Masamune Produce Murasaki Hige Dokugan 3 6/19/2022

 Kagura vs. CHANGO

Started as a really solid undercard lucharesu match. Apparently Kagura is Taro Yamada, who's really good on the mat and can do athletic stuff, and CHANGO is a trickier worker than you expect from someone who works the lowest tier indy undercards. Really liked how Chango reversed a bodyslam attempt into a cool llave, and his 619 over the rope was another cool spot that a more famous indy wrestler could steal for a potentially viral GIF. However Chango does two comedy spots, one where he entangles Kagura in the ring apron, and one where he undoes ALL the turnbuckle pads and wraps them around his fist. Both took forever and took me out of the match. They also kept doing ref bumps and such bullshit spots which is a bit much for an opener. Aside from that you had a pretty good match here.

Gabai Ji-Chan vs. Pretty Ota

More old man comedy. Lots of walking cane jokes, apparently the cane is cursed or something and whoever holds it has to walk around like an old man. Gabai Ji-Chan ends up breaking the cane in a moment that feels like it should bury the gimmick, but I'm sure he will be back on the next z-tier indy undercard to repeat the same jokes soon enough.

Keita Yano & Takafumi Ito vs. MASAMUNE & Harutoki - FUN

 Nice thrown together match. Apparently Masamune is a Jiraya trainee which explains his adeptness at both llave and shootstyle matwork. He meshes extremely well with Keita and Ito, and the second exchange between Ito and him where they went all out was really good shit. It was all submission work, and then suddenly Ito ate a fucking Regalplex out of nowhere. Harutoki isn't terribly interesting, he needs to learn some llaves, and he doesn't have great execution, so the finish between him and Keita was really solid. Keita looked good as usual doing his weird stuff, I really liked how he broke out of a pin by raking the eyes. The finish with Keita doing a bunch of Negro Navarro stuff into a super tight chickenwing crossface was awesome. This was FUN as far as Keita performances go, but the Masamune vs. Takafumi Ito stuff here was money.

GENTARO vs. Kenichiro Arai

Slow, deliberate 70s style grappling match that really explores working holds and breaking out of them to the maximum. It‘s an aquired taste, but really good for what it was. Gentaro when in a technical match always looks like one of the greatest grapplers on earth. Arai looked comfortable rolling with him too. They kept doing these intense struggles over basic holds and most importantly, they absolutely sold their butts off. Something like a bow & arrow, or a double axe handle felt epic. The last 5 minutes was Arai just desperately trying to hang on with Gentaro busting out cool, unexpected finish attempts. It's a shame GENTARO rarely gets booked into matches like this because he's looks world class in them.

The Library

Keita Yano Documentation Project #2

Keita Yano vs. Yujiro Yamamoto, BattlARTS 6/1/2008 - GREAT

This was Yamamotos debut. You can be really good at shootstyle right out of the gate, and Yamamoto is really good. This was a mix of slick matwork and both guys waffling each other with uncalled for hits which is kind of the best kind of Young Lions match. Really enjoyed Yanos lithe grappling style as opposed to his later work where he‘s a bit slower. The fun starts when Yamamoto absolutely rattles Yano with a slap in the corner and Yano tries cracking his jaw with knees and a huge european uppercut. Yano busted out a cool Tequila Sunrise into a rad bridging double armlock for a cool nearfall where it looked like Yamamoto almost got his shoulder popped. Actual finish was nasty too. Good shit that was tougher and more intense than a lot of veteran matches.

 

