Keita Yano Documentation #6

Keita Yano vs Roberto Tanaka, Ice Ribbon 3/10/2008 - GREAT

It's very early no-ring Keita. Say what you will about Emi Sakura, but she gave Keita the chance to explore this unique avenue of pro wrestling very early on. Roberto Tanaka apparently would go on to become Ultimate Spider Jr. (I am not sure there is an Ultimate Spider Sr.). Tanaka was a kick padded indy worker here which is just fine. He looked like a competent pro wrestler and had no problem going at it with Keita in a Keita style match. Some nice matwork early on, with Keita who at this point was a BattlARTS guy already dabbling into llaves and WoS type grappling, but also keeping that shootstyle in it. Tanaka gets stretched a lot, but also looked talented. He had a very nice takeover, and I really liked how he countered Keitas bridging chokehold. Tanaka has some hard kicks, really brains Keita in the head at one point, and nice dropkicks, including one where he flies off a chair which is a high spot in this small office space. Last 5 minutes are really awesome with both guys throwing vicious strikes and trying to submit each other. I was impressed they kept a solid pace for 15 minutes, even knowing Keita can be really great without a ring the stuff they did here put most other wrestlers to shame. Great match leaning slightly towards EPIC even which I did not expect coming in but holy fuck the last minutes of strike exchanges were great, Keita was beastly here clocking Tanakas jaw with european uppercuts and at one point just jumping on him and raining punches.

Keita Yano vs Ultimate Spider Jr, Wallabee 12/28/2014 - FUN

Another round of Keita magic in the Cerberus Dojo. His opponent, Ultimate Spider Jr was game to get torn up by Yanos llaves, but did not add much to the match up to that point. Yano domating a guy on the ground is always fun. Spider came a bit into his own a bit when he started fouling Yano and beating on him with pylons. Yano retaliated with a huge tope from the mat into the rows of the crowd. Instead of continueing the match in that spicier direction they settled for regular indy style ending run including Yano going for a tornado DDT off of the strength training equipment. Very fun match but I thought Spider Jr. didn't deliver much special and while Yano was good it did not quite stray into that realm of madness that makes a Cerberus Dojo classic.

Keita Yano Documentation Project

More Sportiva

 Shinya Ishida vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 11/25/2020

Sick WAR-esque match with both guys beating the fuck out of each other and showing tons of hatred. Ishida is starting to grow on me, the guy really knows how to deliver an asskicking.Yes he looks like your typical junior wrestler but when it comes to stomping a guys guts out he is much closer to Ashura Hara than someone like Marufuji. He is also very good at working momentum shifts. Him blistering Shimizu with those nasty short kicks to the chest, brutal Garvin stomps and bitchslapping him was great stuff. Shimizu is a rookie who at this point has little more than dropkicks and elbows, but he throws some fierce elbows and his dropkicks land flush in Ishidas face, really putting the Wrestling and Romance into a silent arena plague era match in a way that should have gotten more attention at the time (who can blame people, I didn't have my eye on Sportiva at this time either). Some awesome moments here where both guys are pummeling each other from the mount, and for a fairly long match they keep things fairly interesting with Shimizu really having to earn his salt. I love me a stiff war where guys land basic strikes with bad intentions and this was that kind of match.

 

Toru Sugiura & Kengo Takai vs Kyozo Furuta & Hiroaki Ura, Sportiva 5/8/2019

It’s Kyozo Furutas debut match. Since I’m writing about it you know it was a good debut match. Furuta almost immediately gets a bloody nose when Sugiura and Takai start beating him down, and you get Sugiura slapping his bloody face and Takai stepping on his nose, and Furuta gets all kinds of fired up. He did good for a young boy. And, just the fact that even getting his more established opponents up for a bodyslam for him takes enormous effort out of him makes things interesting. That and the fact he might tap out to any random boston crab. Ura was pretty fun here, too. He’s no Akiyama but his ways of catching people with dropkicks from odd angles is very cool. In a way he’s still a young boy too but more accomplished and he still surprises you with what he can achieve and what he busts out. Sugiura and Takai don’t do anything beyond the basics and they didn’t need more than that, tho Takai blasts Furuta with a pretty hefty lariat. Blood, fire and characters that get you invested. This was pro wrestling done right.

