2024 MOTYC List #2

 
Kazushi Sakuraba vs Daisuke Sekimoto, NOAH 2/15/2014

Terrific match. Very Fujiwaraish performance from Sakuraba doing lots of really great submission entries and counters on Sekimoto. Sekimoto is really effective as a simpleton powerhouse here, he makes a great foil for Saku as his style is basic enough to make Sakuraba look spectacular, but also because of his freakish strength you buy that Sekimoto could just squeeze Sakuraba to death if he simply gets his arms around him.  A few really smart spots here. Sakuraba dropping a nasty knee on Sekimotos face, as well as deciding to later work him over with knees to the body and low kicks was unexpected. Also, because Sakuraba is so frail whenever Sekimoto actually starts doing damage it looks like he's just killing him.


Kazushi Sakuraba & Ulka Sasaki vs Hikaru Sato & Shuhei Taniguchi, NOAH 5/4

I'm liking this old man shooter division. Sakuraba is 54 years old now, but he is still pretty amazing on the mat. Ulka is an ex UFC guy and he shows promise. I thought Shuhei Taniguchi was pretty great here as outmatched but still dangerous old guy and if he wrestles like this more often I'd like to see more of him. Initially Sakuraba was tooling him by reversing Taniguchis greco roman style with his own unorthodox submissions. Just when Taniguchi seemed to not get anywhere, he threw Saku with a big head and arm throw and locked in a Honda-esque choke hold. He then dropped Sasaki with a nasty STO and tried to smash his head with an out of nowhere soccer kick. Sasaki and Hikaru Sato also had an awesome mat exchange. Taniguchi getting heated with Sakuraba and going for suplexes and more out of nowhere headkicks was pretty great. Finish was sudden but also pretty spectacular.


Outsider Negishi vs Dekai Ichimotsu, Health Pro Wrestling 4/14

Great little match. Negishi is gray and old and kind of gangly and Ichimotsu is rocking the wrestling shoes black t-shirt and slicked back hair like a sleazy Osamu Kido. Almost all on the mat. After some cool opening grappling with both guys displaying cool indian deathlock entries, Negishi starts going for the leg. Negishi has a kind of frail old man vibe but he is fun yanking at Ichimotsus leg. Ichimotsu was pretty great selling the legwork and making comeback attempts by going after the arm. Highlights include some great work around a body slam, and Ichimotsus leg giving out when he attempted his finisher.

Bryan Danielson vs. Blue Panther, CMLL 4/5/24

Thankfully Arena Mexico saved this match from being another boring dream match by booing Danielson and rallying behind Panther. Danielson was clever enough to lean into it and Panther was pretty damn awesome here. Opening grappling wasn't anything mindblowing but it's fun to see Danielson go at it with a genuine maestro. I actually thought they could have done a little more on the mat, tho Bryan going into scarecrow position and twisting Panthers head was cool. Panther then taking all this stiff offense and a big dive and suplex on the floor was pretty sick. Initially I liked Danielson selling his leg being damaged by Panthers Tapatia, but him just popping up to hit a dropkick pissed me off a little. Panther desperately avoiding the submission was great and so much better than the usual reversal fest. He also took another big bump off the top, why is this 63 year old man taking all the huge bumps in the match?? Danielson retaliating to the flubbed submission with head stomps was great and probably the best moment of the match. I'm not sure why Panther was the first one to get up after Danielsons 2nd dive and simply hit a dive on his own. The running knee in the ring was a bit lost on me. I get that Danielson was trying to lean into his arrogant outsider act by smiling and not following up, but it still took me out of it a bit before they followed with the cheap finish. Tho Panthers super fast armbar was awesome. Good to very good match with a very impressive performance by Panther overall.

Kazuhiro Tamura vs Akira Jo, HEAT UP 4/7

Very good big match I thought. Jo has roots tracing to IGF, but he has turned into a complete sleazeball now. He really has the vibe that he is a capable wrestler, as evidenced by him doing some grappling and throwing Tamura with a really nice belly to belly early on, but he would rather rake eyes and be a scumbag than continue on that path. The main reason I liked this was a) the selling throughout was very good, and b) they mixed in a lot of cool stuff to keep my attention. Highlights include Jos amazing Rikishi bump that was really well timed, as well as some choice counters that they mixed in. Tamuras armwork was really good throughout the match, lots of nasty kicks to Jos shoulder, and the selling was good. Both guys end up taking big bumps that are important in the scheme of the match. They also ended the match on just the right note with one of the nastiest finishes I've seen in a while. They lose some points because the early goings were noticably lacking fire and engagement from both guys when it comes to their body language, as well as Kazuhiro Tamuras tendency to do moves like a shitty NJPW main eventer instead of embracing his U-File origins. That said, I was positively surprised by this.