Keita Yano vs. Great Zako, Unemployment Pro 10/21/2018 - EPIC

This takes place in Survival Tobitas Unemployment Pro, which is wrestling shows run on a thin puzzle mat in a storage unit, or someones apartment, or… I have no idea. Yano is doing the „Masked Holiday“ gimmick which is him in a Super Muneco mask and a Doink singlet, which is like a wrestler you‘d see having a match in one of the rooms of the Overlook Hotel. This match was raw pro wrestling insanity, like if you crossed Atlantis/Villano III with the chair wrestling scene from Gummo. Zako is a skinny self-described backyarder in a shirt, and the opening is just Yano torturing him with unorthodox llaves. Zako ends up going face first into the concrete wall and comes up bleeding so Yano works over his cut with punches and nasty foot rakes.Yano keeps putting on llaves like the reverse gory special which is so surreal until Zako who is hopelessly outmatched is able to low blow him. Zako proceeds to rip his mask and bloody him and bring in a bunch of weapons like metal plates and a rope. The strangulation neckbreaker with the rope was really sick. It builds to this absolutely insane ending run where both guys end up shoot punching each other and leaving their blood all over this little cell. Zako was pretty good, he hit this crazy off the wall spinning senton, and his crushed throat selling after Yano uppercutted him in the throat was convincing. The shoot suplex on the ultra thin mat was downright sick, too. Whole match had pretty much everything, gore, mask ripping, submission work, and both guys looked like they were fighting to the death. Pro wrestling in it‘s rawest form.

Keita Yano Documentation Project

STYLE-E Summer E Impact in West Chofu 7/22/2007

 Watch

 Masashi Takeda vs. Naoki Matsumoto

Nice to see Pro Wrestling DREAMERS boy Matsumoto show up. This was a nice match between two guy with amateur backgrounds. It was a pro-style match but they both displayed some swift amateur movements, like very high level on the basic go behinds on the mat etc. At one point Takeda has a really nice shot underneath for the ankle hold. Matsumoto did a solid job working Takedas arm and he's a really nifty worker in general. I really liked how when Matsumoto got entangled in the loose ropes Takeda immediately went for the kill by hitting a spear. Nice opening match.

Keita Yano & Chojin Yusha G Valion vs. Yuta Yoshikawa & Tomohiko Hashimoto - GREAT

 Valion and Hashimoto weren't much in this match, but they didn't stink it up either. Whenever Yano and Yoshikawa faced off it was nice, scrappy BattlARTS style action with both guys really peppering each other with kicks and open hands. Hashimoto is a slug but at least he hit hard when it was time to put a beatdown on Yano. Yano bumped big and ate some good punishment, he had a really pretty dropkick too. Thankfully, the finish was Yano vs. Yoshikawa again and it was really good pushing this into GREAT territory as Yano busted out cool STOs and his awesome bridging choke submission. Really nice stuff and didn't overstay its welcome.

Kyosuke Sasaki vs. Masanori Ishikura

Nice to see Ishikura getting a showcase match. This started with some really nice slick U-Style grappling before Sasaki upped the asshole moves and started grinding Ishikuras face. Ishikura fired back in style hitting a big dropkick followed by a massive dive over the top to the floor. After that the match was more on the pro style side but it ended up being really good action full of hard fought submission attempts. Ishikura certainly looked like he could kick and grapple with the best of them, and him busting out stuff like a Kido Clutch was really cool. Crafty finish where Sasaki is able to lock in an achilles hold, Ishikura looks in pain and tries to kick his way out only for Sasaki to turn it into a heel hook and tap him. Really enjoyed this one.

Kazuhiro Tamura & Masato Shibata vs. Kabuki Kid & Chon Shiryu & Bungee Takada

That heel trio is scummy as hell. But, because they worked a good structure with the heels working rudo tactics and building to hot tags, the match ended up working. Shiryu was by far the standout and looked great. When the two goons immediately started brawling with the faces he just stood in the ring and kept smiling and waving his flag like a prick. Then he hit this awesome flying kick to the floor. His kicks and kung fu spots are so cool and were a consistent highlight throughout the match. Kabuki Kid can hit a decent uppercut and thrust kick so that's all I need to be happy. Bungee Takada ain't much good but he manages to not stink up the match. Both Tamura and Shibata got hot tags, I really liked Tamura who's really quick and sharp at this point. Shibata is a tubby guy in a yellow singlet that says SHIBATA TIME and he just squishes people with his blubber. Shibata ends up turning against Tamura though giving the rudos an easy win. At least the fake Kabuki sprayed Tamura with some mist to make it memorable. Still, Shiryus performance here was insanely cool to check out, and the match was well worked.

The Library

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #15

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

Classic gritty SWS undercard action. Katayama rushes Kitahara to start, hitting a big tope where he connects his head to Kitaharas face and then goes to choke Kitahara with his shirt. Kitahara makes him pay dearly though. Every thing Kitahara executes on Katayama here looks like it was intended to murder. Katayama is a bit pedestrian but Kitahara kicks him in the mouth causing him to gush blood and bring some fight. Unbelievably gritty shit. The junior stuff was well executed too, but you want this for that kick and the visual of Katayamas bloody teeth.