Takaya Shibayama vs Kyozo Furuta, Sportiva 5/29/2019

Takaya Shibayama is a curious wrestler. He’s pretty checked out in his late career and mailing it in most of the time, but capable of delivering good stuff in a while. Thankfully he decided to deliver the good stuff here. This was a really nice rookie vs veteran match where Shibayama guides the freshly debuted Kyozo Furuta through sensible match without relying on no-selling or extended beatdowns and stretching. Obviously he dominates a lot and it takes a while before Furuta can even get Shibayama off his feet, and things stay basic, but it’s ever dull simply because they manage to create that sense that it might just happen. And they just build every part of the match nicely. Furuta has to build up to basic stuff like even a bodyslam and even getting in something as basic as slipping underneath and hitting a forearm feels very satisfying. And Shibayama does some cool stuff in the second half, hitting some gnarly forearms, a really stiff swinging lariat and a really cool snapdown into a facelock for the tap. Furuta only had the most basic dropkick and bodyslam stuff at this point but his fire was good enough that it’s definitely a letdown that he retired before his career could really get anywhere. Still, I look forward to checking out how far that boy made it.

Battle and Arts 1/24/2021

 

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Maori Kawashima

Quite the hate filled 3 minute match. Yamamoto was clearly there to put some punishment on Kawashima, who gave as much as he could. Kawashima had a pretty cool Shining Spin Wheel Kick and good energy, though he gets smacked and beaten by Yamamoto pretty fast.

Shin Suzuki vs. Takahiro Tababa

Pretty neat undercard match. Never seen or heard of Shin Suzuki but he looked like a good wrestler. Suzuki did a bunch of tight, no-nonsense pro style grappling against Tababas shootstyle and he had some impressive holds. He also gave Tababa opportunities to do nifty counters. Not a ton of Tababa hard hitting but he does lay in some nasty kicks. The finish was really cool as Suzuki slips beneath to try for a neat Gory Special variation but Tababa breaks out and chokes him out cool, just saying ‚fuck you‘ to that llave bullshit.

Masayuki Kono vs. Yoshihiro Horaguchi

I don‘t think I‘ve ever seen anyone praise Masayuki Kono. He is not horrible, but there‘s also nothing remarkable about him except that he is tall, I guess. As such and with him being the higher ranked wrestler having spent an eternity doing nothing in AJPW and W-1, this match ended up being forgettable.

 

Manabu Hara vs. Yujiro Yamamoto

First 7 minutes were pretty great. Both guys engage in some really nice slick U-Style matwork, and Hara was really vicious when the opportunity presented itself. Yamamoto is so great on the mat, and their match up felt like a worthy heir to the Ishikawa/Ikeda stuff. Insertion of pro-style moves like irish whips was a bit jarring as I wanted them to go full BattlARTS epic. They get back on track though and deliver a good finish with both guys busting out the cool suplexes and submissions you expect and blast each other with some really stiff blows and headbutts. Not quite the classic that I feel they have in them, but a very good match all in all.

The Library

2024 MOTYC List #1

 

Demus vs. Mad Dog Conneely, ACTION Wrestling 4/4

This was slightly hurt by the overwhelming praise it has received, calling it the match of the year and best chain match since Valentine/Piper. It's not that good in my eyes, but it's a fun violent match. The start with the chain whip to the face was nice.  Connellys strikes in the corner looked great- I would have liked to see more like that. Connelly seems certifiably insane to bite a bleeding Demus. The brawling on the outside was fun with a bleeding Demus falling into audience members and both guys smashing each other with a huge trashcan. When Demus took control, he amped up the violence yanking Conneelly around by his shirt and the chain. The ending with the chain assisted submissions was nasty. Good stuff.

Timothy Thatcher vs Axel Tischer, Bloodsport 4/4

I have yet to watch the full show but I thought this was better than Thatcher/Makabe  (which was solid). Opening grappling was very tight and felt different, like a good hybrid of shootstyle and 50s/60s style grappling. Thankfully Tischer did not do any thigh slapping. Him coming down hard to pounce on Thatcher with nasty elbows whenever openings presented was really good. His suplexes were also great. Thatcher did not goof up the match and the "any move could end the match" factor kept things interesting. Not blowaway great but a nice surprise.

