RIP Goro Tsurumi

 

Goro Tsurumi & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Great Kojika & Motoshi Okuma, AJPW 11/3/1977

A rare lock at pre-heel turn Goro. This is JIP 10 minutes in so unfortunately we don‘t get any young Goro matwork, but what we got was really fun. Plenty of Goro and Animal running wild on offense. Animal is notoriously an offensive dynamo and his dropkicks, airplane spin etc. all looked great. Goro also shows a big offensive variety, throwing big dropkicks, as well as things like a swinging neck breaker, kitchen sink etc. Of course the best part were Goros punches which he lands right to the throat. Okuma and Kojika are as good a pair of nasty bastards as you need them to be, trying to rip peoples nose of, generally being really vicious etc. Also loved all of Okumas headbutts. 3Rd fall was the kind of heated bloody affair you want from these 70s matches, Goro takes a bunch of postings and takes a beating while selling his life draining out of him. Needed a couple more Tsurumi punch combos to be epic, but Kojika taking the win with a surprise knee off the top to the back of the head was quite great. This was really fast paced, heated, and fun.

 

Goro Tsurumi vs. Fumihiro Niikura, NOW 12/11/1992

This low key ruled. Stubborn, uncooperative veteran battle with a few great moments, mostly Niikura punching Tsurumi in the face. We start nice with Niikura bitchslapping Tsurumi in the ropes. Tsurumi goes right to try and work over Niikura with some toe kicks, but Niikura connects a leg kick. Clearly neither of these guys are taking bumps. They work the mat for a bit with Tsurumi doing a cool rolling, really hooking Niikuras arms and shoulders, and Niikura twists out into an armbar in slick fashion. They stand up and now things get really good as Niikura starts raining his awesome crazy punch combos on Tsurumi. Tsurumi gets fired up and tries to fire back with his own cool punches and backfists but Niikura is better and keeps hitting awesome punches and kicks. Niikura has a really great counter where Tsurumi tries for a Fujiwara armbar but Niikura reverses it into one of his own. He tries it again but Tsurumi kicks him in the balls and pins him. And not a single bump was taken!

Assorted Kuishinbo Kamen

 

Kuishinbo Kamen vs. MIKAMI, Osaka Pro/Kuishinbo Kamen Produce 12/15/2010

It‘s a serious Kamen match baby! They basically wrestle a straight juniors match until Mikami pisses Kamen off by going for the mask. That causes Kamen to snap and beat the shit out of Mikami with fucking insane dropkicks and open hand slaps. Awesome. This resembled the better WAR junior matches as in it had scrappy violence, cool flying and one absolutely insane huge highspot that I am not going to spoil. But it‘s safe to say that Mikami is an absolute lunatic. Finishing run was a bit more standard stuff but there were some nasty face kicks and face stomps and Kamens fire was great. I thought the constant rollups were cool as both guys are the type to win a match with a tricky roll up, so the ending didn‘t feel like bullshit. This was a gem.

Kuishinbo Kamen & Black Buffalo vs. Masahiko Kochi & Magnitude Kishiwada, 7/30/2010

Another violent match with no jokes at all! The passion and fire these guys put on for a crowd of like 200 people puts all current wrestling to shame. This was less about Kamen the asskicker and more about Kamen the sympathetic taking a beating. Kochi and Kishiwada sure were out to kill the clown here. Plenty of stiff blows and chair shots. I have no idea how old Kochi lucked into this match but he looked good dishing out kicks and taking some stiff headbutts from Kamen. Buffalo is a great secondary guy who can tag in and hit mean lariats and leg drops. And Kishiwada is a damn great monster shrugging people off and killing them with his lariats and bomb-ladden moveset. Kamen going for Kishiwadas mask and then hitting his super stiff looking corner dropkick was great. The finishing stretch was surprisingly elaborate and had a few convincing nearfalls without going overboard, always staying true to the Kamen underdog story. No downtime or filler, just a great heated match.