 

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

Basically 2 great pairings doing their thing. Salvaje was great here carrying Asai like mad and working some beautiful exchanges, and then you had young Kitahara and Orihara engaging in some super violent, scrappy exchanges. Orihara was almost unrecognizable and kickpadded here, aside from one nifty kip up he works like a crazy kickboxer trying to match Kitahara blistering him with kicks. The match escalated when Orihara walked over and kicked Kitahara in the face causing Kitahara in turn to almost crush Oriharas skull and spit on him. Just the kind of uncalled for violence only Kitahara can bring to a random junior undercard pairing. I also enjoyed Asai briefly putting a beating on Orihara. Orihara in turn totally smoke Asai with a massive moonsault to the outside. And man Salvaje looks tremendous here. Wrestling can be so simply and brilliant sometimes.

 

Koki Kitahara & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Super Tiger 2, Fortune Dream 6/11/2018 - FUN

The non-Kitahara guys in this match are quite pedestrian, but Kitahara single handedly makes this a fun match. He's quite old and not as thick as in his prime anymore, but still a formidable bastard. He kicks people in the face and acts like a bastard. He even busts out a Shiranui to psych out Marufuji. All the Kitahara/Tiger exchanges were genuinely cool wrestling too and I wish we had some old man Kitahara in CAPTURE. He still hit that sweep kick with near perfect timing.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project

Thoughts on 30 minutes of Volk Han vs. Zaza Grom

 

Volk Han vs. Zaza Grom, RINGS 6/24/1999

Opening 20 minutes of this or so were fantastic and some of the greatest shootstyle grappling I‘ve ever seen. You know Grom is a badass when he is like 35 here and as grey as a caesar. This is all about Groms ability to takedown Han at will and Han trying to counter that. Naturally Han is really great at creating incredible counters, but Zaza is also really great at creating incredible counters to those counters. It starts like the usual Han deal, with Han getting a rope break in the first minute. Then Han loses another point on a break and one on a technicality, and it seems like no big deal, but Zaza keeps racking up points. Suddenly Han is with his back against the wall, and then he eats a vicious shotai and he‘s out of points. I really wanted the last 5 minutes to be more epic considering how great they had built it up but sometimes you just gotta ride it out. Incredible showing from Grom regardless, and another piece of untouchable Han work.

WMF Marvelous Days 7th 12/27/2003

 GENTARO & Yuko Miyamoto vs. Junji Tanaka & Mineo Fujita

Junior opening match! This was JIP and I really would‘ve liked the whole thing. Junji is such a fun technician to throw into a match worked at a fast pace, really mixes it up nicely with all these athletic juniors. GENTARO is just super sharp, and he will also turn around and throw nice punches. Miyamoto was in young lion trunks here and already looking really polished and athletic. He hit a springboard diving headbutt with crazy distance and later almost killed Fujita with a brutal lariat. Fujita also looked good busting out cool flying armbars and triangle chokes. Everything looked good and they never lost a step, this gets the full indy point for these kind of fun little matches.

Yoji Anjoh & Koichiro Kimura & Ricky Fuji vs. Mr. Gannosuke & Chocoball Mukai & GOEMON

What a match up. Pretty fun stuff for the WAR 6 man-like randomness of it all. Anjoh was fun mugging and throwing punches, Kimura was stiff, Fuji and GOEMON did some cool ratboy exchanges together (did either of them ever face Yoshinari Ogawa?), and Mukai was cool trying to stand up to the shooters and putting his weird finishing hold on people. Gannosuke was basically Choshu here, just hard lariats and sharpshooters and it was cool. I was hoping for a Gannosuke vs. Anjoh faceoff but the Anjoh/Mukai finish was also pretty nice. Everything you can ask for from a random undercard 6 man.

