2025 Wrestling Week 4

 
Sareee vs Veny, SEAdLINNNG 1/17

I haven't thought about Seadlinnnng in forever. Apparently, Sareee is their ace now and has been their champ for a while, so I should probably take a look at that. I haven't seen much of VENY before, but I know she had that excellent weird light tube  match with Akito at one point. This was a lot more conventional. They start of strong with some quality groundwork before a weird outside interference happens and the brawl outside. Sareee however makes it worthwhile when she dishes out some brutal headbutts to Veny on the floor. Back in the ring, Sareee is in control for a bit and it's really good. Her vicious stomps and dropkicks are great. Veny tries to take over but is cut off in nice fashion. Finally, Veny locks on a slick submission and controls by working the arm for a bit. Veny no sells a German suplex and they start trading bombs. Honestly I thought the first half of this was a very good build, but the senseless move trading lost me. Veny kind of half asses her selling a lot and her thigh slapping thrust kicks looked like shit. Sareees offense is great, but she doesn't do much selling either at some point. There is so much "take a move, slowly get up and then do a move of your own here" that really makes me stop caring about a match. For example, Sareees top rope Fishermans Suplex wasn't even followed up by a cover, instead Sareee goes to the top on the opposite side so Veny can get up and hit a superplex. No rhyme or reason to any of this as far as I can tell. At least mix in some cool reverals or something.

Yusaku Ito vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 1/22

This was more good shit from SPORTIVA. Yusaku Ito is a certified scumbag who can kick hard, punch someone in the face and act like an all around thug. Shimizu just came back from a really long absence and he still looks tough, in that weird guy-who-started-wrestling-in-his-30s way. Really good wrestling here, these two deliver actually compelling elbow smashes and standing exchanges. Eventually it turns into Ito kicking away at Shimizus arm and shoulder. Itos kicks and elbows to the joint where really hurty looking and Shimizus selling was excellent. By far one of the best 'work the arm' matches I've seen in a while because Shimizus weakness was constantly nagging him, he never forgot about that injury and Ito would cut him off by attacking the arm at crucial moments. Shimizu doesn't have a ton of offense in this match, he is mostly taking an asskicking, but the few moments he gets are solid, and the work around his sleeper hold was really compelling, it leads to one of the best flash reversals into a sleeper that I've ever seen. The match also has the typical Japanese big match stuff, some quality hard hitting and head-droppy moves without going overboard, but what made this outstanding was how well they worked the arm attack stuff and those sleepers. Another banger from that little sportsbar. Lord knows how they do it but they consistently put on some of the best singles matches in all of Japan.

Guerrero Maya Jr vs Xelhua, CMLL 1/13/2025

The first few minutes of this are pretty great. Both guys hit the mat and tie each other in knots, adding cool little touches that you don't see often such as the kicking at the leg while in the indian deathlock, or the nifty trip from the overhook. Xelhua clearly has a ton of passion to be trying the crazy llaves he tries, and he has stellar body control - that bridge walkover he did is NOT easy, I can attest to that. When Maya Jr takes over attacking the mask and throwing punches and Xelhua narrowly breaking out of submissions, I thought this would've been one of the best opening falls to a title match I've seen. Unfortunately it's not 2/3 falls, it's 1 fall, so we get a couple minutes of Maya Jr. dominating and a somewhat sluggish finishing stretch. I think with a 2/3 falls match these two could burn the house down, as a 1 fall match it just falls a little short, though there was a ton of cool stuff. CMLL is definitely on the right track with young guys like Xelhua not being afraid to indulge in esoteric matwork.

