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