shit slapped out of him. Go didn‘t really impress, but he was smart enough to tag out so Aoki could drop the fall. Not a fan of K. Tamuras thigh slappiness, but his submissions are cool. Overall, a satisfying match due to the abuse of Spark Aoki.

Frank Ohashi & Ferist vs. Kamui & Mineo Fujita

Pretty forgettable indy lucharesu match. These guys aren‘t very athletic, don‘t have much personality and don‘t do anything complex. The match also went far too long at 19 minutes with way too many nearfalls for your midcard match.

Kinya Oyanagi & Satoshi Kajiwara vs. Jun Ogawauchi & Masa Takanashi

Ogawauchi is another ex T2P guy who looked pretty talented but had his career derailed by injury. The opening Oyanagi/Ogawauchi matwork section was really fun. The rest of the match was a let down as Takanashi and Kajiwara had the same syndrome as the guys in the previous match. Once again, there were too many pointless nearfalls. Oyanagi was fun doing his thing though and was the only guy who showed any personality.

Mototsugu Shimizu & Yamada Man Pondo vs. Jun Kasai & Jaki Numazawa

This was your typical plunder brawl made better by the fact that it felt like it was the two deathmatch kingpins invading Secret Base to slaughter their boys. Shimizu & Pondo bleed and showed good fire and Kasai and Numazawa are decent dickhead heels. Finishin run was rather standard but the match felt shorter than the previous one.

Bear Fukuda & Masaki Okimoto vs. CHANGO & Amigo Suzuki vs. Takeshi Minamino & Manjimaru

3 ways are pretty dumb. 3 way tags are even dumber. They realized this too and didn‘t try at all. Apparently Okimoto is RASSE but didn‘t do anything cool.

THE LIBRARY

at May 04, 2021

Kazunari Murakami & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka & Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 9/23/1999

This Murakamis BattlARTS debut and his 5th(!!!) match ever. Talk about being a natural. Murakami mostly does straight shootstyle exchanges with Otsuka here, which are great. Murakami is really aggressive and Otsuka is of course really great at trying to dive past the striking range and going for a suplex. Hijikata was fired up and had one of his better outings ever. Him and Ishikawa mauling each other was some prime BattlARTS psycho material going on. At one point Hijikat went for mount and Ishikawa just punched him in the jaw like it was bare knuckle MMA. Hijikata also nearly dislocated Murakamis arm with a nasty flash armbar. Finish saw Ishikawa just obliterating him with possibly the stiffest enzuigiri I‘ve ever seen. Another pretty great BattlARTS tag.

Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Kazunari Murakami, BattlARTS 11/9/1999

Murakamis influence is felt strongly here. He wasn‘t yet the mugging demon, but he was morphing into it, and he brought a hell of a lot of fire. The opening minutes were just a wild old fight. You know things are heated when even Yone is bringing it! Murakami was the focus, but Ikeda came in and reminded everyone who he is by having an insanely violent exchange with Ishikawa. I love Murakami busting out the judo throws. He was a worthy stand in for Ono as Ikedas gloved partner. It builds to a pretty extended an excellent finishing run. Highlights include some sickening muscle busters and Ikeda nearly putting Yones lights out with a chokehold. Yone seemed to be seeing stars following that. Great finish. This went 19 minutes, flew by and was just another great BattlARTS tag.

Kazunari Murakami & Naoyuki Taira vs. Carl Greco & Yuki Ishikawa, BattlARTS 9/20/2000

I think this is the first match where it becomes apparent just how much contempt Murakami has for Ishikawa. The match was a really good mix of straight shootstyle exchanges between Taira and Greco and wild brawling between Murakami and Ishikawa. Man, is Murakami just the greatest "aggressive wild offense" wrestler ever? Just wreaking havoc with kicks and punches on his opponents. The spill into the crowd followed by the intense faceoff was just great. Murakami is so aggressive that when they spill to the floor it actually feels like a really dangerous moment. Taira is really fun here throwing both fancy kick variations and hitting the mat. He and Greco have great chemistry. I dug the finish as it was just a series of intense mat exchanges before Greco was able to clamp on one of his special holds. They tease Murakami making the save, but he is too busy with Ishikawa to bother. Great pull apart post match. I imagine this stuff had people in 2000 salivating at the thought of a Murakami/Ishikawa singles match.