Virus vs Neon, MLW 1/11/2025


Love two see luchadors show up in a US promotion to do awesome shit for 8 minutes. This was pretty tight, we get a slick mat exchange to start and then they go nuts. Virus is crazy busting out this shit at the age of 56. He looked way more nimble than, say Bobby Fish who is also on this show and looked ancient despite being  8 years younger. Neon is another one of those technicos who has no offense except shitty looking enzuigiris and really pretty dives. And his dives were pretty in this. I did prefer the slickness of Virus apron armdrag and huracanrana but I am an old Virus mark. I thought this needed maybe a Virus punch or dropkick or a slick reversal to be really great but it was a pretty strong under 10 minute sprint.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

LLPW Blooming Ultra Legend 8/14/1994

 Watch

Michiko Nagashima vs Yamashita

Yamashita is, I am guessing, another rookie from the 90s joshi scene who didn’t have much of a career. So you can guess how this goes: Yamashita hits some dropkicks, but can’t really do anything that phases Nagashima, and Nagashima gives her a minor beating before vanquishing her quickly. Nagashima is pretty nice to Yamashita here, not doing anything psychotic and letting her get in some roll ups and such.

First Round: Harley Saito vs Mizuki Endo

We only get about 3 minutes out of 5 here, but you still want to watch this for Saito kicking Endo in the face. Basically Endo tries to be annoying, and Saito would have none of it, leading to all these amusing moments where a pouncing Endo would get blasted. I really enjoy watching Saito smack and kick the shit out of someone, and Endo has fun energy. I really would’ve liked to see another 150 seconds of this.

First Round: Noriyo Tateno vs Eagle Sawai

They clipped the first two matches, so we could get more of this! If you know my general opinion of the LLPW roster, you will know that I don’t like Noriyo Tateno much because she is horribly dull and never gives much beyond just hitting her moves. This match was no exception. In theory, Sawai at least provides a challenge, but not much interesting comes out of it. To make it perfect, at some point Kurenai and Nagashima do a run in on Sawai but Tateno takes them out with a suicide dive. That was about the only real highlight in this one.

Mikiko Futagami & Jenn Yukari vs Michiko Ohmukai & Carol Midori

Typical joshi tag 101. Fast moves, resthold, wrestlers tag out whenever they are thrown near their own corner. Ohmukai & Midori controlled most of the action here and they aren’t all that great, unless you really like front dropkicks. Futagami shows some cool touches once in a while – she has a particularily great thrust kick, and her pump handle release throw was amusingly reckless. Yukari got to do almost nothing. Everyone here doesn’t have much of a moveset yet, so they kept repeating moves. This was clipped, and should have been clipped more.

Semi-Finals: Harley Saito vs Miki Handa

Kinda cool little match. Saito is higher on the totem pole and she has the dangerous kicks and submissions to give her the edge. Handa tries rushing her, which backfires and Saito wrenches a tight kimura. When Saito goes for the arm again, Handa is able to scramble out and lock in a surprise armbar of her own, and then using that to capitalize and get in a nice run. I really liked how they used a simple armlock like that to give Handa an edge. Handa also has great suplexes and the flash finish ruled. Pretty good stuff.

Semi-Finals: Noriyo Tateno vs Yasha Kurenai

Kurenai waffles Tateno with chairs and those wooden sword things some to make this entertaining. Tateno throwing someone into chairs and getting whacked is marginally more interesting than the usual Tateno match. Not that she does much selling or anything. Tateno steals the win with a flash pin at 5 minutes so at least this was short.

Shinobu Kandori vs Rumi Kazama

Pretty fucking epic match. As straight forward as Hashimoto vs Fujiwara. Kazamas kicks were vicious and Kandori at this point is a charismatic dynamo. Kandori gets so much out of so little, down to her facial expression, every single submission she gets locked in, she was also awesome escalating the violence punching Kazama in the face and throwing the referee around. I would have liked Kazama to throw more kicks in the second half of the match since her opening onslaught was so awesome. Still, it builds to quite the epic ending with Kandori levelling Kazama and Kazama having a handful of great hope spots. Few wrestlers do the ‘biggest badass on act’ as good as Kandori.