LLPW Blooming Ultra Wild Dance 8/29/1993

 Watch

 Semi Finals: Eagle Sawai vs. Noriyo Tateno

This was very ground based and alright. Tateno struggling to lock holds in on Sawai due to her large frame added some interest. Tateno worked this as the veteran star grounding and containing her beastly opponent. It was no Itsuki Yamazaki in JWP performance, but it was decent enough and I was into Sawai overcoming her. The spot where Sawai crushed Tatenos bridge looked downright murderous.

Semi Finals: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito

This went 11 minutes and we got about 7:30 of it. We get pretty much the opening , and then the ending section, both of which are really great. Starts like a Choshu/Hashimoto match with Saito trying to blow Kandori away with her kicks and Kandori just being an impossible badass. I like while Saito is good enough to not get tapped out right away by Kandori, she still pretty much got her leg mangled. Also check out Saito selling her shoulder earlier. Ending had Kandori busting out several really great Fujiwaraish counters and Saito doing her best outmatched fighter trying to pull of an upset performance. I‘m salty about this missing 3 and a half minutes.

Bull Nakano & Mima Shimoda vs. Rumi Kazama & Yasha Kurenai

Opening minutes of this was the kind of hot interpromotional warfare your brain craves. Nakano is as good of a monster as you need shrugging people off and blasting them with lariats, Kazama kicks the crap out of her, Kurenai is an eye-stabbing trouble making fiend, and there‘s brawling and a staff and nunchakus getting brought in. Middle portion was a bit middling as I was annoyed by Bull and Mima kind of no selling their opponents, but the ending made up for it as we get Rumi and Yasha unloading their big moves on Mima, more staff-bashing and Yasha dramatically trying to survive Bull. This was plenty enjoyable.

Finals: Shinobu Kandori vs. Eagle Sawai

This starts out great right away with Sawai going for the powerbomb and then spiking Kandori with a Randleman-esque slam. Pretty much every 1993 Kandori match is gonna be scrappy and full of bone breaking submission work and this had plenty of face kicks, smacks and nasty knee bars. Sawai isn‘t someone people rate highly but I enjoyed her as a big monster throwing Kandori around which is different from her usual opponents. Ending was great as Sawai seemed to be crumbling from Kandoris submission onslaught until Sawai started throwing her with those big uranages. Kandori can‘t put her away with powermoves so she has to come up with a Fujiwara-ish counter. Scrappy and good.

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2022 MOTY Project #4

 

Konaka Pale One vs. ONRYO, 666 1/10/2022

It‘s the spooky ghost vs. The spooky yoga master. No way on earth I wasn‘t gonna love this match. Onryo looked rough as hell, seemingly gassing and flubbing things, but thanks to Konaka the match still ended up being good. Indy guys like him deserve a ton of credit for mixing their more esoteric inventive offense with super solid old school wrestling. He can do both elaborate fancy stuff like the absolutely insane Asai DDT into the sukhasana pose as well as hit a really great basic knee drop, set himself up for a posting in a fun way and work a snug sleeper. Not to mention his throat chops. All in all Konakas stuff feels like the best possible cross of modern day juniors wrestling and an old US territory TV match. Konaka also did a good job selling Onryos filler legwork and making things like the figure 4 look like a struggle. Things pick up in a big way for the finishing stretch thanks to Onryo uncorking his big bombs, with Konaka getting absolutely spiked on a Tiger Driver. The ending mix of impact moves, Konakas cleverness (using a surprise corner choke to set up a springboard move was really great) plus Onryos propensity to end matches with pin combos and/or blasting his opponenent with radiation dust was super cool. And Konaka countering the Onryo clutch has to be the spot of the year. This was a bit sluggish here and there due to Onryo but if Konaka has a few more performances like this he might make a run for sleeper wrestler of the year.