MIKAMI & ONRYO vs. Asian Cougar & Tomoya Adachi

Spot after spot, but if you want spots, these guys will deliver pretty much the best you can get. Cougar had switched his stuff up a lot since the 90s, and he still had a bunch of crazy moves out of nowhere. Sleaze lucharesu boy Tomoya Adachi is a cool addition too and he looks good, really liked his reverse wheelbarrow hold which lead to Cougar once again flying in with a leg drop. MIKAMIs athleticism is crazy during this time, his dive looked like he just jumped from the ceiling, he also busts out a huge moonsault elbow drop, and a big swanton bomb from the top of a ladder. Ladder stuff was fun as they didn‘t take too long setting everything up and they pulled everything off. Loved all the Onryo character moments during the finishing stretch. This was a lot of fun.

GARUDA vs. Tsubasa

Garuda already had suffered a bad neck injury at this point that would cut off his career, but for a guy with a neck injury, he was pretty good in this. Very solid match. Tsubasa showed a lot of spunk, bitchslapping Garuda, taking him out with a spectacular dive, hitting a flip senton and then kicking Garuda in the face etc. He even targeted Garudas bad neck. Pretty good match although it suffered a bit from too many junior matches on this card.

Dick Togo & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Kazuya Yuasa & Seiji Ikeda

Solid if a bit by the numbers heel performance by Togo & Kuroda, cutting off the two young lions. Ikeda was this pudgy guy that they were trying to turn into something, and he had pretty good fire. Kurodas stuff doesn‘t annoy me as much as usual because he is supposed to be an annoying heel here, and he even sets up stuff for Togo in nice ways here and there. Togo was the best guy in the match getting fire out of these schlubby youngsters and hitting really high end sentons. Given a bit more tenure Togo could‘ve done the impossible and amde Kuroda matches watchable on a regular basis. Young guys were kinda bland so it doesn‘t amount to anything more than a solid formula match.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Mammoth Sasaki

This is what you buy the show for. Tenryu lowers himself to filthy WMF to teach their boy Mammoth a leason. I think I liked this more than Tenryu/Kojima, as from memory this had more awesome Tenryu moments, a bigger asskicking and young Mammoth trying to take down the legend. The opening moments had some fun tubby guys rolling on the mat moment before Sasaki decides to really go for it to which Tenryu responds by simply taking him down and torturing his bad leg a bit. However Sasaki won't let up and soon both guys are throwing punches. Mammoth decides to start the garbage brawling by taking the match to the outside to which Tenryu responds „Sure, you can have it“ and smashes a fucking bottle on his head. Tenryu keeps flinging stuff at Mammoth and really puts a WAR sized assbeating on him just kicking him in the face and pasting him with lariats over and over while Mammoth is selling all big and sympathetic. I wish the 2^nd half were a little less one sided altough Mammoth gets in a good one on Tenryu when he smashes him with the chairs (to a befuddled „He's doing this to ME?“ reaction) and he gets over big just for the amount of punishment he is able to survive before going down. 

The Library

Catching up with French Catch

 

Gilbert Leduc vs. Bert Mychel 4/16/73

Gritty as hell grappling match between two guys who look like dock workers or pup owners. That is kind of the best kind of old school match, and this was a really great version of that. Mychel is a Belgian greco olympian. He‘s built like a bear and looks a bit like Dick Murdoch, with a mean scowl. I think I‘ve yet to see a Belgian wrestler who wasn‘t awesome and Mychel did his country proud. This was low on flash but high on slow, gruelling struggling in and out of holds. Sometimes smooth and slick can be cool but there‘s an art form to working a slow headscissor or headlock that makes these kind of matches really engrossing. Both guys legit skill came into play too, as there were some cool quarter nelsons and some more uncooperative than usual scrambles over pins and holds. Highlights include some really painful looking handwork, Leduc deciding to hit lightning fast takedowns 20+ minutes into the match and one of the most painful looking, shoulder popping struggles over a butterfly suplex attempt that i‘ve ever seen. The fallaway slam over the rope was also totally unexpected an an absolutely insane bump that really ramped up the drama for the finish. Also, while the match never broke out into a complete slugfest, but they do slug it out here and there, and when they do they just smash the shit out of each other like it‘s France or something. Insanely skillful match that was real engrossing and one hell of a match overall.