Shinya Ishida vs Hakaru Imai, Sportiva 2/22

Gritty MUGA-esque match with some unexpected hate filled stiffness. That kind of match is pretty much the only thing I care about coming out of Japan these days. Imai was great here, he's this 47 year old ghoulish looking guy who barely wrestles but somehow is really good in gritty technical matches. He looks like he struggles to bump but he is great on the mat. Imai does lots of nifty things here as they hit the ground for a grappling section that actually feels fresh and tight. Imai gets the advantage locking a short arm scissor on Ishida and then proceeds to work the arm the entire match. Ishida actually adds to the match by finding ways to kick Imai in his bald head while entangled in submissions. Imais stubbornness and constantly cranking Ishidas shoulder with nasty Fujiwara armbars and kimuras made a lot of this feel like an El Samurai match as opposed to Zack Sabre Jr esque stuff. Ishida actually doesn't have bad offense for a pretty boy wrestler, and he keeps firing back pretty stiff, making things look like a struggle  and selling the arm. As the match progressed they never lost me and kept working in nifty stuff that I like, such as awkward lariats that land hard against the side of someones head, flash submissions, odd pinning combos on the ground etc. Nice stuff that is well worth checking out in the vein of the Mutoha stuff from the past few years.

2024 MOTYC List Project

2024 MOTYC List

Great matches:

1. Hakaru Imai vs Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 2/22

2. Mad Dog Connelly vs Demus, ACTION 4/4

3. Timothy Thatcher vs Axel Tischer, Bloodsport 4/4

Nice stuff:

Chon Shiryu vs HAJIME, Choco Pro 3/3

Hopping Vampires and Monkey Men

 Tanny Mouse & Yuki Miyazaki vs. Chon Shiryu & Tottyann Ziyi, NEO 3/18/2007

Unreal match. Ziyi(?) is Toshie Uematsu doing a Chinese hopping vampire gimmick, and holy fuck she is amazing in that role. Just totally giving her all into every crazy pose, every throat thrust, every kung fu kick, just a face painted whirlwind with that outfit. This was basically a crazy Hong Kong movie as an under 10 minute pro wrestling match. Basically no comedy, just fun character work and cool kung fu kicks. Chon Shiryu if you ask me is absolutely one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time. If a major US company had picked him up I guarantee he’d be a megastar or at the very least a cult hero. The man simply put his everything into his character and made every little moment stand out, down to the weird scorpion kicks and flying at people with kung fu kicks from odd angles. Shiryu and Uematsu do a lot of awesome shit here. There is one moment where Tanny and Miyazaki put a seal on Uematsu, paralyzing her, but then Shiryu unseals her and she goes berserk again, pure evil unleashed. It’s played completely straight and that’s why it works for me. They work a breathless pace just busting out one rad exchange after another with Miyazaki and Tanny mostly stooging but also adding some cool touches of their own, it seems at this point they both really had their routine down as a team, cutting out the comedy and just doing cool wrestling. Shiryu also hits his insane kick diving kick to the floor. Badass finish too. I really enjoy this kind of stuff more than your typical by the numbers epic match at this point. This was a great sub 10 minute match.

 

Chon Shiryu vs. HAJIME, Choco Pro 3/3/2024

This is in that no-ring dentist office space that Emi Sakura has been running shows in for like 18 years now. Really cool little match with Shiryu doing a bunch of great armwork, including hitting a really cool fist drop to HAJIMES joint and a few kung fu armlocks. All the environment stuff with Shiryu going for a 619 on the window, flying off the wall etc was great. Shiryu also based very well for HAJIMES lucharesu moves which I imagine is hard to do on a soft mat that looks to be 2 meters by 2 meters. Finish is completely awesome as HAJIME goes for the pin but Shiryu does a Negro Navarro style leg hock and  locks in a crazy llave for the tap.

Chon Shiryu & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Emi Sakura & Masa Takanashi, Gatoh Move 2/12/2024

Shiryu once again looked great in this match. His kung fu-stuff is so awesome, and he does a really nice job integrating it into a lengthy pro wrestling match structure. His opening technico exchange with Takanashi is really nice, and his hot tag is really great too. He just comes at people with odd kicks from weird directions and slick counters and it's great. The stuff he does between the big moves and set ups is great too, like randomly busting out a scorpion  kick or spin kick flush in the face.  If you liked that Ki/Amazing Red match I don't see why you wouldn't enjoy Shiryu since he goes hard all the time despite being 45 now. I also like how he can make the 619 his own, instead of coming across like another Rey imitator. Rest of the match had some very creative high workrate stuff but there was also some cutesie shit typical of Emi Sakura feds and I disliked how Masa Takanashi no sold that one awesome jumping kick Shiryu did, which keeps the match out of MOTYC consideration for me (well, if you make it a requirement that a MOTYC has to be at minimum a great match). But really nice stuff from Shiryu and well worth watching.