80s Europe #6

 
Terry Rudge vs. Alan Kilby, WoS 6/18/1981

This was from one of the biggest shows ever in Britain at the Wembley Hall, main evented of course by Big Daddy vs. Haystacks. These two delivered  an appropriate match. Starts with some slick heavyweight grappling before Rudge naturally turns up the hit. Kilby was a bit nondescript here but reliably likable, and Rudge is one of the biggest asskickers of all time and makes this entertaining bitchslapping Kilby and headbutting him in the face. It got pretty unruly for a WoS bout and resembled shootstyle here and there the way Rudge as butting Kilby around. Tremendous tremendous heat as you'd expect.

Clive Myers vs. Keith Haward, WoS 7/15/1981

 Slick technical match with some fun kung fu spots from Myers. He was doing this goofy "Iron Fist" gimmick at this point, but largely turned down the bullshit to go at it with Haward. Haward had the reputation of being a wrestling machine, but I thought Myers outclassed him here. It was like everything Haward could do, Myers could do faster and slicker. His pin off the butterfly suplex was awesome. Classy Myers showing.

Alan Kilby vs. Tom Dowie, WoS 1/13/1981

Tom Dowie was another old as dirt, bald wrestler. He had some fun ways to block Kilbys moves, and really great heel mannerisms. His punches from the side headlock where possibly the greatest I've ever seen, really turning such a simple heel move into an artform. His corner bumps were amazing as well. Kilby put in another tremendous babyface performance. He may have been the best babyface in the country, how can you not love a deaf wrestler. And when it was time to trade blows he looked hard as iron. This was mostly heatseeking built around Dowie doing a handful of things but super effective. One of those super simple but great WoS matches.

1980s EURO COMPENDIUM

Oriental Pro Oriental Birthday One Night Tag Tournament 8/15/1993

 Different Style: Keisuke Yamada vs. Masahiro Tsukuda

One of Yamadas earliest matches! He takes on the mysterious, boxing-gloved Tsukuda to open this show because why not. Mostly Yamada going for explosive takedowns and Tsukuda beating on him with those fists. Pretty short, energetic, and the crowd was really hot for this. Eh, why not.

Quarter Finals

Goro Tsurumi & Masahiko Takasugi vs. Toyonari Fujita & Hideo Takayama

Tsurumi and Takasugi are like the APA on this laying an assbeating on Fujita and the future Hido. Fujita goes for some elaborate flips that look impressive for a stocky guy but Takasugi just lariats his daylights out. Meanwhile Tsurumi is hanging Takayama outside the ring. Fujita eats some nasty chair shots and a piledriver before getting pinned. I think this lasted 2 or 3 minutes.

The Scalper & The Geezer vs. Jun Kikuwada & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki

The Scalper and Geezer are a pair of hooded figures. They must've gotten some trainees to play these monsters because they are extremely limited brawlers. I think Kikuwada who has boxing gloves is the future Shinjuku Shark and he is kind of the star in this punching the monsters and hitting a suicide dive. Not much else here besides the monsters doing claw holds.

Hiroshi Itakura & Nobutaka Araya vs. Fukumentaro & Winger

This was a "workrate" match compared to everything that came before. Everyone just busted out their moves. Araya was really green here (he kind of no sells a german suplex completely) but he had nice powerbombs and a moonsault. I always enjoy watching Itakura and while Fukumentaro and Winger aren't very good they don't blow it completely here. Okay 7 or 8 minutes.

Poison Sawada & Masaru Toi vs. Hiroshi Shimada & Hirofumi Miura

Poison Sawada teams with Toi here, not Kenichiro Yukimura like Cagematch claims. The camera man misses a good chunk of this. I enjoyed Toi and Shimada stiffing people. Toi has a nasty double stomp and boots people in the face and Shimada hit big lariats and nasty short kicks. Miura wasn't doing his karate act yet and he isn't better or worse as a generic guy.