Kazunari Murakami & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Carl Greco, BattlARTS 10/1/2000

This is really a lead in to the Murakami/Ishikawa singles, and what a lead in! Murakami is the Murakami we all know here. Match is all about wild assaults, evil glares, and some wrestling. Him and Ishikawa may be among the most exciting matchups in puro history. I like how Ishikawa didn‘t even wait for Murakami to ambush him and just went at him immediately. Murakamis wild striking looks great. Also, Carl Greco was really great, but you already knew that. The brief minute of grappling he and Murakami did was awesome. Nagai is solid here but thankfully Murakami hating Ishikawas guts is the focus. More post match going at each other, as it should be!

at May 04, 2021

6. Elimination Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji & Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, NOAH 1/20/2002

Really great elimination tag which was exemplaric of what made 2002 NOAH so good: unique characters, interesting match layouts, and everyone playing their role to perfection. Great start with Sterness trying to rush only for crafty Ogawa to attack Akiyamas injured shoulder. Marufuji is mostly pinballing around here, and doesn‘t do anything stupid. I loved Hashi here, as a low ranked guy who can hit really heavy thanks to being gifted with an indestructible skull, and how he would fly into the ring with random headbutts like a bomb dropping. The crowd reaction to him rushing Misawa with headbutts was awesome. Kanemaru was also surprisingly effective as a scuzzy heel junior. Everything that came after the match turned into a 4 on 1 was damn near perfect and just brilliant pro wrestling. Ogawa rules so hard and this teamwork with Misawa was on par with their peak Untouchables work. Akiyama trying to let his junior partners pin Misawa as a fuck you only for it to backfire was a nice touch. Great selling and they had the crowd going bonkers without any head drops or dangerous bumps at all.

52. Masao Inoue & Tamon Honda vs. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikioh, NOAH 1/20/2002

Really great Masao Inoue performance. And also a nice reminder that heavyweight wrestling can be smart and not just shoulderblocks and strike exchanges. Double Takeshis try pulling a 2 on 1 on Honda to start only for Inoue to come in and save the day with eye rakes. Some entertaining guardrail shenanigans ensue. Inoue and Honda trying to choke out Morishima was really great, as was the random apron bulldog Honda busted out. Inoue hitting a neckbreaker after the chokehold just makes so much sense. I really liked how Morishima and Rikioh tried avoiding Hondas headbutts. Then, in a great spot, Rikioh grabbed Honda by the head and just flung him across the ring. Rikioh and Morishima punishing Inoue wasn‘t super interesting in terms of what they did, but was made entertaining by Inoues excellent selling. Inoue manages to look pathetic even when he‘s hitting offense as he just kind of awkwardly staggers across the ring and then flops into his opponent. Hondas hot tag was great as he just hit an out of nowhere crowbar lariat and immediately went for the Olympic Hell. Inoue trying to prevent Morishima from making safes was also really entertaining. Crafty Inoue during the finishing stretch trying to upset the big boys and building to his Torture Rack finisher was excellent and I like how Inoue can make smart decisions even when his plans don‘t work out. Morishima doing the axe bomber to piss off Takao Ohmori was a nice touch.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

at May 03, 2021

Steve Wright vs. Brian Maxine, 12/2/1972

Steve Wright was just a skinny young man here, but what an athlete. Maxine was like the British Jerry Lawler. He came to the ring wearing a crown and threw flyers into the audience. This was a match that drew nuclear heat. Maxine tuned down the flamboyance in the ring and was just a hard nosed, knuckle-grinding heel. His use of his knuckles and forearms to grind the hell out of Wright reminded me of a certain Tony Oliver. He grinded his knuckles into Wrights kidneys, his eyes, the forearm across the throat, and the crowd just hated him for it. It‘s a wonderful thing to see a crowd eat up a subtle heels antics like this. Also really dug the subtle hanging choke he did. It was very unique, violent looking stuff. The first round is mostly both guys attempting holds and cartwheeling and rolling out of them. When Maxine first takes a back bump the crowd just erupts. By the second round they were rabid to see Wright put an armhold on Maxine. It was true peak of the art of face/heel working stuff. Wright played the role of the hot headed young athlete extremely well. He had some great looking flying headbutts and took some really good looking bumps. The finish was great as Wright is leading 1-0 but twists his leg on a dropkick. He tries to keep going but Maxine takes him down into an almost PANCRASE leglock and Wright has to quick after going 1-1 with the champion. Some people find the injury finishes in WoS word but I thought it was a good way to have a young guy look strong in his defeat to the champion. Whole match was just tremendously well put together and the heat was magic.