 

2024 MOTY Master List

FU*CK Cool Pro Wrestling 1/2/2008

 Hideki Shioda & Lingerie Muto vs. Chief Shinigami & Konaka

This Chief Shinigami is NOT the Shinigami from Wrestle Yume Factory. This guy is some tubby pasty dude doing some kind of native american gimmick. It’s horribly poor taste, so just right for FIGHTING ULTIMATE CRAZY KINGS. Konaka is wearing a striped sweater and dungarees along with his usual facepaint. I think it may be a reference to a horror movie or something but its a very cool look. Chief Shinigami is a menace too immediately thwarting all attempts at wrestling by hitting guys with foreign objects. After like 30 seconds of in ring action they start brawling in the street. Really taking their time to explore this quiet Japanese neighbourhood to the fullest. Konaka almost gets thrown into a ravine. Sawa hits a Mutoh style elbow on the concrete. Konaka at one point vomits some green slime on the street. Then they find some dog poop in the street and try to shove someones face in it. They find what looks like a shrine with a Torii. They pray at the shrine. Then they brawl at the shrine. After deserating a holy site they move on to fighting on a playground. There’s piledrivers and backdrop suplexes and shining wizards on the sand. A slide is used. They move further on to brawling in the middle of a busy street with cars going by. Some ladies are waiting with their bikes, and Sawa goes and snatches a bike riding it away. Imagine just waiting for the bus or something and then a cross dressing wrestler with a bald cap shows up, takes your bike and rides it away. After getting off he kicks at one of the ladies too. The match ends when Sawa puts a figure 4 on Konaka (again, on the concrete) and Konaka reverses it. A fitting crafty technical ending to this fine opening match.

Shoichi Uchida & Takaku Fuke vs. Hideaki Sumi & Mexican 69

Mexican 69 is a fat guy in a mask. He’s a typical FU*CK style wrestler, meaning he tries to wrestle but the outcome just comes out as bizarre. It’s really its own genre of surreality. Sumi is great, he is a crazy karateka who wrestles like a modern day Masashi Aoyagi, and he does have some actually nice shooty exchanges with Fuke here. Uchida is also a good wrestler but saddled working opposite Mexican 69. At one point some women in the crowd  broke into a weird choir-like singing, so I guess they were in on it too. Then the wrestlers go for a stroll in the street again with Sumi and Fuke trading chest kicks and locking in shoot holds in the neighbourhood. At one point Uchida rides past them on a scooter, having Mexican69 on his back. I would take major TV stations hostage and broadcast this stuff to the masses if I could. The fight moves in front of the Torii shrine from the previous match, but Sumi and 69 will have none of it and they quietly walk back to the ring. There is probably some subtext there about the fans excitedly following the wrestlers outside and then having to walk awkwardly all the way back next to the elderly Pancrase legend Takaku Fuke. The match ends rather unceremoniously as Uchida tries and fails to wrestle Mexican 69.

Killer Master vs. Magnitude Kishiwada

Killer Master for some reason is dressed looking a lot like Badboy Hido. This match goes as such: Master touches Kishiwada, and immediately is thrown outside and eating stiff chairshots. Kishiwada then walks Master outside to the street, to the site of the Torii. There he chops Master some, puts on an abdominal stretch, throws him into a wire fence, and then walks him back to the ring. Wrestlers are like kittens – when you grab their scruff they are just paralyzed and have to go along with whatever you want to do. Anytime Master tries anything he gets waffled by Kishiwada in a way that indicates Kishiwada has little regard for his opponent. Back in the ring Master is eating more stiff offense from Kishiwada. Kishiwada puts a Figure 4 on Killer Master and Master gets a megapop from the 12 or so people watching when he actually reverses it. Master gets a brief comeback but quickly he gets blasted by a nasty lariat to his face, and then goes down to a basic back senton.

Hideki Shioda & Killer Master & Takaku Fuke vs. JAIL & Konaka &Magnitude Kishiwada

Kishiwada works the mic some, which I guess prompts this match. Konaka is still in the sweater and dungarees. They brawl briefly to start, before the Konaka/JAIL/Kishiwada trio quickly start isolating Killer Master. JAIL actually has a cool look wearing a mask and striped convict outfit. He also seems competent. Master actually gets some offense in but he flubs nearly everything he tries. Once again he takes some nasty hits from Kishiwada. And Konaka looks like a mighty competent wrestler too. He locks in a series of cool submissions on Master and a triangle choke gets the tap. Yes, Master lost the match before he could even make a tag. Things work differently in FU*CK.