Semi Finals

Hiroshi Shimada & Hirofumi Miura vs. Hiroshi Itakura & Nobutaka Araya

This match was whatever, but Shimada hit this amazing full speed dive over the top rope. It was awe inspiring. He didn't even do a sloppy Undertaker dive, just went full flying couch on people, outstretched over the 3rd rope. After that Itakura hits a dive and he and Araya act like big shots as if we all didn't just see Shimada doing something that was about 10000 times cooler? They kind of isolate Miura for a bit and instead of making a hot tag he just gets pinned. Shimada didn't even try to safe him. Guess he was happy with just that dive he hit.

Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Jun Kikuwada vs. Goro Tsurumi & Masahiko Takasugi

Fun stiff brawl. I buy Tsurumi and Takasugi as tough old guys cleaning out a bar. This was all about Tsurumi shrugging off Matsuzakis stiff kicks and Kikuwadas punches. The Kikuwada/Tsurumi exchanges were especially cool. Takasugi also busted out his awesome crowbar dropkick. This went 6 minutes which was just the right amount of time.

Final

Hiroshi Itakura & Nobutaka Araya vs. Goro Tsurumi & Masahiko Takasugi

This was the first match that had some kind of build and we get some cool basic opening exchanges with Tsurumi and Takasugi doing basic opening moves in really rough veteran fashion. Really dug all the punch variations Tsurumi throws especially his punches to the gut. It felt like Itakura and Araya had to survive a stiff onslaught from the veterans and that gave the match some structure and purpose. As usual the match spills to the outside  with Tsurumi breaking out the noose again - and I don't know if it was restarted or if it was like that from beginning but apparently this is elimination rules now which gives us two fun finishes. One has Takasugi just decimating Araya with a Vader-level german suplex and some nasty lariats before he and Itakura work a bunch of nearfalls. Takasugi usually doesn't sell and just destroys everyone so Itakura going even steven with him felt like a nice moment. Good main event.

THE LIBRARY

Assorted FULL

 Akihiro Yonekawa vs. Mongolian Yuga, FULL 4/12/1993

 

The opening match to this FULL show begins with a bunch of uncooperative amateur matwork… because of course it does! I think Mongolian Yuga is Jinsei Shinzaki, and he looks like the fucking terminator in this. Holy hell. He was squishing poor Yonekawa (future Kesen Numajiro) with painful rides, gutwrench drops and out of nowhere suplexes. This was definitely the baddest showing by a guy who came out to „Dschingis Khan“ as his entrance music ever. Yonekawa doesn‘t get any offense going – when he does put on a side headlock, Yuga just suplexes him hard. A couple hard slaps and dropkicks to the face later it looks like Yonekawa is bleeding from his mouth, GAEA girls like. Yonekawa does get in a DDT and bulldog – causing Yuga to do some nice head spike bumping – but the Mongol is soon no selling his offense. Brutal piledriver, headspiking suplex and one absolutely nasty claw slam later and Yonekawa is dead meat. Yuga struts away as Dschingis Khan blares. Pro wrestling is special and wonderful.

Lasser vs. Felino, FULL 9/12/1991

Some quite beautiful lucha here. These guys will do the standard lucha exchanges at a ridiculously high level, and then add in some nice extra flourishes such as amateur takedowns during matwork etc making this feel like a UWF match. Felino was in his goofy early costume where looked a bit like an ewok, but looked like an awesome matworker. I liked Lasser a lot as part of the Arqueros and he is a very good luchador in his own right. Dug his big hip attacks. This was 7 minutes and it really felt longer because they did so much cool stuff.

WAR 6/20/1999

 Masao Orihara vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Both these guys were pretty great in the late 90s, so I was pretty salty about this being clipped down just a couple minutes. Ishii was a wreckingball during this period, but Orihara easily outstiffes him trying to crack his jaw with lariats. We also get Ishii working Orihara over with chairs and whiping him out with a crazy rolling senton to the outside. Fun stuff but I wanted at least 3/4ths of the thing.