Finals: Harley Saito vs Noriyo Tateno

Harley Saito is one of the great 90s unheralded 90s workers and I’m always happy to see her in a big match, even if it’s against Tateno. The opening minutes of this were pretty cool as Tateno grounded Saito and attacked the legs. Tateno is hit and miss but she actually had a nifty rolling legbar, and a really cool leg trap and arm stretch. Saito is one of the workers around who will actually sell the leg and for a couple moments it was really good pro wrestling. You never really get Harley throwing the kitchen sink at Tateno but she does kick her in the face once. Of course, selling goes out the window in the second half of the match and it’s 2.9999 city. For that kind of match it was pretty well done although Tatenos checked-out-ness is jarring. She will hit her moves but really expresses very little with her body language, even after barely kicking out of a move she just walks over, hits a weak kick and then a powerbomb, it’s like she’s physically there but not mentally. There were some cool transitions but also some questionable ones. Still, I love me a Harley Saito match and this was pretty fun for what it was.

 

The Library

2025 Wrestling Week 3

 
Suzume vs Yuki Arai, TJPW 1/4/2025

I don't think I've ever watched TJPW before, and I don't know anything about these two. Sometimes that is the best wrestling you can watch. Arai is the taller one and Suzume is the shorter more energetic, and they build around this with Arai cutting off her opponent with boots and somewhat more methodical work, while Suzume would try to hit quick dropkicks and lock in slick octopus hold variations. They both seem to have a pretty basic skillset, with Arai in particular looking pretty awkard here and there, but Suzume seems pretty good. Honestly considering that I thought this was a pretty decent match with actually a few cool moments. Most importantly there was a decent structure in place as Suzume gained the advantage using her explosive speed but was slowed down when she ate a bodyslam on the floor, allowing Arai to work her over in a bit more methodical fashion, with Suzume then making cool comebacks. Perhaps Suzume was a bit too fast considering Arai was attacking her legs, but it's joshi shit is like that sometimes. I really liked how Suzume kept going for those arm stretches to weaken Arai and set up her running offense. Arai was hit and miss, she had some kind of full nelson slam that was really bad looking, but the story of her booting Suzume in the face was something to get into and she had a pretty sweet moment where she caught Suzume with an axe kick. Overall a pretty decent match and I like how they actually ended it with just 1 finisher.

Thekla vs Athena, STARDOM 1/3/2025

Well... I kinda feel bad for not liking this, because on paper it looks like a cool match. I've liked Thekla since she came out of that basement promotion in Vienna to become a superstar in Japan, although I've not kept up with her STARDOM work, and Athena seems like someone I would like from the reviews she gets. Well, this match basically started as big move after big move, and already a few seconds in the pace had slowed to a halt. The moves looked good, but I prefer something a bit more competetive with a basic buildup instead of watching two wrestlers hit moves. Also, there was a ton of hokey acting and melodramatic soap opera facial expressions, which is about my least favourite thing in current wrestling. I thought Athena looked good when she was clubbing her opponent, but some of the offense in this match was also pretty thigh-slappy. Towards the end they actually pick up the pace by running through moves faster and busting out some slick reversal. There was also a really weird sequence around a cross arm driver. Heel faction shenanigans come into play with no real consequence, so yeah that is a LOT of what I don't like in a match.

Seri Yamaoka vs MIRAI, Marigold 1/3/2025

Well, this is Seri Yamaokas debut match. We don't know much about her, except that she has a background in amateur wrestling, so of course I had to watch. Opening goings of this were very fun with a lot of solid ground grappling and Yamaoka constantly attacking the arm. I loved the half crab/boston crab being treated as a dangerous submission that did serious damage to Yamaokas back. MIRAI had solid offense and some good kicks. Won't blow your mind if you've seen UWF, but it's that matches like this can still happen on a big stage. Yamaokas forearms were pretty weak but overall, she showed promise as she went Tamon Honda  a few times on her opponent with some cool leg lace submission variants.  Ultimately the match ended up going waaaay too long at 22 minutes and it was really long in the tooth towards the end with MIRAI spending forever in Yamaokas holds and Yamaoka kicking out of like half a dozen of MIRAIs big moves. It's really weird, if this were ARSION in 1998 Yamaoka would be sent to train with the BattlARTS and PANCARSE guys and turn into an awesome wrestler within 6 months, but in 2025 things are uncertain. Maybe she will turn into the joshi version of Tamon Honda, maybe she will end up just being another name doing 2.99999 fests soon. But this was a fun debut at the very least.