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. 801 Kenichi & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 3/9/2022

I am counting this as a handicap gauntlet match, because Yamamoto faces both opponents in matches with a 10 minute time limit right after another, and he has a pretty great performance here going 20 minutes against these scrubs. Kenichi had a lot of grappling with Kenichi not being very useful but Yamamoto being good enough to carry things. Surprisingly Kenichi had some nice suplexes and Yamamoto built some good stuff around that. Really dug Yamamotos shoulder dislocating armbars from underneath. Kenichis vader hammers were really ugly but he got tagged hard by Yamamotos kicks and open hands. Shimizu match was just a rush. I thought Shimizu was gonna suck from his flabby look and shitty opening dropkick, but he had some solid submission work, and he was game to get hit really hard. Yamamoto just bludgeons him with nasty stabbing elbows and kicks. There was this great moment where Shimizu went for an abdominal stretch and Yamamoto battered his way out of it. Great Yamamoto performance.

 

GENTARO vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa, FREEDOMS 7/9/2022

Why they had to JIP this one? What we saw was damn good. Basically Takaiwa braining Gentaro with disgusting elbows and lariats and Gentaro trying to contain him with some excellent arm attack work. Gentaro looked really good like the hair to a Nishimura type but doing his own thing. Loved all the submission attempts and his beautiful suplexes. Takaiwas selling wasn't super expressive but he sold that he was pushed to the limit and his arm was bothering him which is more than you can expect form Takaiwa. The ending turned into a Takaiwa bombfest but the actual finish was memorable with Takaiwas arm going limp on a lariat and Gentaro getting punched in the face in really nasty fashion. Last counter was a thing of beauty.

 

2022 MOTY List

Best of the Velocity matches #2

 Chavo Guerrero vs. Funaki, Velocity 6/8/2002

Nifty four and a half minute match. Chavo is like a slicker Arn Anderson here, targetting Funakis back with a variety of cool offense, including a nasty dropkick to the kidney and a big backbreaker. I also really dug his smooth Stretch Plum. Funaki gets some nice brief flashes of offense including a really nice reversal into a Magistral. Funaki ends up going for some convoluted move trapping Chavos arm behind his back only to get kneed in the face and a Brainbuster for the 3. Cool!

Randy Orton vs. Rob Conway, Velocity 6/18/2002

WWE rookie match! Conways first TV appearance. They start working some nice basic grappling, both guys having really nice firemans carries. Conway goes for an up and over and seemingly twists his leg on the landing. They signal for an injury, having a bunch of officials come out, Orton is young and sportsmanlike and – Conway boots him in the face! Really effective opening that good a great reaction. I assume Conway was leading this and he does a solid job continueing to lead Randy through the match. Randy has a really nice dropkick, and wins with a big crossbody off the top which rules.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Albert, Velocity 6/18/2002

Aw yeah! Are these two gonna be our Velocity godheads? This was really good big vs. Little match! Opening of this ruled as both guys took some recklessly awkward bumps. Chavo gets flung around by Albert a bunch to start, but Albert misses a charge and flies over the top rope splatting on the floor in nasty fashion! Albert ends up catch a Chavo plancha though and drives him into the ringpost. Chavo continues to bump like a freak, getting gorilla pressed into the ring (getting his foot caught in the ropes and tumbling awkwardly), then he eats the catapult into the rope spot by just flying with his chin into the rope! Alberts big backbreaker was another highlight. Loved the way Chavo made his big comeback making use of the turnbuckle pad that Albert himself exposed (Albert needs to cheat to beat Chavo in a 4 minute match!). And then that finish! This was a blast.

Tajiri vs. Hugh Morrus, Velocity 6/18/2002

Two great big vs. little matches in one episode! Tajiri is so fucking good in 2002, it‘s unreal. They probably knew Albert and Chavo would do a bumpfest in the previous match so they don‘t event try for that and so they just slug it out. Tajiris precise kicks targetting Morrus‘ leg are so good, he even hits a slick dropkick through the ropes on him. I really liked how they worked the size difference, surprisingly Tajiri is higher in the pecking order than Morrus so he dominates, but they also have Morrus shrug off Tajiris chops and leather him with big chops of his own because Morrus is bigger and thicker. Tajiri does the Tarantula and continues to yank at Morrus leg against the rope which rules. Tajiri goes out of his way to let Morrus look good. Morrus makes the most of his 5 minutes on TV, he hits a really nice powerslam where he comes up limping paying tribute to Tajiris leg kicks, he hits an absolutely gorgeous huge elbow drop off the top and once again misses a huge moonsault. Brilliant finish.