Maurice Dumez/Georges Cohen vs. Antonio Montoro/Anton Tejero 4/30/73

Another absolutely beautiful match from France. Chock full of wonderful exchanges. Yes, you‘ve heard it before, but the match had a few outstanding moments. I think Cohen is one of the best technicos on the French scene, but Dumez completely stole the show from him here. Dumez was this lithe, athletic stud who had amazing grace on all his stuff and threw the most brilliant armdrags in the universe. He threw one hell of a suplex, too. The Spaniards were excellent stooges as usual. They did a good 10 minutes of straight wrestling to open this which is always nice, and went back to competitive wrestling even after trying heel shenanigans. Montoro was this aged technico who wrestled like an old bastard who still knew a few nifty technical moves, which is a really cool character, and he threatened to steal the technicos thunder with some of his moves. He‘d come flying off the tope, even leaping at people, and busted out some ridiculously elaborate throws and a great version of that spinning backbreaker we all love. Tejero had grown out his hair at this point making him look pompous and he bumped and stooged as hard as he always does, what a truely dedicated professional wrestler. All falls had really good finishes and the ending was a hoot with Montoro getting pounced across the ring by a miscommunicated move and then Cohen doing a feverish exchange and just darting outside the ring. Another gem from the French trove, if you ask me.

Billy Catanzaro/Pierre Bernaert vs. Mr. Montreal/Vasilios Mantopolous 6/5/72

This was a swimming pool match. All these guys displayed some amazing footwork and timing considering they were wrestling in a shaky, floating ring. This was pretty much a 30 minute comedy squash, wrestled at the highest possible level, like you are watching a couple gods taking a night off and making jokes to put some smiles on their audiences faces. Can you imagine if All Japan had undercard comedy matches like this?! With this kind of obscene workrate and athleticism?!? I really enjoyed the contrast of the Montreal/Mantopolous team, having Mr. Montreal a big body builder type who specializes in freakish strength spots and Mantopolous who is a lightning quick junior. Heels were amazing stooges as you expect, with Catanzaro being brilliant as usual. The man really had all time chemistry with Mantopolous and they breezed through one brilliant exchanges after another. Mantopolous George Kidd style technical trickery looked good in this kind of match. I also really enjoyed how Catanzaro kept teasing the falls into the water, like he was really a master of just barely hanging on to the ropes by his toe, he teases that plunge for 20+ minutes while Bernaert just kept falling into it through miscommunication spots, these two had a fun dynamic. There were a few vicious bits of Catanzaro on offense but they made less than 10% of the match. Jokes were funny, and the match stayed interesting through out as they kept mixing up things to do. If you want to lean back and watch a light hearted 30+ minute workrate sprint, check this out.

Kamikaze vs. Nicolas Priore 5/22/72

Kamikaze (possibly Modesto Aledo, or some imitator) is a really cool character. The creepy look that kind of reminds me of Fantomas, the strange mannerisms coupled with the esoteric martial arts bullshit and unorthodox athletic moves, it makes for a really compelling package. I love martial arts bullshit, and this was some high grade martial arts bullshit. Loved his re-entry into the ring, as well as how quickly he would dive to and over the top rope to attack his opponent. Priore was a good straight man to this weird monster, and they got tremendous heat and drama for their stuff. Kamikaze took a huge bump to the ring apron and seemed done but Priore apparently ended up bleeding from Kamiakzes karate chop assault and the referee ended up stopping the match which is always a memorable ending. Nice introduction to the Kamikaze character.

Assorted Japanese Handhelds

 Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Masanobu Fuchi, AJPW 3/24/1992

This channel is really dropping gem after gem. The crowd for this was super hot, and kind of split between their love for Misawa and wanting Fuchi to pull off a huge upset. Naturally Fuchis reaction to becoming a fan favourite is being a dick, like he gets a big pop and the first thing he does is go over and grind his elbow in Misawas face. This was all about how Misawa could blow away Fuchi in 45 seconds if only he got to unleash his elbows but Fuchi works a smart match evading his downfall for as long as possible. Really nice basic work of Fuchi controlling early and putting over Misawas elbows as absolutely devastating whenever they connected. A cool cut off happens and Fuchi starts stretching and twisting up Misawas leg. Misawa does his cool stoic "acting unphased but hobbling across the ring" selling. I loved how Misawas first move after the comeback is the facelock which is a move that is established as being able to beat Fuchi in 1992. They even protect Fuchis finisher! And the crowd went nuts for those nearfalls. I kind of wanted Fuchi to make another big comeback rally, but I always want more Fuchi. Really good match, anyways.