Utami Hayashishita vs Sareee, Marigold 1/3/2025

This was one of those matches that exemplify my struggle with modern wrestling. There was a lot to like here, but also a lot of bloat and stuff that I thought the match didn't really need. They start out with some brief basic exchanges before doing some mundane back and forth strikes on the floor. Things pick up when Hayashishita misses a dropkick to the floor for a pretty nasty bump with Sareee following up right with a hard double stomp. Sareee then targetted the back/mid section to slow Utami down, with Utami making a solid back and actually selling that her weak back was slowing her down. Utami has really good vicious stomps for a moment. This feels like a struggle, comebacks are being made, both look really solid when hitting offense. Sareee in particular has some great brutal double stomps and face shattering dropkicks. I start mentally tuning out when they start no selling a bunch of German suplexes, then tune back in when Utami hits a cool sideslam for a nearfall. Ultimately they just start doing way too much with what feels like 10,000 nearfalls. Something that annoys me is that they only start going for their finish towards the end of the match. It makes sense to try and wear an opponent down but still too much of this felt like they were just running through their shit. Still they kept doing stuff that pulled me back into the match, such as Utamis awesome sleeper hold or Sareees high end uranages. When the referee made the 3 count I was kind of glad it was over which is not really a good sign despite both of them showing lots of talent. Honestly I think at around 15 minutes with the bloat shaved off this would've been really cracking. At 23 minutes it was a good albeit flawed Japanese big match.

2025 Wrestling Worth Watching

GENTARO Matches

 

GENTARO vs El Samurai, FREEDOMS 9/27/2009

Very nice little gem. They easily could’ve coasted and done the bare minimum and it would have been a good match, but instead they wrestle this like it’s a tribute to Samurai vs Otani from 1996. GENTARO was certainly riding high in the late 2000s cementing himself as workhorse doing technical epics left and right, and late career Samurai is extremely game. Lots of pretty great targeted limb work, the opening segment is basically 5 minutes of Samurai stubbornly going after Gentaros arm/shoulder with nasty kimuras and stomps, then Gentaro goes for the leg. It leads to some great subtly building selling. I love that Samurai still throws really good punches and stomps – his punches to GENTAROs nose were woe-inducing, and despite having slowed down he still looks like he’s no pushover for his younger opponent. This is very much wrestlers wrestler stuff but it’s exactly what you’d hope for if you know what these two are capable of.

GENTARO vs PSYCHO, YMZ 7/21/2014

With PSYCHO being announced for the next Mutoha show, I had to check this out. The first half of the match was kind of slow and dragged down by lazy heel tactics, but it actually gets good when they start doing what I like best, hitting the mat and trying to tap each other out and hitting some awesome reversals. We all know GENTARO is the king of making minimalistic mat stuff look awesome and he does lean into that here, but PSYCHO also has lots of really cool stuff in his sleeve. His cross arm/leglocks were pretty cool and he also had a nasty looking shin choke thing. They both get really into fighting over a Sharpshooter and it was probably some of the greatest Sharpshooter work I’ve honestly seen ever, with both guys busting out some really great reversals that I’ve not seen before, even for such a classic hold.

Osamu Nishimura vs. GENTARO, VKF 11/16/2015

Very nice match because they didn‘t go the predictable routine. Instead of tons of holds, they worked this as Nishimura the maestro teaching GENTARO a lesson. Nishimura would outgrapple him, and when GENTARO tried to go for punches Nishimura would absolutely rattle him with sick uppercuts. There was one really cool reversal from Nish where he twisted his way out of a bow and arrow and locked in a tight legbar on GENTARO. Very smartly worked match with a lot of selling where every move meant something. Very old school, probably the last great Nishimura match with GENTARO being a great dance partner and knowing his role perfectly.

