Yumiko Hotta Matches

 Mariko Yoshida vs Yumiko Hotta, AtoZ 11/9/2003

Really great match which delivers exactly what you want. Early grappling was very cool, as Hotta is slower and less skilled but bigger. Yoshida was moving around her pretty fast but you get the sense that it’s hard to move Hotta, and when Hotta gets a hold of you it really sucks to get out. When Hotta tried to be more aggressive Yoshida would instantly reverse her, but then run into a wall due to Hottas stubbornness. There is one cool moment where Hotta has Yoshida cinched so tight Yoshida has to get a rope break because her bad arm is bothering her. The bad arm doesn’t even come up again but it’s just one of those random cool bits of sellings Yoshida does because Yoshida is a fucking great wrestler. Second half had some absolutely disgusting violence that was up there with any BattlARTS match, insane kicks, bare knuckle punches, Yoshida taking some absolutely insane punishment to make Hotta look like a total monster. It was still a very well worked match with some awesome submission counters to add to the violence. I also really dug Yoshidas “My soul is leaving my body” selling whenever Hotta would hit a particularily brutal shot. When Yoshida took her glove off to punch Hotta bare knuckle in the face it really felt like one of the most epic things you’ve ever seen. The finish was kind of genius too, as it seems like the one way to take out a tough lunatic like that. Sick ass match that felt as violent and cutting edge as the best of BattlARTS, Yoshida was clearly one of the best in the world still in 2003.

Yumiko Hotta vs. GAMI, AtoZ 2/29/2004

Seedy rotten bloodbath with both women bringing some serious violence. Brawling is often forgettable in joshi, that wasn’t the case here as GAMI immediately started busting Hotta open with Necro-level punches, headbutts and biting. Didn’t know GAMI was such a great brawler as she did a great job working over a bleeding Hotta. Her stoic demenaour also makes her look like a psycho. Hitting Hotta in the face with the paper fan was delightfully deranged. Hottas bladejob was also grizzly as her eye and mouth were full of blood, she looked like she got shot in the face. As soon as Hotta got control she also amped up the reckless violence by smashing GAMIs face with chairs. I also didn’t mind Kumiko Maekawa interferring in the match as it adds to the chaotic “anything can happen” feeling and GAMI looked like an even bigger badass when she was beating up two opponents. There was also the crazy moment where all the ring girls had enough of Maekawa and start jumping on her. They keep the crazy moments coming (big suplex into pile of chairs, GAMI randomly getting a table smashed in her face) and working a fast pace with out any letdown. The re-start may have been a bit unnecessary but I really liked the final 5 minutes with both of them pulling out all the stops with crazy out of nowhere strikes, big bombs, green mist being used, really good spectacle ending run. GAMI hitting a surprise rolling kick to a bloody Hottas head is about as good as pro wrestling gets. Early 2000s joshi has a bit of a bad rep but this was just great and belongs up there with the better brawls of the classic era.

Yumiko Hotta vs Manami Toyota, AJW 6/6/1999

Great match because it was free of the usual Toyota bullshit and Hotta was going after her with a vengeance. Basically Hotta would not allow Toyota to do her usual stuff so Toyota gets pissed and Hotta just tries to crush her. Hotta trying to crack Toyotas skull early reminded me of a rampaging Hansen. Even a basic back elbow almost seemed to take Toyotas head off. Toyota trying to stiff Hotta and tightening up her act by going for armbars etc. was really good. Even Toyotas dive came across as reckless. Last few minutes were pretty great and different from the usual joshi bombfest. I loved how Hotta would pull Toyota into armbars whenever she tried to go for her signature moves. Toyota figuring out a better way to hit her convoluted finisher was really cool. Even that one Toyota no sell kind of worked because she's supposed to be this indestructable icon who goes harder than everyone else and Hotta had clearly cracked her pride. Hotta destroying a stubborn Toyota with reckless headdrops and insane kicks made for quite the finish, too. Loved that face stomp as well. Not shootstyle but felt very uncooperative and like there was legit bad blood.