Nihao vs. Koki Kitahara

This was a CAPTURE showcase match and holy fuck after this I‘d kill to get the entire CAPTURE back catalogue. Brutal brutal match, just the most primitive grimy shootstyle you can imagine, two guys with gloves trying to pummel each other into oblivion. Nihao takes Kitahara down and bloodies him with punches and headbutts, but the boss comes back just trying to crush his face with punches and teeth loosening kicks. There was one spinkick that would‘ve made Daisuke Ikeda wince, and also at one point Kitahara reverses a takedown into an armlock that looked to almost tear Nihaos shoulder. They showed 4 out of 6 minutes, and really would it have killed them to include those 2 minutes? Still 80 % of a sick spectacle is better than most, and those 4 minutes were some of the most insane of the year.

Ryuma Go vs. Thunder Warrior Alpha

I respect Tenryus tendency to bring in Go to squish random aliens. This was clipped to almost nothing but we got to see Go acting crazy and destroying the alien.

Genichiro Tenryu & Magnum TOKYO vs. Nobutaka Araya & Sumo Fuji

The boss is involved, so we got the full match here. Didn‘t know what to expect from this, but it ends up a really entertaining match thanks to Tenryuisms. Basically Sumo Fuji acts like a big shot and annoys Tenryu some and ends up paying for it. Also really liked Araya as a scuzzy guy potatoeing Magnum TOKYO. Toryumon guys also looked solid in their sections against each other, and TOKYO hit a pretty great top rope asai moonsault amongst other things. Loved Tenryu here, I think he didn‘t even take a back bump but pretty much carried the match by being a prick, as he usually does.

Osamu Tachihikari & Arashi vs. Daikokubo Benkei & Ichiro Yaguchi

We get about 30 seconds of this and I am not bummed at all about that. I liked Tachihikari busting out random moves like an STO and a Magistral.

Yuji Yasuraoka & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa

This was 4 solid pro wrestlers doings lots of solid pro wrestling, building to a pretty exciting second half. WAR reckless kicker Mochizuki ruled, I am just going to pretend he retired after WAR folded. He had some pretty great exchanges with Hoshikawa here, and I loved him flying into the scenery out of nowhere to take out people with spin kicks. Delfin & Hoshikawa worked well together and it was cool to see them acting as a crew. For some reason, juniors getting dumped on their heads or diving around the place was a lot more satisfying to watch in the 90s.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

I guess Mochizuki wasn‘t happy with Yasuraokas performance in that tag, so he gets on the mic to challenge Yasuraoka to a singles. Yasuraoka then proceeds to hit his awesome dive, getting insane height, and we get a fun short explosion of them throwing bombs at each other. Wouldn‘t have minded if this went longer, but they just did a 17 minute long match before so it made sense for this to be short and intense.

 

Shigeo Okumura, Sambo Asako & Atsushi Onita vs. Nobutaka Araya, Genichiro Tenryu & Shoji Nakamaki

Exactly what it looks like on paper. 6 tubby asskickers brawling all over the place, bleeding and pasting each other with chairs and lariats. That plus the megastar charisma of Tenryu and Onita. Tenryu is such an awesome menace here, punching people in the face and chucking chairs at them. Him vs. Terry Funk would’ve been one hell of a program. Then again, Tenryu was pretty much untouchable at this point in his career. Onita & Asako looked pretty much like regular guys at this point, which made Asako getting abused by Tenryu feel all the more violent. Okumura was in charge with bringing a slight bit of workrate to the match and he did fine, hitting a pretty stiff dropkick. Very predictable match but all too fun.