Tajiri vs. Albert, Velocity 6/25/2002

These two are on a roll with good matches on Velocity, so seeing them go at it for 4 minutes is really nice! Tajiri is great once again, firing away at Albert with kicks from left and right, just looking awesome landing unexpected kicks. Really good big vs. Little work as Tajiri gets launched by an Albert kick out to the second rope and continues to attack. Albert has solid enough power offense, including a really nice stalling butterfly suplex. Finish was great as Albert went for a Vader Bomb but caught another kick coming down. Totally unexpected as I thought Albert was gonna go over this time. Tajiri remains strong killing giants!

W*ING 1/2/1994

 

Crypt Keeper & Nightmare Freddy vs. Jason the Terrible & Shoji Nakamaki

This was a tornado tag and some of the best stuff I've seen from the horror creatures. That doesn't say much, but the layout was right, as Keeper & Freddy were the heels beating down on the faces, while Jason & Nakamaki were your charismatic babyfaces bleeding, being charismatic and making fun comebacks. Keeper was really spry here, doing a flip entrance to the ring and then landing huge boots to people's faces like he was Kawada or something. I feel like a hypocrite for it, but Jason is really fun to doing his Undertaker stuff and hitting absurd spin kicks.

 

Shinichi Nakano vs. The Winger

Post-SWS Nakano matches are rare as hen's teeth, which is awful because he is such an interesting worker, as his basic technical stuff looks tough as nails, and then he will stand up and kick you in the kidney. This was an extremely basic juniors match (that was half missed by the camera guy) where Winger added nothing, but was still a decent Nakano carryjob. Nakano made Winger struggle for everything, and at one point popped Winger straight in the mouth with a huge punch and then proceeded to stomp and kneedrop the back of his head as if trying to give him brain damage. Japanese sleazy unprofessionality at it's best.

 

 

Head Hunters vs. Jado & Gedo

This was pretty much a sprint and made me think the Headhunters might be one of the most underrated tag teams ever. This was not just funny sleazy pro wrestling, it was basically like a Twin Towers vs. Rockers match, except far seedier, blood-drenched and violent. Headhunters were absolutely pasting the Twins with chairshots, powerbombs and their combined FATNESS, and I loved every second of it. Meanwhile Jado/Gedo were hitting superkicks and flying around, and the Headhunters did a really good job setting themselves up for their offense and bumping around like huge bowling pins. Also, the guy operating the camera finally gets his shit together and we get a full picture of this match. The only bummer was that the camera missed a huge Headhunter dive outside the ring. Watching this grainy footage zooming in on a Headhunter rampaging about in the stands of Korakuen Hall felt kinda like a found footage monster movie. The finish - a giant Headhunter moonsault - was one of the most ridiculous spots I've ever seen as the poor little japanese guy lying in the middle of the ring basically disappeared underneath as this giant fat dude splashed into the ring like free willy. Fantastic match

The Library

Even more matches from France that are so great you should see them

 

Michel Saulnier vs. Ricardo Torres, France 5/2/1970

 This was the 15 minute or so intensely worked lightweight sprint your brain craves. Insanely nimble, beautiful work. Saulnier worked this very much the same way he‘d work his matches against Le Petit Prince. Torres is no Petit Prince but he is quite athletic and a pretty cool wrestler. Seriously, these two just blow all other junior wrestling away, has wrestling ever been greater? Match was built around guys trying to catch basic headlocks and armlocks, with the most stupidly great escapes and transitions you‘ve ever seen to spice it up. The opening was just Saulnier working an arm lock and then a headlock and then Torres works a leglock for a bit but it was seriously brilliant. The second half was textbook stuff with flaring tempers and stiff european uppercut exchanges, plus some more convincing nearfalls than you expect. I adore how tenacious Saulnier is, doing things like spinning around to grab a leg after taking a bump. It wasn‘t some kind of epic overarching match but those are kind of the best when you have two guys who go this hard. Really really good stuff.