Yumiko Hotta vs Manami Toyota, AJW 1/22/1996

Savage violent car crash match, maybe the most brutal I've ever seen. Basically Hotta is a psycho monster and out to kill Toyota from the get go throwing full force kicks to her head and mouth. Toyota can't do her usual stuff so she is forced to fire back. Loved Toyotas violent retaliations, stomping on Hottas face, kneeing her, headbutting her bloody etc. Even her dropkicks seemed to land flush in Hottas face. I also loved her using that huge trophy to beat on a bloody Hotta and standing on her, surprised you didn't see that kind of thing more often in the 90s. Toyota trying to survive and catch Hotta with her crazy flying moves kept the middle interesting. Floor dropkick was certifiably insane. Finishing stretch was a bit the usual stuff though Hotta finding violent counters to Toyotas finisher attempts was pretty entertaining, not to mention her tendency to just go berserk with the kicks again. Probably concussed Toyota just barely pulling off the finish suited the chaotic nature of the match, I thought. Hotta isn't very good at selling but she kind of worked like a monster here so it worked and Toyota didn't do any no selling (to be honest she was probably legit damaged by Hottas psychotic onslaught). Not as interesting as the 1999 match but must watch for the sheer brutality alone, I thought.

K-WEST 10/29/2010

 Rare show from a mini promotion that was vaguely associated with K-Dojo! They have some cool dudes like Tadanobu Fujisawa and Masao Ando.

Takuya Iijima vs. Daisuke Masaoka

Solid undercard match. Iijima is a very fun big boy who throws cool kicks and knee drops that land with full bodyweight. He also had a cool Hashimoto-esque leg sweep that was unexpected. Masaoka does the bare minimum here working Iijimas leg and winning with a basic leglock in somewhat lazy fashion. Wouldn‘t mind to see more of Iijima.

SATOSHI vs. Southern Cross

Two interesting looking guys. Cross has a stark light blue outfit and mask, while SATOSHI looks like a dorky version of TAKA Michinoku. They tried to have a mat based contest. It was pretty basic but alright. SATOSHI had two nice suplexes at the end. Not much else to write home about.

 

Tadanobu Fujisawa & Dyna Mido vs. Masao Ando & Yuji Yoshida

Damn, I wasn‘t ready to see Masao Ando super buff and chiselled here. I thought that guy always had the tubby physique but he looked like a specimen here. His wrestling was very good, too. Early goings here were really good, reminded me a bit of a 90s NJPW Jr match. Mostly basic ground based stuff executed in really tight and interesting ways. Everybody was working super stiff, too, especially Andos kick that almost seemed to burst a guys chest. Fujisawa was also very good here as he knows how to be a violent prick. Dyna Mido was good early but kind of flubbed his brief run of offense during the second half. Unfortunately they don‘t deliver the Ando vs Fujisawa showdown that was the most promising match up in here. Nice stuff otherwise, love getting to check out guys like Ando and Fujisawa.

The Library

More Mutoha that is so good you have to see it

 Taro Yamada vs. Akira Jo, Mutoha 2/5/2023

Good to see Taro Yamada is still an excellent mat wrestler. This had tons of matwork that seemed to combine IWRG and quasi-shootstyle. Akira Jo is sleazy looking, but he’s not bad on the mat (can’t believe this guy used to be in IGF) and his more simplistic shooty holds contrasted Yamada more llave inspired matwork. Yamada also wasn’t afraid to bust out the neck cranking headscissor. The grappling had a number of close submission nearfalls that the crowd ate up. The progression from the holds to the bigger bumps was really good and reminiscent of something like a 70s Billy Robinson match as the holds could be used to set up a sudden suplex. Yamadas nasty bump did a great job at amping the stakes. I am not a big fan of Akira Jos thigh-slapping superkicks and knees but that stuff was done in moderation and they soon salvaged things with an awesome Necro-like punch exchange. LOVED Yamadas Santo-like tope trying to even the odds, and the finish. Based on this I would say Yamada is at minimum a top 5 wrestler in Japan, he looked great on the mat, engaged in some brutal stiff exchanges (including absolutely rattling Jo with a sick headbutt) and bumped like an absolute maniac. Very good experimental indy match in total.