2025 Wrestling Week 2

 
Yujiro Yamamoto vs Tsuyoshi Okada, Kobe Meriken 1/10

Yujiro Yamamoto is one of the last BattlARTS mohicans and I always enjoy when he works a match and I get to see him. Takeshi Okada is a sleazy looking shooter. He looks like he would play bass in a crustcore band but he can actually scrap on the mat and do hard hitting. Him and Akira Jo would make a sick tag team. The early minutes of this are really good, credible shootstyle grappling. Okada can actually hang and pull of some cool transitions. Even when they go into the pretty standard "two guys holding leglocks and slapping each other" spot, they do it with so much force and ferocity it actually comes out as violent. After the matwork the match takes a bit more of a pro style direction with an irish whip and some of the usual back and forth elbow exchanges. A bit disappointed because I would've liked to see them go full BattlARTS style but they were still doing pretty snug hard hitting pro wrestling. The finish was a bit sudden, I would like to see these two go a little longer and really work their magic next time.

brother YASSHI vs Maori Kawashima, Kobe Meriken 1/10

Brother Yasshi wrestles a bit like a dreadlocked Tamon Honda with llaves now, which is really cool. He would twirl his skinny opponent around with some impressive amateur moves, then base really well in some lucharesu exchanges, and finally stretch him with llaves. Yes, brother YASSHI is a good wrestler. Kawashima is kind of not very good - he blows his huracanrana, and when on offense he's far from impressive. They start doing a weird thing too where they take turns giving each other head snapdowns and bumping. YASSHI gets things on track with a brutal headbutt and throwing Kawashima with a really cool deadlift German for the 3. I need more of this YASSHI.

Judas El Traidor vs Fly Star, Lucha Memes 1/1

I always enjoy watching Judas El Traidor. Fly Star is a sleazy looking indy luchador with tattoos. Opening minutes here have some fun llave exchanges with Judas hitting one particularily cool leg scissor takedown. This Fly Star guy tries, but he seems to not have quite the athleticism needed to pull off everything that he's going for. I really liked the couple minutes where Judas had enough of clean wrestling and start bitchslapping Fly Star around. Just Judas El Traidor living up to his name. Fly Star hits a pretty cool flip senton to the grimy floor of Coliseo Coacalco. I didn't like his other offense much - some weak looking fast kick combos and a lot of unnecessary dodge and move running around - he also blows the last sequence. They actually go back to the llaves for the finish and Judas wins it with a cool Gory Special into a slam. A good slice of work from Judas to usher in the new year.

Meiko Satomura vs Manami, Sendai Girls 1/5/2025

Well it's Meiko Satomura. It's always good to see her fight a game opponent on her home turf. I think she's retiring soon, which is a shame because all of her kicks and submissions still look great. I am not familiar with Manami and based on this I don't really want to see more of her. She's okay and has decent fight in her, but she slaps her leg constantly whenever she's doing knee strikes and her forearms were insanely weak looking. That and she didn't leave a huge impression on terms of style. I guess that's fine since she's clearly an underdog against Big Meiko. In the end Manami was mostly here to get walloped by Meikos kicks and try and survive her submissions. Meikos low kicks ended up pushing Manami to the limit. I'm not sure if it was a legit injury or a rare case of excellent selling, but it was one of those moments that really underlined Meikos status as a Hashimoto-like badass who can mess anyone up with a basic low kick. Love how Satomura cut off Manamis comeback by aggressively going for the takedown and locking in a submission. In the end this was pretty much the Meiko Satomura show, and tha tis a show I tend to enjoy.

