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.