Masambula vs. Tony Charles, 9/2/1972

I was expecting Masambula, the African Witchdoctor to be this really hammy character. I mean, British Wrestling had guys getting hypnotized in the ring and attacking their partners. But this was a fairly straight forward match. Not a ton of shtick from Masambule, just some mild verbal jokes and a lot of wrestling. It was almost a disappointment. The wrestling was very nice, though. Masambula had a cool way of doing things. Dug all the leg grapevines and headstands. Charles was rocking the sideburns and as usual looked like quite the grappler. The match remained a friendly contest and never really ramped up in intensity but Masambula was worth seeing.

at May 02, 2021

Sonoko Kato vs. Sugar Sato

We get about 8 minutes of a 15 minute match. As usual we got some unique counters and transitions, although it didn’t set my world on fire because Sato is just not very interesting. It didn’t help that the ending run was built around Sato trying to submit Kato who had a bad leg with her dreaded kneebar only to fall to a random rollup. Good for an opening match I guess.

Chikayo Nagashima & Sakura Hirota vs. Rina Ishii & Toshie Uematsu

Typical GAEA rookie sprint action. The more young Hirota I watch the more I am annoyed she retired to comedy wrestling later because she was quite good in her role. The match was built around Uematsu and Nagashima having to protect their younger partners. It didn‘t have a ton of depth and once again we didn‘t get the full match, but it was solid stuff.

Chigusa Nagayo & Makie Numao vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato

Another really good hierarchy driven GAEA match. Nagayo had been crushing her rookies, including in 2 on 1 situations, so Satomura and Kato were frantic in trying to not get blown away. Really good heated fighting here, with both of them just firing away at the legend, with Nagayo retaliating with some precise and often extremely well timed kicks. Nagayo blowing off Katos dropkicks and Kato immediately putting on a sleeper was another great, clever spot. Numao didn‘t get in much offense and played underdog to Nagayos overdog, although she does get to look badass unloading kicks at Satomura. She was also great during the finishing run busting out rad lucha rollups into shootstyle submissions, something that was quite state of the art in 1997. I‘m stunned how perfectly laid out these GAEA tags are, as this is the kind of stuff that should warrant a ton of praise and interest even from joshi sceptics. Watching everything in order helps, I guess, but the action here speaks for itself. They just did a great job establishing both the Nagayo as ultra-dangerous as well as the Numao as vulnerable underdog dynamic. Regretably only about half the match was shown.

KAORU vs. Akira Hokuto

Intelligent bombfest. KAORU gave her all here, and Hokutos selling of initially putting her opponent down and then slowly falling apart was pretty great. It’s fascinating how KAORU turned from an AJW undercarder to an excellent secondary player in GAEA hanging and banging with legends. I would’ve liked the match to be more focussed, and there was some no selling (particularily the insane reverse northern lights bomb from Hokuto), but all in all, it was the quality match that all their quality interactions in tags so far in the year have been hinting at.

THE LIBRARY

at May 01, 2021

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

Kakihara at the time was kind of UWFis budding young hope and raking in wins over guys like Kensuke Sasaki, so it was fun watching Kitahara teach him a lesson here. For some reason the UWFi boys except Sakurabas weren‘t strong matworkers and Kitahara does a cool job containing Kakiharas youthful aggression and countering him. Of course, as soon as Kitahara gets the advantage he almost boots Kakiharas head off. Finish was pretty great as Kakihara went on another juvenile attack only for Kitahara to doge him and unload with an eardrum shattering smack before catching Kakiharas retort kick with a badass ankle capture.

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

This was a clipped match which is annoying as the stuff that is shown looks really good. Tons of brutally stiff blows. The match was centered around the Kitahara/Mochizuki interactions. Mochizuki is Kitahara's boy, which means Kitahara is legally obliged to murder him, which the crowd also senses. Yasuraoka mostly gets kicked in the face, but busts out his really spectacular dive in an awesome moment right after Mochizuki blows his fancy springboard attack and gets mauled by Kitahara for it. Even Arashi busts out a reckless spinkick in this! WAR was a magical place.

Kazuo Yamazaki & Takashi Iizuka vs Koki Kitahara & Nobutaka Araya, WAR 12/13/1996 - GREAT

I like Araya a ton, but this was all about Kitahara being a violent punk. Interpromotional matches is where the man thrives as they supply the perfect environment for him to punch people in the jaw, stomp faces and generally act like a jerk. I was pleased that he got to be competitive with Yamazaki, too, who carried himself like a star in this (although I would‘ve liked him to do more shooty stuff).

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Monday, May 31, 2021

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Friday, May 28, 2021

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Monday, May 24, 2021

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Monday, May 17, 2021

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Saturday, May 15, 2021

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Monday, May 10, 2021

Sunday, May 9, 2021

Friday, May 7, 2021

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Monday, May 3, 2021

Sunday, May 2, 2021

Saturday, May 1, 2021