GENTARO vs. Kenichiro Arai, 2/3 Falls, Mutoha 2/5/2023

Insane 60 minute grappling epic that felt reminiscent of Santo/Casas or Inoki/Fujinami. Tons of intense struggle and interesting twists on the most basic moves. It’s amazing how little of this was “classic” hold for hold sequences. At times it felt like they were re-inventing classic movements series as they were going along. The opening grappling where they fought over getting over/underhooks, struggling for a butterfly suplex attempt etc. alone felt amazing. Lots of grappling were both guys were struggling to lock in anything, takedown attempts got stonewalled, limbs getting stuck while trying to lock in a hold etc. so whenever somebody locked in a hold they would crank back hard. Arai has become quite great at these types of matches – his pin counters, insanely tight wristlocks etc. were all fantastic. At one point he started torturing Gentaro by grinding his chin into Gentaros nerves and it was amazing, like the minimalist grappling epic version of the Sasuke Special. Moves would always lead to pin attempts or near submissions or potentially set up a throw, keeping all the grappling meaningful. I liked the lengthy headscissor sequence where Gentaro kept trying to turn the headscissor into an armlock or pin attempt, all while trying to decapitate Arai. It was also pretty much the only lengthy hold sequence of the match which is pretty amazing. After the 1^st fall, every move felt important as you knew anything had the potential to be a finish. Figure 4 spots where both guys were trying everything to twist a leg or toe for a submission or counter were really good. The Figure 4 is probably the most tiresome Japanese big match spot but in this case both guys made sure to work it in the most spectacular way possible just working the escape as huge as you can, Gentaro looked like he was crawling out of a car wreck with his legs trapped when he got out. First 30 minutes of this were just fantastic grappling full of gritty struggle and inventiveness and like the whole second half was edge of your seat stuff. I have no doubt this is one of the greatest matches of all time, maybe the greatest.

 

Yasushi Sato vs Shunsuke Sayama, Mutoha 1/14/2018

This went 10 minutes and it felt like one of the best 10 minute matches I’ve seen. Just an awesome little bout. Sayama doesn’t do anything super outstanding but he is really solid, this built around Sayamas kicks vs Satos grappling, and Sayama looked very good kicking and grappling. His selling was also very good. Based on that alone I’d say Sayama must have been one of the better guys on the indy scene at this point. Satos penchant for out of nowhere Russian Leg Sweeps and cool ways to tie his opponents legs in knots was great, as usual. The Russian Leg Sweep is such a cool move to even the score. There was one really awesome mat exchange, and after Sayamas initial kick flurry the match went unpredictable. Satos figure 4 variations were awe inspiring. I love watching the man do his thing, he is truly a gem.

2023 MOTY List

Still Going Through Sportiva

 

Yasushi Sato vs Akito, Sportiva 11/30/2011

This is the earliest Yasushi Sato I’ve found and also his only SPORTIVA appearance so far. Sato used to work for Sportiva a lot and they livestreamed weekly events for free on USTREAM but IBM deleted all the videos when they bought USTREAM, for which IBM are forever my mortal enemies. This seems to have been filmed by a fan using his iPhone, not noticing an offical stream was going on just a few feet to the right, god bless him. The match is pretty damn great too. Yasushi Sato is a spry 45 years young here and he is the Yasushi Sato we all know and love. This was all on the mat and it was so unique and cool, both guys have a clear freestyle wrestling background and it was like watching Tamon Honda vs Tamon Honda. Most pro wrestling matwork is predictable, you have a guy in a headlock and then going through counters that you’ve already seen before, that wasn’t the case here as both guys immediately start scrambling and working calf slicers and leg rides. Sato especially has such unique ways to stretch someone, including some shoulder popping arm stretches, really an expert in entangling his opponent in weird ways. Akito was really good too, he had an absolute killer counter hold to Satos signature leg grapevine, and also dropped the old man with a reckless suplex. Finish was fucking amazing too. Really hope we get more stuff like this somehow because I can’t imagine Sato being anything less than incredible even in his early days.