THE LIBRARY

RIP BADBOY Hido

 BADBOY Hido vs. Jushin Liger, Apache Pro 4/14/2006

Awesome 5 minute explosion of hate filled brawling in front of a rabid hot crowd. This was the conclusion of a series of CTU vs. Apache Pro tags in 2006 and Liger is giving Hido hell here. Liger is great as an invader beating on someone, and Hido bleeds and sells good. Hido makes a quick comeback going for his trademark bat shots which look great. Liger pins him pretty fast though and we get the whole Apache Pro roster jumping on him and Hido trying to cut his hair, which leads us to...

BADBOY Hido & Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Gedo & Jado & Jushin Liger, Apache Pro 4/14/2006

Also pretty great match, one of those 2000s interpromotional wars with a ton of heat that make wrestling fun and exciting. More hatefilled brawling, Liger getting pissed off at his cut hair was a nice touch, and CTU are a really good heel unit isolating their opponents, working the cuts and brawling. Everyone on Team Apache bleeds big and gives a fired up babyface performance. Normally I dislike Kuroda, but he just did a fired up hot tag here, foregoing his usual comedy spots, and then he also bled and we got more pissed off brawling. Kanemura/Gedo ending stretch was damn good. Hido was mostly selling and bleeding here, although he is a really good FIP and his superplex was a nice well timed moment.

BADBOY Hido vs. Shadow WX, BJW 4/28/2002

One of the crazier things I've seen in wrestling. BADBOY Hido is a complete psycho here. He beats the shit out of Shadow WX and everyone nearby, even some woman (who is maybe related to WX?). It really feels more like a worked shoot angle than a match, as it comes across like Hido is stepping over the line and being a menace, doing things he is not supposed to be doing, and what an achievement that is to create that effect in a deathmatch promotion. The pull part at the end was probably the most pissed off WX has ever looked, and damn do I want to see the bloody payoff that this set up.

BADBOY Hido vs. Hayabusa, W*ING 9/11/1996

We start this with a great rudo Hido section where he carves up Hayabusa, rips his mask, and hits some great looking bat shots. Hayabusa takes he over and is kind of a heel to the W*ING fans, but he's really not a very convincing bad guy. Finishing stretch was fun with Hidos simplistic violence vs. Hayabusa flying moves and the fans getting big into Hido. Hido hits his bat shots with real pop and he makes simple things like a dropkick to the face look very violent.

BADBOY Hido vs. Shinjiro Ohtani, WEW 9/22/2003

This was probably the best match to come out of the now forgotten WEW vs. ZERO1 feud. Ohtani bullies deathmatch boy Hido a bunch, and Hido comes back swinging baseball bats and tossing ladders at Ohtanis head. Ohtani doing garbage spots and bleeding is fun, and so is Hido taking Ohtanis boots to the face and getting suplexed on his head. Bat shots were pretty brutal in this and probably better than the usual lariatfest. Perfect meeting in the middle.

Tarzan Goto Documentation #8

Tarzan Goto & Great Sasuke vs. Mr. Pogo & Masaru Toi, Michinoku Pro 12/10/1993 - EPIC

Pretty insane match. Starts of hot with a mix of fast junior exchanges and violent brawling. Normally Mr. Pogo just dishes out offense and doesn't take much, so Goto just beating the shit out of him and bloodying him with punches and chairs looked like something else. We get Pogo wailing back on him with a boot, and Goto bleeding and doing a great hulk up. I loved how Goto capped of what was his shine segment in the match by grabbing a kendo stick and beating the snot out of Toi and Pogo. After that we move onto the meat (and blood) of the match: Pogo stabbing Sasuke in the back. Ultra grizzly stuff and has to be in the Top 5 craziest things Sasuke has done. Sasuke trying to crawl across the ring with that piece of wood stuck in his back was like something out of a messed up hillbilly gore move. Gotos hot tag did not disappoint as he just destroyed everyone in his path. Great classic tag structure executed in a very early 90s Japan way.

