Jet Martial vs Lou Nixon, RISE 1/4
The first indy match that caught my attention this year, because this is a no ropes shootstyle/deathmatch hybrid thing happening in an Irish social club. There's plenty of headbutts, hardway blood, face kicks, guys getting awkwardly suplexed on their shoulders etc. Nixon is a tall-ish guy with tattoos who looks like the Necro Butcher in martial arts gear who can throw some kicks. Martial was a pretty cool fiery little guy, he looked great when he was wasting Nixon with headbutt rushes and kicks. A few things were slightly off but overall these guys are on the right track with this attitude.
Hijo del Fishman vs Mascara Sagrada Jr, 1/12/2025
I'm not very familiar with the work of these two, which is a wrong that I should right soon because apparently they've been engaged in a year long bloodfeud. This was a chaotic lucha brawl with everything you can ask for, hot crowd, blood, mask ripping, both guys trying to smash each other with everything they could grab. Fishman looked like a killer and Sagrada Jr took some absolutely crazy out of nowhere bumps into those seats. My complaint is that this went too long and they meander here and there. Other than that I loved the spontanity on display here. Seems like a good starting point for their feud.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
2025 Wrestling Week 7
Monday, February 17, 2025
RIP Gran Hamada
Gran Hamada & Rey Misterio Jr & Latin Lover vs Psicosis & Pentagon & Vegas, AAA 1/26/1996
The obvious main match up here is Rey vs. Psicosis. Instead, Gran Hamada walks over and spits in Piscosis face. They get in the ring, they slap each other, and proceed to deliver some awesomely intense, scrappy wrestling. Totally unexpected and great. The rest of the match settles into more typical trios action, but it still rules. Pentagon in 1996 is just as impressive as a sleazy rudo who stooges really well. With guys like Psicosis, Pentagon and Vegas on the rudo side it’s not hard for anyone to look good, so even someone like Latin Lover gets to have his moments in between comical amounts of gyrating. Of course Rey Jr. was setting the world on fire in 1996 and he’s pretty spectacular here. Still, the main selling point in this match is that opening exchange between Hamada and Psicosis.
Gran Hamada & Silver King & El Texano vs Negro Casas & Rambo & Dr. Wagner Jr. (UWA 2/23/1992)
Absolute crack cocaine firehouse of a trios match. The kind where it starts blazing hot and they just keep going and going and never slow down. That stadium must have been melting that night. They basically start throwing down right away with Rambo jumping in the ring beating on people, and it’s absolutely on. There’s something visceral about lucha brawling, and this feels like an epic fight from the get go, even with the physical comedy spots here and there. Hamada ends up bleeding, and he matches up with Negro Casas a lot and these two guys throwing fists at each other is just beautiful. Man alive is everybody here a great athlete, everyone here has so much velocity and snap in their stuff, makes all other wrestling look like a joke really. King and Texano are great, they are the technicos here but they have such a pissed off vibe to them that matches the general intensity of the match. Casas always looks like the greatest wrestler in any match he’s in, bumping so hard and fast, dominating almost every sequence he’s involved in, and it’s really fun to watch Rambo try to steal the show from this giant. The grand stand exchange between Hamada and Casas in the end was brief but felt epic, and then you have Rambo trying to top it by going out of his way to get snap armdragged on the floor. Crazy crazy match, one of those ‘touched by the wrestling’ gods performances that would be impossible to recreate.
Gran Hamada & Ayako Hamada & Tiger Mask IV vs Gran Apache & Fabi Apache & Pentagon Black, Michinoku Pro 3/25/2001
This was shortly after the infamous Korakuen Hall match where Pentagon attacked Ayako and Gran Hamada bloodied him and ripped his mask in a trios match. Right at the bell Hamada goes after Pentagon again, punching him in the face and making him take an insane posting, so the Gran Hamada vs Pentagon Black feud is something hot in 2001. Watching this, the main thing I thought is that you nowhere see lucharesu at this level anymore. Sure, you had 6 absolute masters, but this felt on another level. Every exchange here was breathless, original, tight, so fast. The most outstanding thing here is the rudo work from the trios of the Apaches and Pentagon Black. So many great cutoffs, and they really put in the work stooging and basing. Gran Apache is an absolute truck in this, always there to punch people in the face. It builds really well to the eventual comeuppance. G.H., Ayako and Tiger Mask IV all get to look great. Quite a different look for Tiger Mask IV when he matches up with a bunch of luchadores too but he is very good in the technico role without much martial arts. And Pentagon Black is an excellent sleazy foil, really making Hamadas big frankensteiner look amazing. After the match Pentagon spits at Ayako and Papa is right at him again. Pro Wrestling can be great.
Gran Hamada vs Pentagon Black, Michinoku Pro 8/19/2001
This is the match the feud was building, and it pretty much delivers what you want. Pentagon busts some chairs in the old mans face, bloodying him, and Hamada comes back ripping his mask and with fired up headbutts and tornado DDTs. Pentagon Black is no Perro Aguayo but he looked pretty circling around a bloody Hamada and kicking him in the face. Since this is Japan they overdo the kickouts a bit with Hamada getting out of 2 spinning tombstones, but other than that this was pretty great. I also love how Hamada uses that cross armbar as a kill move.