Blue Panther vs Hechicero, CMLL 1/10/2025

Well I saved the best for last. With this and last years Danielson match, Blue Panther is building quite the resume of matches in his 60s. Yes, you will think, Blue Panther is old. He doesn't quite move like he used to. Yes, him taking on the tank that is Hechicero straight on is a bit silly. But fuck that, this is PRO WRESTLING and there haven't been many wrestlers as entuned to the heart and soul of pro wrestling as Blue Panther. To think - Blue Panther was born in 1960. He did not make tape much before turning 30. In 2012 we thought it was crazy that he was still having MOTYs with the likes of Negro Casas. And here he is still delivering some of the best pro wrestling on earth. My one complaint is that the matwork in the first fall should have gone longer. It was really nice, intricate stuff. Hechicero is such a unit that it looks like he just has to squeeze your arm and it would really hurt, so Blue Panther was getting small victories. Small victories like trapping Hechiceros leg, cradling him from below, or delivering his old bridging escape from the headscissor without hiccup. It was a brief first fall with some really nice grappling and it made me think that if I had Tony Khan level wrestling billionair money it would be my top priority to make Blue Panther vs Yasushi Sato or vs GENTARO happen. Anyways, the other 2 falls of the match were still pretty much flawless. Blue Panther bouncing around busting out crazy shit like he's not old enough to be Hechiceros grandpa was amazing and actually added to the match as you really felt like you were watching an old guy tough it out, reach deep and try to hit something entirely improbable to pull of the upset. There was also plenty of fighting going on, things never got to cooperative. Hechicero abusing the old man was great. Obviously Hechicero is an impeccable base and probably one of the few guys on earth I'd trust to take Panthers flying ranas and dives here. Hechicero abusing the old man was great. There was definitely a Hansen-ish feeling to the way he kept aggressively cracking his opponent, down to a thing as basic and easy to take as the flying elbow to the guardrail looking great. Even the botched suicide dive may have made the match better as that is what you'd expect to happen when someone tries to push beyond his limits. For a second you think Panther may be paralyzed or dead or concussed. Then Hechicero even bashes him against the post and hits some headbutts, only to be pulled off the apron for a great, simple comeback. I also loved the stair stuff and Hechicero kicking Kemonito. Hechicero was just the right mix of his old self, not being afraid to hit Blue Panther with some high level offense and a bumbling violent rudo who kept setting himself up to fall into Panthers trap. It's lucha libre so even a basic cradle can win a match and that makes this stuff gold. So yeah, great match and as long as someone like Blue Panther is alive pro wrestling can't be entirely dead.

 

2025 Wrestling Worth Watching

Best of the Velocity Matches #6

 Tajiri vs Billy Kidman, 9/17/2002

You give Tajiri 4 minutes to have a match, you're gonna get a really nice match. Even though this was short, it had everything. Cool armwork from Tajiri, Kidman doing a nice job selling said armwork and making one-armed comebacks, surprising nearfalls, and a neat finish. Tajiris kicks certainly hold up very well and his Arn Anderson-like focus is just great.

Albert vs Funaki, 9/17/2002

This was really fun. Albert had it rough in 2002, feuding and trading wins on Velocity with Funaki, but he gave his everything into these matches. Really exemplifies hard work. Funaki barrages Albert with fast dropkicks to start, they do some cool big man vs small man action, and Albert clobbers Funaki with great looking Vader hammers. Crowd is really into hating Albert, I guess looking fat hairy and disgusting is excellent heel work in itself. Funaki working Alberts chest hair rules and the crowd popping big for the finish is once again awesome.

Crash vs The Hurricane, 9/17/2002

This has a really amusing backstage promo. Funaki (who had just taken a beating from Albert) interviews Crash backstage telling him he will face THE HURRICANE and Crash does this really funny terrified face. The match is fun too. Hurricane is an amusing goofy babyface and Crash feeds into him in all kinds of interesting ways. Nobody ever talks about guys like Crash or Hurricane anymore and that's why it's cool to discover how they would work a match. Neither guy here is a generic highflying cruiserweight or technician so just the way they do things is cool. There are some fun reversals, Hurricane teasing the CHOKESLAM, a really well timed nearfall for a pin with the foot on the ropes etc. Just fun all around.

 Crash vs Billy Kidman, 9/24/2002

Crash rules. He's such a great stooge, he's sneaky, and he is great at pulling off odd and interesting stuff without coming across as cute. Kidman doesn't show a ton of fire but he is good enough when he needs to sell and he obviously has the athleticism to go hard.. This had some great backwork from Crash, including dropping Kidman over the guardrail with an awesome backbreaker, Crash feeding into Kidman in interesting ways, Crash countering Kidmans bulldog that normally sets up his finish, and then immediately stealing it, plus the way Crash does the finish is awesome.