Hideaki Sumi & Mexican 69 vs. Hideki Shioda & Munenori Sawa

Sumi and Sawa speed tagging each other was great, I’d love to see a singles match between them. Then they tagged the other 2 guys in and things got weird again. 69 did that weird comedy move where he super slowly rolled over his opponent. It seems that Shioda wants to try, even hitting some snug strikes and a nice spin kick which exaggerates the subsequent weirdness of the exchanges even more. Sawa and Sumi do another cool 30 second exchange. Then Sawa gets isolated, doesn’t even make the hot tag, just comes back and wins really quickly. The match last like 5 minutes. Baffling.

The Library

Mutoha worth seeing

 Yasushi Sato vs Taro Yamada, Mutoha 4/21/2018

It’s another amazing match between two of the best Japanese workers of the 21^st century. I say that without hesitation at this point, both these guys just keep proving themselves. This had the rule that there would be no rope breaks which is an interesting touch, especially since they were wrestling in a tiny ring in some little cafe. They ended up not using the rule as much as I expected but there were some interesting moments throughout where they used the ropes to entangle each other, and one particularily gnarly moment where Yamada tried to stretch Yatos ankle in the corner only for some gritty leg stomping to ensue. If you are familiar with these two you will not be shocked to hear that them match had a ton of really good matwork. In this match Yamada was a force, tying up Sato with his crazy llaves. Notice that there was pretty much no capture and release stuff from Yamada. He really is one of the best guys doing this style, ever. In the end Sato resorted to try and catch Yamada with his leg grapevine moves. He really is Honda-ish the way he does that stuff, attaching himself to his opponent and angling his leg to either drive him into the mat really hard or hit a swift take down and turn it into a crazy submission. Even if Yamada would block the Russian Legsweep, Sato might shift the momentum and roll him into a different move. It’s such an interesting game Yasushi Sato plays. However the breaking point in the match was when Yamada decided to clock Sato with a gritty headbutt. That turned the match from an intense chess match into an intense bar fight as Sato decided to bitchslap Yamada and they traded sickening headbutts like a FUTEN match. I loved the increased sense of violence as Sato would lock in a leg grapevine and then start elbowing Yamadas kidneys to set up another leg grapevine move, and another Russian Legsweep attempt that lead to more sick headbutts. He also had some great suplexes, there is no way a 52 year old man should be able to have this much energy but here we are. Yamada also had this amazing leg submission to counter Satos continued legsweep attack and I loved his continued attempts to snap Satos leg in unconventional ways. This was really really nice wrestling for the first 15 minutes or so – these guys are a trip to watch when they just grapple and hit the mat then in the last 3^rd or so they really kicked it up a notch. Sick violence, some brilliant submissions and counters and nifty strategic aspects at work it’s just a great match. Mutoha keeps delivering the gems.

Yasushi Sato vs Hiroshi Watanabe, Mutoha 9/22/2015

Terrific maestros match. Mutoha at it’s best. Both these two are amazing grapplers, but they also did an incredible job working with the Rounds stipulation. Tons of great matwork, with both guys really cinching their holds in such a way that you expect an arm or leg to snap if the guy in the hold made the wrong movement. There was this one bit where they did a shootstyle leglock exchange that slowly turned into a Figure 4 that was absolutely masterful. As always I really enjoyed Satos unique style of tying his opponent up in unique ways and hitting cool Russian Leg Sweeps and suplexes out of nowhere. Watanabes flexibility and old school moves were great as usual. The guy may be the best on earth at doing that kind of throwback style in a post-Osamu Nishimura world. I thought Watanabe might be outclassed by Satos more impactful style at first, but he made a good comeback by grabbing Sato and shooting  him up hard for an awesome out of nowhere backbreaker. Each round was great and the finale with Watanabe desperately trying to resist another deadly Russian Legsweep was pro wrestling at it’s finest. Really great match, probably the best of the year to be honest, both guys showed tremendous skill and crafted a really compelling, unique match.

Hiroshi Watanabe vs Hideo Toda, Mutoha/Mumeijuku 7/12/2009

Very interesting style clash. Hideo Toda is a CAPTURE-trained shooter and he doesn't try to wrestle Watanabes style at all, he will go for the kill with brutal kicks and suplexes. Just getting to see a fighter as obscure as Hideo Toda in itself is amazing. Toda also has quite the size advantage. Watanabe combating him is really interesting to watch and Watanabe does a stellar job trying to solve the problem before Toda turns his lights out. It remdinded me of similiar Osamu Nishimura vs shooter matches. Toda was vicious and most importantly he did not hold back at all, Watanabe had some brilliant counters, totally staying true to his 70s technician act. Really good bout that was a bit different from the usual more technical Mutoha stuff.