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Shunji Kosugi, NJPW 11/19/1984

Young lion Hashimoto footage is kind of scarce, so any find like this is welcome, and against the mysterious Shunji Kosugi no less! This was a typical NJPW young lion affair, lots of groundwork. The trademark viciousness of Hashimoto was not all over the match but it was present, at one point he hit a vicious kick combo. He also busted out a really fast belly to belly suplex, and really grinded into holds with his bodyweight. I thought this was gonna get really good in the last minute when Hashimoto turned up the heat hitting some gnarly headbutts and bitchslapping Kosugi, but then Kosugi just kind of pinned him.  Still it's very nice to see all the basic ingredients of what made Hashimoto so great being in place in his first year of wrestling.

Time to FU*CK

 Fugofugo Yumeji & Hiroaki Moriya vs. Hideaki Sumi & Yuki Toyoura, FU*CK 5/30/2021

Man, Fugo is super broken down, like he can barely walk, but he is still one menace in the ring. He looks so tough, like it would hurt you if you hit him, and when he's throwing hands he is just killing you. All the Sumi vs. Fugo exchanges here where hard as fuck, no trained monkey show for sure. Sumi also did a pretty decent job torturing Moriyas arm and I was just going to write down that they worked a well rounded match, but then Fugo sprinted across the ring to clock Sumi in the jaw again. Moriya and Toyoura are absolutely nothing special but their involvement in the match is so miniscule and I kind of liked Moriya, who is weirdly old, like older than Fugo here, doing something of a Tenryu impression. You want this for the old guys killing each other, and I really liked that Fugo and Sumi even got to do the finish. Yes it was a bit slow, but it felt like a fight to the  death. These kicks from Sumi were no joke for sure, and Fugo took them right to the skull.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Hiroaki Moriya vs.  Tatsuhiko Nakagawa & Hiroyuki Iwahara, FU*CK 1/3/2022

This starts as Fugo & Nakagawa vs. Iwahara & Moriya, but about a minute into that Nakagawa decides to attack Fugo and it turns into this match. Bad bad decision, because holy mother of god Fugo decides to absolutely murder him. The opening exchange of this may have been the most violent thing of the year, it starts as basically two tough old guys who won't back down beating on each other and then FUGO completely escalates it with a headbutt that sounded like a rock cracking. I thought things couldn't get more violent then that and Nakagawa looked like he was having an aneyurisma, but then Fugo headbutted him in the face and then stomped on his bleeding mouth. Totally out of nowhere and hideously brutal. The rest of the match is pretty good too, obviously not on that level, but surprisingly decent for a FU*CK match. We get a better look at Moriya here, he is built like a potatoe, all lumpy and no arms, and his Tenryu stuff looks pretty nice here as he and Fugo put a good beatdown on Iwahara with Moriya busting out some nice kicks to the face, punches and lariats. The highlight though was obviously Fugos crazy suicide dive from that tiny ring. He looked like the craziest motherfucker on earth in this match, all while working FU*CK in a toy ring in front of like 12 people. You have to love the man.

GAEA DEAD HEAT 7/2/1997

 Chigusa Nagayo vs. Rina Ishii

Usual good Nagayo rookie squash. Ishii has really good energy and survives some nasty punishment from Nagayo, who kicks and lariats her in the face and comes up with dangerous shoot submissions. Could've been something if Nagayo had sold anything that Ishii threw at her, but she just kept popping up. Valuable lesson for Ishii I guess.

Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Makie Numao

This was JIP and looked like a really good match. Hokuto has her bad knee and does a bunch of really great desperation selling. You think Numao would get killed but she gets some nice bursts capitalizing on an injured Hokuto. In the end KAORU has to try and survive and it produces some neat exchanges. Yamada while not at physical peak anymore looks really good spin kicking people in the face and she and KAORU do some nice stuff working around her finisher.

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima & Maiko Matsumoto & Hiromi Kato vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu & Sakura Hirota

8 very talented rookies tumbling around.  Solid exchanges throughout, but it was largely mindless. They just kept cycling through the matchups and doing their stuff. Things reved up a bit around the middle point as Kato and Satomura had a scrappy exchange with Kato trying to target Satomuras bandaged arm. The Matsumoto/Hirota exchanges were really fun, I get plenty entertainment just out of Matsumoto hitting weird Atomic Drops. The finish was Nagashima vs. Uematsu and it was kind of the least spectacular match up.