Guy Mercier vs. Peter Kayser, France 5/2/1970

This was very simple but insanely well worked. Kaiser was a big bald German and a physical specimen. What he did was extremely simple, but it worked. When he bodyslammed Mercier, it was like a bomb dropping. Mercier once again looked like the real deal. The guy just makes everything look awesome. This won‘t turn many peoples heads as there‘s not anything mind blowing, but it‘s just a bunch of insanely tight holds and throws with real weight in them. The opening move were Mercier snatches a cravate hold and Kaiser lifts him around was pretty crazy though. Then you had Mercier taking a crazy bump suicide diving into nothing. This was a good piece of TV to set up another match between them.

Guy Mercier vs. Peter Kayser, France 8/22/1970

Kayser got a pin over Mercier, so Mercier was out for blood here. This match was fantastically heated, with the fans being so firmly behind Mercier popping just about anytime he did anything. Kayser was more evil here, not as evil as other Germans named Kaiser that we‘ve seen on TV, but bad enough that people were getting up and looking like they wanted to jump into the ring. Kayser was pretty much a slobberknocker here beating down Mercier, while Mercier went for leg dives and sleepers to catch his breath, but eventually he engages in a full on slugfest with Kayser. Those bodyslams sounded massive, that ring must have been hard as concrete. Mercier wasn‘t the most charismatic but he was a fervent hero in this. Loved the little smirks he gave when Kayser started mugging to get into another strike exchange. Of course, when they traded uppercuts and chops they just leathered the hell out of each other. This was a good piece of business.

Daniel Schmid vs. Rocky James (4/13/1975)

1 Fall match going a bit under 25 minutes. This was a match between two guys with fantastic physique. I love that Schmid was like a mini Greg Valentine while Rocky James looked like a more stocky Jerry Lawler. The first 10 minutes of this were pretty much a study of upper body holds and throws which these guys executed at blinding speed. After that Schmid tags James with a punch to the jaw and the match turns into a potatoefest. Schmid looked grizzly here, bowling James out of the ring when he tried a leg stretch and then putting on a nasty Fuchi stretch of his own while stepping on James face. The crowd seemed confused about who the face was, so James made sure to be a bastard and clubbed Schmid hard with nasty forearms and punt kicks. I loved all the body shots that were thrown and the back and forth european uppercuts were some of the funniest we‘ve seen with both guys aiming at the jaw. Basically a mix of really fun wrestling and hard hitting by two barrel chested dudes who look like truck drivers.

Tarzan Goto Documentation #12

 

Tarzan Goto & The Sheik vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Tiger Ali Singh, FMW 3/29/1993 - EPIC

This was really fricking great, a raw straight injection of blood and insanity. Singhs swarm Goto right before the bell and Goto is pelted with saber shots. Luckily Sheik makes his heroic entrance as a big chant breaks out. He throws Goto a chair and it‘s go time. The fighting here was just bloody as hell and felt reckless. Singhs looked good just attacking their opponents relentlessly and the face stabbing was sick as hell. Sheik is as good as you need him to be here as a crusty old guy who draws big reactions punching and stabbing people in the face. Really loved the bit where Sheik tries bringing in a fucking beer bottle and gets clocked with the butt of a sword. Goto as good as you know him, bleeding like crazy and throwing great headbutts and lariats. Fucking crazy post match too as Sabu and Gladiator come in, Sheik turns against Goto blowing a fireball and they set the ring on fire. You have to love pro wrestling.