John Cena vs D-Von Dudley, 9/24/2002

Rookie Cena is a lot of fun to watch. He has really good form on everything, and you don't know what he's gonna bust out. His cookie cutter arm drags and shoulder blocks control segment is cool, and he takes a BIG bump face down to the floor when D-Von cuts him off. D-Von nails him with a really hard clothesline and then takes a big bump of his own missing an elbow drop off the top. Cena at this point is oddly athletic - he hits a really sweet dropkick, counters D-Vons finisher by backflipping out in an impressive display. Great nearfall here when Cena is able to survive D-Vons nasty looking neckbreaker off the ropes. The finish is neat too as they do a callback to the cut off. Cena wins with a sunset flip over the ropes of all things and whoever does that anymore? I love pro wrestling.
 

Ice Ribbon ADVERSITY NINE 6/25/2011

 

Adversity Nine Match: Emi Sakura vs Hikaru Shida vs Chii Tomiya vs Tsukushi vs Kurumi vs Mochi Miyagi vs Mary Naito vs Maki Narumiya vs Dorami Nagano

This match had an insane stipulation. It was a gauntlet of double round robin singles matches with a 1 minute time limit, with everybody facing everybody for 1 minute each, two times. So that means what you get here is 72 consecutive singles matches in a bit over an hour. That is the kind of insane thing that I absolutely have to check out, and it was absolutely worth it because this ruled and absolutely worked in every way.

A big part of why the match works so well is the set hierarchy and entry order. The wrestlers are ordered from strongest (Sakura) to weakest (Nagano). The clue is that everybody faces each other twice. So, Nagano has to start facing the strongest wrestlers, but after surviving that, the following round the weakest wrestlers are added back to the end of the gauntlet. That means even the high ranked wrestlers would get in trouble, because after facing 8 opponents in a row not getting beaten by the weakest wrestler in the group would be challenging even for them. After going through so many opponents it becomes challenging to not get tapped by even a basic Boston Crab, and that is really compelling.

Another reason for why this match works so well is that everybody here had a character and they were all working their own separate stories. The main goal was clear – for the weaker wrestlers, survive the gauntlet taking as few Ls as possible, and then try to beat the stronger wrestlers later when they have to face you at the end of the gauntlet. For the stronger wrestlers, pick up as many Ws as possible and then try not to lose to weak ass Maki Narumiya or Dorami Nagano. Before watching this I was not familiar with the 2011 Ice Ribbon roster at all. I know Emi Sakura, I vaguely know about Shida and Tsukushi, I didn’t really know anyone else, but watching the match I got really into almost everybody here. You had someone like Shida, who is a badass who can tap out everybody and drop bombs, and then you had the likes of Maki Narumiya with nothing except a good overhand chop and a torture rack. Watching someone like Narumiya fight really hard and try to get a W despite her limitations was really cool. Everybody here brought something unique to the table, and because of the 1 minute format everyone could just get in, try to win, and get out before getting exposed. There was also plenty of stylistic variety - you had the surely badass Shida with her straight forward armbars and knee strikes, the slick technician Chii, the explosive rookie Tsukushi, the more surely power moves of Kurumi or Miyagi, the basic rookie moves of Dorami Nagano etc. I’m not sure if I would want to watch someone like Mochi Miyagi or Dorami Nagano in a normal match but in this setting they were really cool because they played part in a bigger story and freshened things up. The only wrestler who looked downright shitty was Mary Naito, even that can be kind of forgiven because she was never in the ring very long and in some case just got in to lose in 10 seconds.