2/3 Falls: Tarzan Goto & Masanobu Kurisu & Gran Hamada & Masashi Aoyagi & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki vs. Shiro Koshinaka, Ryo Miyake, Ishinriki, Arashi & Ryuma Go, Wrestle Aid Project 5/2/2005 - GREAT

Yes, you‘re reading this match up right. Just an absolute murderers row of lumpy sleaze gods potatoeing each other. I had no idea Go was still running shows in the 2000s and of course he put this monster match up together. He and Ishinriki were pretty fun here while Miyake was mostly just there to bleed and get potatoed, but the stars were Kurisu, Aoyagi and Goto. Goto was kingsized here, having a heated exchange with Koshinaka (Koshinaka always matches up well against tubby ex-AJPW guys in bumblebee colour schemes) and putting his trademark bloody beatdown on Miyake, while Aoyagi threw a bunch of great looking kicks and Kurisu was Kurisu. Whole match had barely any wrestling moves, just old guys potatoeing each other. Matsuzaki didn‘t do much on offense but was willing to bleed and eat the pin. Pretty much exactly what you want from this matchup.

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project Master List

LLPW Dramatic Rhapsody ~ Beyond the Struggle ~ 5/23/1995

 Harley Saito & Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura & Carol Midori

They showed about 2 minutes of this. They didn't even show Harley doing anything! Travesty. Everything else looked generic and heatless. Putting on a pair of kickpads certainly did wonders for Omukai.

Noriyo Tateno vs. Mikiko Futagami

Futagami gets a rub going against Tateno who is supposed to be one of the big stars of this promotion. In reality, this was almost a complete Tateno squash with Tateno not really putting much sauce into what she was doing to Futagami. Just going through the moves. The most spice she added was stepping on Futagamis face at one point and biting. No heat. She had a cool roll up counter of Futagamis Russian Leg Sweep. Other than brief moment this was a waste.

Rumi Kazama & Kurenai Yasha vs. Miki Handa & Michiko Nagashima

This was the best match so far because it had a story and structure. Kazama and Handa were feuding, so the match built to a face off between them, but they also built up tensions between Kurenai and Nagashima. Kazama has fun violent kicks, and Handa and Nagashima did a good job isolating Kurenai. I always get a kick out of watching Handa working like the Andersons. There was a cool kendo stick duel between Kurenai and Nagashima at one point, and the finish with Kazama trying to survive while Kurenai was handcuffed was heated and had good drama. That said this went a little long and had a few pointless brawling segments.

Shinobu Kandori vs. Mizuki Endo

Endo tries to step up to the unstoppable machine that is Kandori. Fun match even though I hopped for a bit more shootstyle. Instead it was just Endo trying to get offense in on Kandori and getting smacked and countered a bunch. Great exchange of submissions at one point. Endo eats a pin at the 6 minute mark which looked unintentional and they ring the bell. Kandori has the match restarted and Endo gets to go her at her again only to eat another fluke pin 2 minutes later. Endo keeps attacking Kandori though so for some reason the match goes on until Kandori puts her away proper with a couple nasty powerbombs. Confusing endings aside the action was fun and scrappy here and they had good heat for Endo to topple Kandori. And Kandori is so charistmatic and good at her act that everything she's in ends up worth checking out.

Chigusa Nagayo & Bomber Hikaru vs. Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari

Great interpromotional match. Nagayo deserves a ton of credit for essentially carrying this not just with her charisma but also working the mat, throwing people around with fast suplexes and finally busting out stiff kicks. Sawai acted as her foil and while she did extremely little (basically just hitting body checks and lariats) she did it well. The section where she tried to bulldoze Nagayo only to out an out of nowhere legsweep was great. Yukari and Hikaru were supporting players, but they were fired up and the crowd getting behind Hikaru while Nagayo was earning boos was awesome. Second half had some exciting twists and nearfalls as they paced the match in such a way that you couldn't tell when the finish was gonna occure. Good stuff and a great effort from Nagayo.