Tarzan Goto & Flying Kid Ichihara & Mr. Gannosuke vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Giant Korean, & Kim Soppo, BJW 6/10/1995 - GREAT

This was an elimination match as a series of singles matches and really unique. Nagasaki teams with two Korean guys, early BJW was weird. We start with Gannosuke vs. Soppo which was between alright and so-so, I liked Gannosukes dropkicks and his indian deathlock, Soppo seemed like a decent wrestler but they were both clearly unfamiliar with each other so they just kept it very basic. The unique thing is Goto and Nagasaki are at ringside and tempers are already flaring, when Soppo gets thrown out and suddenly you have Goto running him across the arena into a wall while Nagasaki throws a table at Gannosuke. Gannosuke ends up going ovoer and against GIANT KOREAN next. Giant looks like he has acromegaly and he wrestles a lot like Baba, brain chops and headbutts which is what you want from a Giant Korean. Still their match up is far from good as the Giant also likes to chinlock, but Gannosuke wins pretty fast with the Gannosuke Clutch. Now is when things get interesting, because Kendo Nagasaki in and he is in Dragon Master mode, just beating the live out of Gannosuke, torturing him with painful holds, he does a Magistral that looked like it almost ripped Gannsukes shoulder. All the while Goto is at ringside and he really wants to have a go at Nagasaki, when Nagasaki throws Gannosuke outside Goto goes after him with the chairs and these moments are over 9000 in intensity level. It looks like Gannosuke is gonna get squashed but he keeps hanging on. Eventually Nagasaki throws him out again and Goto has enough clocking Nagasaki with the chair. Now Nagasaki is bleeding and it seems Gannosuke might have a real chance to win the match 3-0… but then Nagasaki just drops him with the most awful piledrivers in history. 1,2,3, Gannosuke is out. There is a brief confusion where it seems like Ichihara is next but instead Goto comes in with a fucking fire extingiuisher, he doeses the whole ring and then lariats Nagasaki in the fog until he‘s out. This is a weird match to go GREAT on because the first two portions weren‘t much, but they ended up telling a compelling story that really had me at several moments, building to that epic ending, with Goto being integral to the whole match and doing a great job.

Tarzan Goto Documentation

George King, BattlARTS wrestler

 

George King vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima, BattlARTS 11/13/2002

To be honest with you, I was kind of expecting George King to be an awkward stiff, but he looked pretty good here. Obviously a bit green-ish here and there, but he wasn‘t lost on the mat, he opened with a nice big dropkick popping the crowd, he was willing to hit and get hit, and his suplexes were insane. Kurashima is a really fun bulky shooter and the match was some good big boy shootstyle action. Kurashima looked good trying to contain King with fast takedowns, he also had a crafty legbar reversal, some cool headbutts to the eye and a nice german suplex of his own. Elbow in the face was obviously the highlight and Kurashima also had a really nice german spiking King. This gets the full approval point.

George King & TAKA Michinoku vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Nobuyuki Kurashima, BattlARTS 4/13/2003

This was a BattlARTS tag alright. Give George King a ton of credit here, he knew you have to hit hard and bring it in this kind of match. TAKA was really fun and scrappy, and Ishikawa looked like such a master tearing him apart on the mat. The King/Ishikawa exchanges were a ton of fun as King can do some more complex stuff than you expect, there was this spot where Ishikawa went for a front choke, King lifted him into a powerbomb attempt only for Ishikawa to reverse into a rana, which was seriously dope. Kings WCW US Power offense, with his big dropkick, spinebuster and huge Germans is also really cool and a breath of fresh air in this environment. Once again I will say I don‘t understand why Kurashima did never amount to much in his career, the boy could go on the mat, throw some big damn suplexes and did I mention he was built like an absolute unit? The finish was TAKA vs. Yuki and while it was brief it was really good, with TAKA whipping out his cool head kicks and knee strikes and taking crazy bumps for Ishikawas suplexes. BattlARTS is just so great a random main event like this can be really good and different. So George if you are reading this and happen to have more of this stuff lying around it is much appreciated.

CAPTURE International 7/20/2022

 Sanshu Tsubakichi & Hiroshi Yamato vs. Daisuke Kanehira & Touki Hatano (?)