THE LIBRARY

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #19

 

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

Tobita is bleeding, because he just faced Mokujin Ken. Imagine getting punched in the face by Ken and then Toba comes in to you also punch you in the face. This match is just Toba beating the fuck out of a bleeding Tobita who won‘t quit. Tobita is fired up and he hits back with a Shunji Takano level crowbar kneedrop to Tobas face. I have a feel these two would have an epic match if given a little longer but they go to a 5 minute draw that Toba wins by referees decision. Still, Toba punching a bloody Tobita in the face is awesome.

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

I think Onita is a Kurisu guy, but he‘s not very good here. He grabs a chair to try and defend himself from Tobas strikes, but he doesn‘t really swing the chair very hard at Toba, which is weird for a Kurisu guy. Another 5 minute match and it was pretty weak and awkward due to Fake Onita sucking.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

EMLL in 1990 #4 - 1/26/1990

Watch

Super Gallo & Remo Banda vs. Panico & Simbolo, CMLL 1/26/1990

Rather skippable match that was largely dominated by rudo shenanigans. Gallo is a fun character and got in some nice sequences, but the rest of this was cheap shotting. Both technicos took some nice bumps for the rudo beatdown and at least got the win in the end. Poor Banda seems to be unable to look blowaway good despite being clearly talented.

Ciclon Ramirez & Rafaga Azul & Octagon vs. Canelo Casas & Fuerza Guerrera & Jaque Mate

This started out with two really nice mat sections, one between Octagon and Canelo and one between Ramirez and Jaque Mate. Soon rudo tactics crept in though and Fuerza was punching people in the face. The rudo beatdown went a bit long, but they picked up the pace quick with some really fast rudo stooging and sequences. I‘m not sure if Octagons weird bottom rope dive was a mess up or he just kind of didn‘t feel like busting out a huge dive. Faces ended up winning 2:0 on kind of a fluke which felt a bit pointless even though it was a solid match.

Pierroth Jr. & Ulises & Gran Markus Jr. vs. Popitekus & Javier Llanes & Huracan Ramirez II

Really really good, long slow building match that was full of good exchanges and told a story. As usual we get two very good opening mat sections. Really enjoyed Ulises/Ramirez, there even was an UWF leglock, and Pierroth Jr./Llanes was good in a different way. Pierroth Jr. Really deserves to be considered up there with the likes of Fit Finlay when it comes to vicious badasses. He really worked over Llanes face in nasty fashion, who shot back by handling Pierroth by the mask. Popitekus/Gran Markus Jr. Was a heavyweight matchup and also really good, these two work their stuff in a way to really make themselves look like behemoths. Markus initially upset Popitekus by pulling his hair and tagged out, so the crowd was buzzing when they faced off for the second time. First fall was really long and developed as they really go deep on each matchup, which was really nice to see. They switch up the matchups in the second fall, with Popi engaging in some really cool quick exchanges. The eventual rudo beatdown was really good, as they kept mixing up the violence. First you got guys getting punched in the face, then getting booted in the face, finally Llanes got his kidney worked over in nasty fashion. Technicos seemed to be making a comeback but then the rudos made Popi take a gigantic bump over the rope, dispatched Ramirez and submitted Llanes. Pretty badass showing and got me excited for the bigger matchup of the rudos facing Los Brazos the next week!

Angel Azteca & Apolo Dantes & Cesar Dantes vs. Pirata Morgan & Verdugo & Hombre Bala

This started out with some comedy and shtick, but once they started wrestling, holy fuck they started wrestling! Plenty of tricky, unusal exchanges. Clearly Los Infernales are all timers at working a lucha trios. They probably lightened up their act a bit here, doing a lot of stooging and bumbling acts to send the fans home happy, but they still hit a lot of freaky triple team moves, including one where they gorilla pressed the other guy to the outside. 3Rd fall had more oddly coordinated multiman sequences and some really great stuff built around the STAR, including the Dantes brothers putting the REVERSE STAR on los Infernales. I‘m a sucker for a good star so I enjoyed al that. This was my first time seeing the Dantes brothers and they looked pretty good and decently athletic, but this was largely the Infernales show.

THE LIBRARY