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.