THE LIBRARY

2002 MOTY Project Update #16

30.  Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Shocker & Vampiro, CMLL 9/13/2002

Another shockingly great match in the Vampiro vs. GDI feud. Getting a great feud out of Vampiro must be the crown jewel in Bucaneros and UGs body of work. This was basically a 12 minute super sprint that they put thought into. Every fall told a story and was intense. Of course, everyone minus Vampiro here is a really great athlete, so they were wrestling on a high level. Shocker played second fiddle to Vampiros charisma, but he was working his ass off bumping and flying and working exchanges. And Vampiro did not shit himself. I always like how hard Bucanero and Guerrero go at their opponents. They are asskickers but they always make sure to get the crowd on their bad site. Near perfect mix of workrate and heelwork.

4. Atlantis & Mr. Niebla & Negro Casas vs. Rey Bucanero & Dr. Wagner Jr. & Tarzan Boy, CMLL 8/30/2002

Even greater match, probably the lucha MOTY. Just an incredible brawl. Just a house of fire with the rudos coming out destroying the technicos and then the technicos coming back laying major assbeatings on them.Tarzan Boy was going hard after Negro Casas since they had a feud, and the bit where Casas was eating a 3 on 1 beatdown on the floor was some street violence. The technicos almost completely forgo any fancy moves and just go right back after the rudos, guys jumping on each other raining punches from mount left and right, it's a frenzy. Casas continueing to beat on Tarzan Boy right after the finish was great. In between the brawling and mask ripping they mix in some incredible sequences. You know it's awesome when Mr. Niebla has his working boots on and Bucaneros monkey flip bump over the rope was out of this world, he just flew into the void. My favourite moment in the whole match may have been Casas landing punches from mount and Bucanero jumping on him ragdolling him across the ring by his hair. You wouldn't think a hair drag would be so awesome but it is. You could tell Casas had a blast too busting out Choshu lariats and kicking dudes in the face. A nice reminder how incredible lucha brawls can be.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #15

 

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

This was a boxing gloves match where Aoki would use some grappling and ground and pound. This was kind of like Rocky, Toba is broken down and slower, can he contain the new hotness? You don‘t really need to put over what a monster Aoki is, but I‘m happy they gave him a serious match like this. Toba was confident early on, but Aoki gained confidence and finally just blew him away. Few great spots, such as Toba diving for a punch on the ground only for Aoki to lock in a submission at lightning speed. Aokis ground and pound looked just brutal and I was surprised to see Toba get up from that (although barely). Close to a squash but genuinely dramatic.

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

Sakurai is one hell of a team mate. And Toba wore this cool gi get up. Charming match due to those factors. Naya is this big kickpadded crowbar and had the most interesting exchanges out of everyone on his team. Toba wasn‘t involved in the match much sadly, only throwing some strikes early on before eating a beating and tagging out, but Sakurai did lots of fun shit like locking in cool flying legbars and hitting judo throws. Watase was non descript but didn‘t drag things down. Fun for the novelty of seeing Sakurai and Toba in his gi.

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

Tsunehito Naito~! In 2011 I had no idea who Naito was so I probably would have skipped this match, but now I know what‘s up, and got excited seeing Naito in this. Naito was 40 here and hadn‘t had a match in 10 years, but he was still bringing it. Bullying Mizuki and having quality exchanges with Toba and Sato. I know this is the Toba documentaiton, but grumpy old Naito stole the show in this grappling and throwing the shit out of everyone. The uncooperative bit where he refused to let Sato throw him out the ring ruled. I also loved him locking in the Dragon Sleeper on the floor. Toba got to have a nice finish turning Hiratas lights out. Everything else was fine. They really should bring back Naito in 2021.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #2