Assorted BattlARTS

Munenori Sawa & Yujiro Yamamoto vs Manabu Hara & SEIKEN, BattlARTS 8/21/2011

Really good scrappy match from the last days of BattlARTS. Everyone beat the shit out of each other and never backed down. Sawa cut down the goofiness, but things definitely got more serious when Yamamoto stepped in the ring. He had some intense exchanges with both Hara and SEIKEN. SEIKEN is a pretty fun character to insert into a BattlARTS match, as he doesn’t have much grappling and just tries to KO people with nasty head kicks, it makes for a cool contrast. There wasn’t a ton of grappling but Yamamoto in the brief moments did some really cool stuff. Haras brief hot tag trying to crack Sawas jaw was pretty great, too. Sawa trying to dive at Hara who was outside was pretty crazy and immediately lead to another chaotic, scrappy exchange with SEIKEN. Fun chaotic ending run with lots of stiff blows. I miss BattlARTS.

Yuki Ishikawa & Munenori Sawa vs Super Tiger II & Manabu Hara (BattlArts - 11/16/2008)

The early goings are a bit slow, tho there are a few neat moments. Hara cranks Ishikawas neck with a nasty headlock then hits him with an out of nowhere kick to the face. There's a pretty heated exchange between Sawa and STII with Sawa trying to headbutt him in the guard about 8 minutes in a flick is switched and Hara and Tiger start fucking pulverizing Sawa with brutal kicks. After that it's off to the races as they deliver a brutal beatdown on Sawa. Some breathless exchanges ensue with guys tagging each other full force, headbutts, slaps, kicks to the head. The finishing run is Super Tiger II unloading his spectacular kick arsenal on Ishikawa. STII has some crazy kicks, and he nails them all here. I also really liked the violence of Sawa and Hara trying to prevent each other from making a save. As usual with Ishikawa there are some tremendous submissions. Last 12 minutes of this or so were some of the most brutal and best BattlARTS action of the new millenium for sure.

Ikuto Hidaka vs Yuta Yoshikawa, BattlARTS 12/21/2008

Really good 10 minute match. Hidaka was hellbent on destroying Yoshikawas mid-section here, making this forever one of the greatest matches in the "matches where a guy gets his mid section destroyed" genre. Early goings were no-nonsense as Hidaka was relentless going after Yoshikawa with great looking body shots and knees, it felt like an aggressive U-Style match. When Yoshikawa takes it too the mat it actually feels like he needed to take it to the mat. Yoshikawa is low standing at this point but his brief run off offense is nice, he is able to hit a big suplex that actually feels earned and follows up blasting Hidaka with a kick. Yoshikawa punching away at Hidakas arm/shoulder was a nice touch. Hidaka denying a flying armbar, but eating a punch to the face seconds later was great. Eventually Hidaka took Yoshikawa out destroying his guts with knees and spin kicks that looked brutal. Very nice stuff and cool to see Hidaka doing something different when he could've just hit his usual spots instead.

GWE Watching: Kenichiro Arai

 
Kenichiro Arai vs Shunsuke Sayama, FREEDOMS 5/22/2019

Really freaking good match. Sayama is a relentless kicker here, and Arai does a really nice sleazier Fujiwara performance taking him apart. His takedowns and holds came across as really forceful and he looked like he belonged with a shooter. Some really nasty armlocks and finger bending from Arai, and I loved how he constantly went for the piledriver. Sayama laid into him good. I really liked how Sayama was able to sink into a choke and then kick a dizzy Arai in his bald head, but then his feet gave out because Arai had twisted them up previously. Match had a relentless pace and they never really let up. Strong recommendation.

Kenichiro Arai vs Keita Yano, VKF 2019/10/31 - GREAT


It's the battle of the sleaze grappling gods! Really fun old school type match as you expect. They do some good stuff working around a full nelson hold for a while, and Keita looks slick as a cat. Arai does an almost Flair-like performance mostly getting eaten up by Yano and bumping for him. Yano is pretty great at eating someone up since he has so much cool shit he can do. Once in a while Arai would do something sneaky, like jab him in the throat or nastily bend his wrist to gain control, but Yano would cradle him or tie him in a submission pretty quickly. I wanted there to be a little more aggression and nastiness but this was a middle of the card match not some kind of epic main event, so it was pretty good for what it was.

 

Kenichiro Arai vs Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Gate 10/6/2023

Immensely fun match. This was supposed to be some kind of revival match for the old Toryumon class, but actually Arai comes in carrying the Haoh title and does a full on 70s technician performance, cranking headlocks and cravates. There was some of the old hard headed drunken master Arai in there, and that is fun too. I love how Arai will turn a basic hold like a headscissor or hammerlock into a holy shit spot. Also loved the work around the Tiger Suplex, the build to the top rope jawbreaker etc. Yokosukas more explosive offense is cool in contrast to Arais big brain technical shit. Very very nice match and another case for the variety of match Arai can pull off. Lengthy technical epic, wrestler vs shooter, sneaky stooging heel, the man is like the swiss army knife of the Japanese idies right now.

Keita Yano Documentation