 

Nori da Funky vs Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 8/1/2018

This was a match where they went all out giving everything they’ve got and it ruled. I enjoy the hell out of NORI~, and Ishida ain’t a bad wrestler at this point. Ishida handled himself well during the 70s grappling exchanges with Nori, and he did a cool job working a sleeper hold, a segment that featured a neat spot where Ishida stood on his head and bounced back as Nori tried to shake him off. He also did a good job taunting Nori and making the match personal by mocking his style, and he bumped like an absolute maniac for Noris power offense, absolutely spiking himself for Noris big boots and slams. Noris was great as ever with his Bret Hart-like straight forward approach. I enjoyed the opening grappling a lot and it lead to cool transition where Nori hit a suplex while exchanging holds, then worked over Ishidas back. Ishida may have done a wee bit too many fancy pants junior moves, but what the hell, this match was about the contrast of Ishidas style to Noris, and Ishida did work some more elaborate exchange than Noris typical opponents would allow. Second half was about Ishida unloading his fancy junior offense with Nori making awesome come backs catching him. Finish was several shades more epic than a match in Sportiva Arena should logically be but what the hell. Ishidas never did anything nonsensical and everything he did looked hurty, and Nori was great as an overwhelmed monster striking back. Great match that reminded me of something like Taue/Marufuji.

Nori da Funky & Hiroaki Ura vs Hiroshi Yamato & Michio Kageyama, Sportiva 8/15/2018

I thought this would be about a big squareoff between Nori and Yamato, but no, instead the focus of the match is wee little rookie Hiroaki Ura! And they did a mighty fine job with this match! Nori mostly plays big brother saving his partner, and Yamato and Kageyama are a really good pair of pricks beating the bricks off of Ura. There ARE some good exchanges between Nori and Yamato, though Uras role takes center stage. Ura looked really good – just the way he had to work to set up something as basic as a body slam added a lot to the match, and you end up respecting him for lasting has long as he did. Kageyama is a pretty good wrestler when he gives a shit, he leathered Ura with some really hard kicks and slaps here, and Yamato understand when he has to lay it in, really blistering Ura with chops. They also decided not to do too much beatdown and stretching and gave us an exciting second half that actually had me rooting for Ura. Very simple but well done match for what they were aiming for.

Hiroaki Ura vs Kouki Iwasaki, Sportiva 9/12/2018

This was by far the best rookie vs. higher ranked guy I’ve seen in a long time. Ura only does very basic stuff, but he gets the absolute most out of it. Most importantly, he understand how to hit his stuff in unpredictable ways. Usually these matches are super formulaic and predictable, but that wasn’t the case here. I give a lot of credit to Iwasaki, who was super giving and also really cranking up the viciousness. Ura drops Iwasaki with a gnarly body slam on the floor right away, and it’s on from the get go. Ura tries working the back but gets shut down hard by a reckless backbreaker from Iwasaki. Iwasakis kicks and knees were on point, and Ura just kept coming back in interesting ways. They got the right combination of crafty and vicious. Really really good match that achieved so much in just 10 minutes.

JWP Burning Summer 7/27/2008

Arisa Nakajima vs Pinky Mayuka

Short-ish opening match that had lots of dropkicks and some stretch holds. Shocking, I know! Pinky Mayuka is greenish and doesn’t throw very impressive dropkicks. Not a big surprise she quickly vanished out of the wrestling landscape. Nakajima is vicious and finishes her pretty fast. This very much a match to see and forget quickly.

KAZUKI vs. Hiroyo Muto

Joshi is always associated with super athletic car crash prints, but then you get two stocky workers like this. Muto wasn’t doing comedy at this point and instead worked more like a big bruiser with big chops and KAZUKI was trying to outmaneuver her. There are some fun odd spots, such as a moment where they both kept reversing Russian Leg Sweep attempts. Muto hit a really big cracking shoot headbutt at one point and KAZUKIS rolling takeover into a cool submission for the finish was pretty nice. That’s more than enough to get a match on my good side even though mostly everything else they did wasn’t much to write home about.