Because of the 1 minute format, flash pins and submissions became important, which is always nice because it means you get more than just bomb dropping. Ice Ribbon is kind of flash pin central, and there were some really cool ones. Hikaru Shida was by far the biggest badass in the match, she was acing this thing tapping everybody out with cool out of nowhere armbars. I was also surprised by Chii Tomiya, who looked like a really slick wrestler with cool flash pins and a variety of ways to finish her opponents. Emi Sakura is of course the big boss and she played that role to perfection, and when it was time to go hard she did go hard. The first few gauntlets here were compelling due to the story being told with a few great moments and payoffs, but the last couple rounds when it was Tomiya, Shida and Sakura going through the gauntlet were some of the finest wrestling I’ve ever seen. The ‘any move can finish’ factor really made this edge of your seat stuff and there were some awesome counters and upsets, without going overboard. Watching the top ranked wrestlers try to survive the weakest opponents was fascinating. Tsukushi was really young here, and while her execution wasn’t perfect she’s a cool wildcard with her slick flash pins and high energy, also kicked Sakura flash in the face at one point. After the gauntlet is done the two wrestlers with the best score face off for another round to settle it and it’s a really cool ‘throw the kitchen sink and try to win’ scrap. Really one of the most unique matches I’ve ever seen, it was shockingly well put together, told a great story with wide cast of characters and delivered some awesome wrestling while the match time flew by. It’s the kind of insane thing that I would like to see tried again, although I think it can only really work in joshi. Emi Sakura, you are a whacky genius.

 

The Library

2025 Wrestling Week 1

 Michio Kageyama vs Cosmo Soldier, Sportiva 1/1

No better way to start wrestling in 2025 with Sportiva. This was really raw, just two tough old guys trying to smash each other which is kind of the best type of Japanese pro wrestling. Cosmo Soldier is such a force of chaos. He looks like a stereotypical masked hero, but his moves are somewhere between graceful and reckless, and often more reckless. I especially liked his 619 that cracked Kageyama square in the face. Kageyama was up there with him here, trying to smash him with vicious kicks and that old Sportiva bar stool, even tearing off Cosmos protective bandage to kick him in the spine harder.. He acted like a real scumbag, too. There is something savage about Cosmo hitting a suicide dive on that wooden bar floor. Add in some skull cracking headbutts from Cosmo and yeah, this definitely adds up to a match worth checking out.

Yasu Kubota vs Ari Najima, Sportiva 1/1

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. Yasu Kubota is an old scumbag, but he's the champion now and he puts in effort, in his own scummy way. Ari Najima is really good as the young hotness, he's explosive and hits really hard, and it's really interesting to see how the much less physically intimidating champion would respond. The answer is that Kubota put in an almost Bret-Hart-like workman performance, giving Najima a stiff working over. He was really mauling Najima with nasty elbows and really cranking back on those spine stretches, and using his experience to his advantage. So even though Najima is younger, faster, cooler, it was believable that Kubota could put him through the wringer, and that is impressive. I also loved Kubota busting out the reverse gory special to target Najimas weak back further. Smart match that I think people will really enjoy, that really told a good story and was a good long form title match for the small confines of a humble sportsbar.

2025 Wrestling Roundup

2025 Wrestling Roundup

 I admit I have a bit of a tough time keeping up with current wrestling. There is simply a bit much of it, with the stuff that I am interested in being kind of hard to find. To better myself, I will try to watch at least 1 match from the current year, let's see how much good stuff we can find.

2025 Wrestling Worth Watching:

January

Cosmo Soldier vs Michio Kageyama, Sportiva 1/1

Yasu Kubota vs Ari Najima, Sportiva 1/1

Jet Martial vs Lou Nixon, RISE 1/4

Yujiro Yamamoto vs Tsuyoshi Okada, Kobe Meriken 1/10

Judas El Traidor vs Fly Star, Lucha Memes 1/1

Meiko Satomura vs Manami, Sendai Girls 1/5

Blue Panther vs Hechicero, CMLL 1/10

Virus vs Neon, MLW 1/11 

Hijo del Fishman vs Mascara Sagrada Jr, 1/12

Guerrero Maya Jr vs Xelhua, CMLL 1/13

Yusaku Ito vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 1/22

Meiko Satomura vs Sareee, Sareee-ISM  1/23/2025

Hideaki Sumi vs Sho Mizuno, KOBE Meriken 1/31

February

PSYCHO vs Leo Isaka, Marvelous 2/4

Shinya Ishida vs Yuta Oya, Sportiva 2/5

Yujiro Yamamoto vs Takaku Fuke, KOBE Meriken 2/7