 Command Bolshoi vs. Kaori Yoneyama, JWP 2/11/2008

Another excellent late 2000s Bolshoi singles. Yoneyama had yet to find her personality (give her a year or so to max out her afro), but she could go hard at it with a tough veteran. Early going was really good with slick mat movements and neat standing exchanges. Bolshoi countering the Muta look into a freaky sambo choke was such a master grappler moment, and I love her mixing up the Tiger Feint Kick by turning it into a foot stomp, she‘s just the queen of cool offense. Second half was the kind of rush of big suplexes and fast movements you expect from joshi, but it had the Bolshoi touch of added swank technical moves and neat counters, plus some well timed open hand blows. Yoneyama freaking out and just demolishing Bolshoi with brutal elbows and knees was completely unexpected and awesome, and the build to the eventual ending was great with both girls busting out some crazy top rope move reversals. I‘m pretty desensitized to pretty reversals but Bolshoi turning Yoneyamas avalanche Shiranui into a huge Uranage had me freaking out. Yoneyama was a little sloppy here or there and I can‘t really see her having a match this good against anyone else, similiar to the Nakajima match. Was Bolshoi actually Top 5 in the world in 2008?

Command Bolshoi vs. Kagetsu, JWP 1/29/2017

I‘ve quite enjoyed Kagetsu here and there and she has a fanbase with the joshi crowd, so this is a hot matchup that eluded me. To be honest Kagetsu annoyed me early on, she kept going for those weak chops in the ropes, and her spear and handspring elbow looked laughably weak. That said Bolshoi had her working boots on and pretty much carried the first half of this with some great groundwork. Her sprawling armlock and ultraslick leglock were just incredible, such a great grappler. Second half was really good with Kagetsu pulling herself together and busting out some cool flying armbars of her own before a great ending sequence. They weren‘t exactly going for EPIC here, but it ended up being a solid workday.

 

Command Bolshoi & Azumi Hyuga vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki & ECO, JWP 2/4/2007 (Body Slam Only)

This is a Body Slam Only match which means you can only pin your opponent after hitting a body slam. I am a sucker for weird rulesets and this came out really great. The body slam thing really adds a ton to all the exchanges, as everyone is now building to a bodyslam, and everyone has their own unique ways to get out of attempted bodyslams. Size difference is also at play, as Kuragaki can bodyslam people at will, but everyone struggles to body slam her. Of course these are also 4 workers who can just go hard at each other and produce some great exchanges. ECO (masked kickpadded lady wrestler) was cool, Hyuga was going hard, and Bolshoi and Kuragaki were such stars here. Kuragaki is pretty much Bolshois greatest dance partner, these two always do some mind blowing shit, and Kuragaki looks great in her own right here. Loved the big bodyslam teases. Pretty great match for what I assume was a funny idea for a dojo match.

2021 MOTY Project Update #5

1. Kyosuke Sasaki vs. Daisuke Nakamura, Kyushu Pro 9/6

Proper 20 minute shootstyle main event. Sasaki has been a bit hit or miss in Kyushu Pro, but he cut out the bullshit here and had a real U-Style worthy contest with Nakamura who's like a great 20 year late RINGS worker. Opening grappling was the best shootstyle grappling in years. Both guys were of course ultra slick, but the refusal to go for the ropes created some great counterwork and intense scrambles. Highlights include a neat Kimura counter and a credible battle of shootstyle Figure 4s. Second half was pretty great too since both guys kept internal logic consistent. For example, Sasaki was able to overwhelm and down Nakamura with a  series of leg kicks, but once things went to the ground it immediately became difficult again to force submissions. Sasaki also had this sick looking choke attempt. Finishing run was pretty great with both guys grabbing submissions left and right and some dramatic near KOS. Gotch piledriver tease was tremendous as both guys sold it that you knew the match would be over if it was hit. The 1-1 situation at the end was pretty intense. I liked how Nakamura ate a head kick and fell on top of his opponent into another scramble to credibly not lose a point. Great match.