Toshie Uematsu vs. Tojuki Leon

This was more like what you associate with joshi. Car crash style match with a ton of no selling and blown spots. Disappointing since both these two are capable of having great matches with neat moments. There were some neat moments but overall the match never really got anything going due to the constant no selling and sloppy execution halting things. I‘ll admit the recovery of Leons blown dive attempt was remarkable and there were 2-3 nifty moments, especially Uematsus pin attempts and a cool reversal into a back stretch from Leon. But overall this was a mess.

Kaori Yoneyama vs. Command Bolshoi

This was kind of Bolshoi tour de force doing her thing with the cool submissions and neat 619 variations and hard shotais. Yoneyama is someone who can be quite great but also annoying, she was still finding herself at this point and kind of sloppy at times, I was also annoyed by her blatantly no-selling a dropkick to the face. This was solid but felt like it went longer than it needed to.

Ran Yu Yu vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki

Ran Yu Yu no longer had her super high end offense at this point, but damn she was still good. Her timing was still great, and she knew how to make something as basic as an elbow smash look killer. This was just a super cool veteran match up – they took things nice and slow which was a breath of fresh air after the hectic Bolshoi/Yoneyama match. Rans hit all these cool stiff kicks and knee drops to Kuragakis mid section. Kuragakis style mix of power and flying offense is cool as always, and it builds to a really neat end run full of cool lariats, elbows and neat counters from Yu Yu. The timing on everything was incredible. Really really cool stuff, both these two have good enough offense that they could just take turns hitting all their moves and it would be fine but they went out of their way to deliver a more thoughtful match.

Keito vs. Kayoko Haruyama

KEITO is one of those hidden badass wrestlers. Kickpadded and butch as hell, she’s a great 21^st century Toshiyo Yamada. This was quite the badass little war, just two tanks punting the hell out of each other. Keito was demolishing Haruyama with her kicks who fired back with awesome stiff lariats and cool spin kicks of her own. Match was pretty smart outside of the hard hitting too, I liked how Keito sold that she was loopy by a random sleeper attempt from Haruyama, so the followup Dragon Sleeper felt more intense. Keito is lower on the totem pole so early on Haruyama was outgunning her, before Keito was able to kick her in the face and then she just started trying to kick her head off. I also loved her crazy submission hold. Really fun intense stuff that doesn’t go long.

 

The Library

Keita Yano Documentation #5

 

Keita Yano vs Drew Parker, Tenryu Project 12/11/2022 - EPIC

I wasn’t sure how deathmatch guy Drew Parker would do going 30 minutes in a technical clinic, but he does fine. Maybe even one of Keitas better dance partners in a while. We start with lots of really beautiful hold for hold wrestling that felt reminiscent of a 70s classic without being too much of a rehash. Parker had some nice movements, particularily his bridging. There was plenty of struggle and Keita mixing in shootish counters. Whenever Drew could he would grab ahold of Yanos fingers and bend them in nasty ways. I loved how Keita, after making a solid pro wrestling comeback following a Parker control segment, immediately made sure to start stomping on Drews fingers. Subsequently whenever Parker would try any offense Keita would go for his hands and wrists. I also loved how Keita, when Drew went to taunt him immediately punched him in the face. I didn’t have a problem with Parkers comebacks and his offense focussed on moves that didn’t use his hands. The one weak pint was Parkers crossface – that really needed a bit more selling after how much work Keita had done on his hand. Keita responding to a somewhat limp wristed forearm by headbutting Drew right in the fucking face is why Keitas so great. Last 3^rd was almost all Keita just doing so much crafty intricate shit. Drew had few comebacks mostly basic rollups which worked extremely well, he was overwhelmed trying to survive and going for basic stuff whenever there was an opening, his Magistral cradle was definitely the most memorable Magistral I’ve seen in a while. Didn’t really like the draw finish as by all logic Keita should have had the victory here. Anyways, it was a very intricate, smart old school epic with lots of beautiful wrestling and a certified Keita masterpiece if you ask me.

 

Keita Yano Documentation Project