Fun as hell CAPTURE opening match which reminded me of those FUTEN opening matches where everyone dials up the stiffness, cuts out the bullshit and gives their best. Really really dug Yamato once again, who went barefoot into this therefore accentuating his Tarzan Boy-ish feistiness and Carl Greco-like grappling more. He may have been the best guy in the match, busting out cool flash submissions, a really great belly to belly suplex where he crunched the other guys spine against the guardrail before throwing him, and he worked hard in the second half bumping his ass off on that stiff mat and throwing out another big headbutt. He also shows good timing. The other guys are obviously limited but the CAPTURE format really allows them to shine. First half had some solid shootstyle grappling and the second had everyone busting out a few cool things. Hatano is a young kickpadded HEAT-UP guy and solid grappling and trading hard blows. I liked a handful of things he did on the mat and he had good fire. Tsubakichi is a lot of fun as old veteran guy throwing cool body shots and hitting an STO, he also almost caved in a guys face with a big enzuigiri at one point. Kanehira is obviously limited but I was surprised by him busting out some pretty cool shit in the second half. This was really good, honestly and I should check out more Yamato I think.

Rikiya Fudo vs. Keisuke Goto

This is a good match up! Fudo is consistently a highlight on these CAPTURE shows brutalizing everything in his path, and Goto is pudgy and feisty. This was as enjoyable as the match up promises, Goto running into a brick wall and Fudo just trying to take his head off. Fudo may also be the best guy in the world at using his weight, his basic side choke looks like it would really crush your ribs in. Goto does one or two nifty things and the „CAPTURE matches can end at any move“ rule makes this a really fun 5 minutes.

Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Mizuki Watase

Yoshida is a BJW guy who I think replaced Kosuke Sato on this show. This was largely solid but unspectacular with a few crazy moments, these guys are hardly brilliant on the mat and don‘t quite have the true CAPTURE reckless lunacy down when standing up, their elbow exchanges felt very stale BJW-ish as they took turns hitting each other. That said there were a few great moments, especially loved Watases senton against the guardrail, as well as the crazy head drop throw. And the finish was rotten stiff. I was iffy on parts of this but the big moments here got them on my good side.

Hokuto Ohmori vs. Takahiro Tababa

Ohmori is an AJPW guy who really doesn‘t feel on the level of the other guys on this show, imagine Jun Akiyama working CAPTURE in 1998 and getting outclassed by Nihao or Basara. He‘s really nothing on the mat and kept going for misstimed rolling elbows. I enjoyed Tababa brutalizing him with a kidney-stone-crushing spin kicks and some more vicious hits to the face. Not much to see here aside from Tababas kicks and his big bump for Ohmoris falcon arrow, but even we saw that bump in the opener.

Super Crafter U & Naoya Nomura vs. Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi

This was some good big boy basement shootstyle. I imagine I probably won‘t enjoy Doi and Arashis act in a regular wrestling promotion but the CAPTURE basement shootstyle dungeon setting adds a bunch of rawness and unpredictability to make their beef boy act compelling. I was surprised Doi looked pretty good, almost Nakanishi esque, he engaged in some good heavyweight shootstyle exchanges, took punishment and dished out some insane jaw cracking elbows and lariats. Crafter U and Nomura have formed NEO BLOOD and they are such a fun unit, I continue to enjoy Crafter Us tricky grappler who can dish out punishment act, and Nomura just constantly going for the kill with his spears is insanely entertaining. Arashi looked good as a powerhouse out of his element against the shootstylist Crafter, he also had a big senton that may have been the most violent on the show. Doi catching Nomuras spear was also a really good „guy tries to bulldoze but gets caught“ spot. I‘m not sure I really want more AJPW guys to show up in CAPTURE but this was insanely effective with the simple powerhouse vs. Shooter story and the match had plenty of brutality, actually made me want to see a Doi singles match vs. Nomura or another CAPTURE guy, which I really didn‘t expect going in.

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