 

5. Keita Yano vs. Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 8/13

Yanos redemption is coming along nicely. This was the best striker vs. grappler match in a while. It was straight out of PWFG. Normally I associate Yano with carny matwork, but he really decided to be a makeup wearing Tamon Honda in this. Really cool dynamic in this with Yano going for fast takedowns and quirky stretches and Sato lighting him up. I've never been a Hikaru Sato fan but he was there to light  Yano up and he did just dead. Brutal, brutal ending that saw both guys throwing some insane shoot headbutts and bare knuckle punches. Actual finish was a thing of beauty.

7. Keita Yano vs. Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 8/26

Even more esoteric match which saw both guys grappling it out for 17 minutes. If you can get into that, this was excellent. No strikes, but a perfect balance between shootstyle grappling and carny holds. Yanos chokes were great. This may have been the best actual wrestling Sato was involved in. He did some cool things like a sweeping hip throw, or busting out a cool double leg stretch (which Yano reversed in a great moment). It can be hard to just grapple and keep momentum going and not put your audience to sleep but they succeeded here. Great little match. Is Yano the best wrestler in the world now?

2021 MOTY List

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

Fugofugo Yumeji & BUKI vs. Kikujiro Umezawa & Martn Pain, EXIT ?/???? (probably 2013)

EXIT is Fugofugos fed. It's kind of like an even sleazier CAPTURE. And well, this match was fucking insane! Kikujiro Umezawa never stood out to me much before, but holy hell he was a killer here. Working like a WAR heavyweight, doing cool sumo spots, and just working insanely stiff. Whenever he and Fugofugo matched up it felt like someone was about to die. Insane headbutts and lariats. Fugo even busts out some crazy kicks including an abisegiri right to Umezawas head. Even Umezawas big splash landed in a brutal way. BUKI also looked good - a mini Great Kabuki with ultra stiff neck chops and trust kicks is something else. At one point he landed a thrust kick to Umezawa where Umezawa ran into it in a way like he didn't expect to eat a thrust kick. Martn Pain is an Austrian guy and doesn't stand out much, but he ate some stiff shots and didn't get in the way much. Still, holy fuck this makes me want to get all of Fugo and Umezawas back catalogue.

Daichi vs. Yousei Estrella, Llave Libre Workshop ?/2017

This match was „Llave Libre“ style, a style created by Japanese indy luchadore Jiraya, which is basically shootstyle grappling meets lucha matwork. Think if Negro Navarro gave the U-Style roster a training session. There is also a weird points system and rounds. Pretty fun to look at two grapplers scrambling in and out of crazy lucha submissions. Some insanely tight submissions here, and the scrambles and avoiding the dreaded 5 count where really fun. Wouldn‘t mind seeing more Llave Libre.

Yasushi Sato vs. Hakaru Imai, Jishidan 11/27/2016

Some may remember Hakaru Imai as HYOMA or Plug Imai. He‘s a scum indy guy how tried to come up in BJW sometime in the 2000s. He looked a lot fatter, and balder here, but he was game to go at it with Yasushi Sato. This was a weird rules match – the first fall had 3 count rules, the second 2 count, and the 3rd one counts. This was a Yasushi Sato signature match with lots of matwork and some great psychology. For a fat old guy, Hyoma was pretty fun hitting some fast takedowns early on for a fat old dude. Sato was quite vicious, dropping a nasty knee on Imais ankle as well as trying to scratch his head open. Aside from the grappling both guys also laid into each other with some stiffer than usual strikes. As usual with Sato matches, there was an excellent build to his russian legsweeps. Lord knows that man puts the entire industry to shame with how he makes the most basic move interesting. Second fall was really great as Imai was down 1-0 and all Sato needed was another legsweep to get the fall. Imai to his credit made a great comeback. His fat man moonsault ruled. 3Rd fall was tricky with the one count rules and once again had some great moments centered around the russian leg sweep. Also dug the backslide spots. Not sure if the ref bump was needed but it was funny. Another inexplicably great Sato match in front of a tiny audience.