Gran Hamada vs Jushin Liger, Michinoku Pro 4/9/2000
This is from the 2000 Super J-Cup. Since this is an opening rounds match and Liger always goes to the finals it easily could have been forgettable, but we get something fairly memorable here. Hamada is aggressive, working Liger over on the ground with his cool little half-knee drops and attacking his arm. Hamada wins a fair number of matches with a straight armbar so him attacking the arm is a credible strategy. Liger mauling Hamada with open hands and doing some great arm selling reminded me how great he can be. They delve into bomb dropping, and both these guys can drop bombs with the best of them, even with Hamada being 50 years old here. Liger doesn't hold back at all and just goes for the kill. Some great hope spots for Hamada, and a great going out on his sword-style finish. Miss this kind of junior wrestling that has no jokes and no superkicks.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
2025 Wrestling Week 6
Hideaki Sumi vs Sho Mizuno, KOBE Meriken 1/31
I love to see my man Hideaki Sumi show up. For those who don't know, he's this aging karateka with a grey mullet with really precise hard hitting kicks, so he's awesome. He can grapple too, so he's more interesting than your typical karateka. I haven't seen Sho Mizuni before, and he doesn't even have a Cagematch profile, but he has a half-mullet-half-iro and he does pretty well here. He also has kickpads and is not afraid to kick hard, and he had some cool slick rides on the ground. But you want to watch this because it's two japanese guys with mullets in a bar kicking and smacking the hell out of each other and for that it really delivers. Some cool moments in this and the finish was a brutalizing. This gets the full indy sleaze point.
Yujiro Yamamoto vs Takaku Fuke, KOBE Meriken 2/7/2025
Well it's a good run for Kobe Meriken right now. These two square of doing some nice shootstyle grappling. It was pretty uncooperative stuff but there were a number of cool moments, in particular Yujiro Yamamoto dragging Fuke around by a nasty double wristlock, and Yamamoto having a really cool throw counter to an attempted Russian tie from Fuke. The part where Yamamoto went for an irish whip was a little weird, I have no idea why he keeps forcing that into his matches. But the last couple minutes they went back to shootstyle. Fuke is getting cloes to 60 now and has been wrestling for around 35 years, which is pretty insane. He is not mindblowing at this point but he doesn't exactly suck either, and Yamamoto has no problem keeping this moving. Pretty enjoyable.
Shinya Ishida vs Yuta Oya, Sportiva 2/5
Yuta Oya continues to deliver. How this man is not a sensation is beyond me. 40 years old, blind, and the best rookie going right now. This was a really impressive little match. It kind of reminded me a bit of early 90s AJPW. It was a pro-style match, but rather unpredictable. Really good "rookie does a surprising job controlling the veteran" performance from Oya. He would hurl Ishida around with his judo throws and catch him with out of nowhere power moves. And Ishida is good as he usually is. I don't have a ton to say here, I am just asking people to watch this and see for themselves. Really good under 10 minute match.
PSYCHO vs Leo Isaka, Marvelous 2/4
I enjoyed this a lot too. Some great technical wrestling here. They did some really cool transitions and reversals, making the usual standard opening chain wrestling actually interesting. PSYCHO was great - he looked like a great technician, surprisingly athletic, and his leg selling was top notch. I have no idea how a guy like him with his iro and tattered clothes somehow ends up being a great technician but here we are. Isaka looked good too. Really looking forward to check out PSYCHOs upcoming match in MUTOHA after this.
Monday, February 10, 2025
2 Cold Scorpio Documentation Project #6
2 Cold Scorpio vs. Rob Van Dam, ECW 3/20/1998 - GREAT
This was apparently provided by RVDs personal channel, so thanks to Mr. Van Dam for providing the hidden gems. Really athletic match with a lot of heat garnering from Van Dam and Alfonso. RVD has a rep for super choreographed sequences but they largely avoided that here. Opening grappling was really good, with both guys having really good mat movements, Scorpio rips out a really fast Fujiwara Armbar and RVD has a super impressive bridge walkover, wish that section lasted longer. The Zbyszko stalling from RVD mixed with the athletic basic exchanges was really effective. Both guys bust out some impressive counter sequences, with Scorpios kicks looking especially awesome. Finishing run had some great old school junior moves like a huge back suplex off the top and a beastly powerbomb from Scorpio. Scorpio really wrestles with a ton of faith in the basic moves, like he comits to a basic mat return as much as he does to a plancha or twisting splash, and both look awesome and believable. It’s a nice change of pace from todays trained monkey show approach to this kind of wrestling. Some of the floor brawling was a bit listless and the finish was a run in, but a really cool match outside of that.
2 Cold Scorpio vs Paul Orndorff, WCW 5/18/1993 - GREAT
Wonderful TV match which was basic but executed amazingly. I think early 90s WCW is some of the best TV wrestling the US ever had, everything is nice and snug, and everyone is putting in the work. Orndorff really can work a basic wristlock even to perfection, and Scorpio is so good. All of Scorpios stuff really pops, yes he has the fancy high spots, but he makes even somtehing as basic as a crossbody look amazing. I also loved him throwing punches. Orndorff is really good, nothing fancy, but he knows how to be dominant so the crowd will be extra hot for all of Scorpios offense, and he looked mean as hell when he was attacking Scorpios riffs. Really simple classy match that had the crowd the whole time, down to the “Whoop there it is” chant and everyone jumping up and pointing fingers when Orndorff pulled a foreign object. Great stuff.
2 Cold Scorpio & Richard Slinger vs Akitoshi Saito & Makoto Hashi, NOAH 7/10/2004 - GREAT
Fuck yeah Scorpio and Slinger getting to tear it up in the dome for 15 minutes. This was mid paced, but had a ton of good shit in it. Namely from Slinger, who is really working hard in this match, busting out lots of awesome kicks. His pump kick in the corner is probably the best that move has looked, and his spin kicks were really cool. Scorpio was awesome here, he makes everything he does look so good, down to his great heavyweight flying, and uncorking some great strikes. It is telling that in a match with some great strikers in it Scorpio has the best looking strikes. His jumping knee nearly caved Hashis face in, and later he hits a picture perfect jumping face kick. I would’ve liked to see him go head to head with Saito a bit more, instead of having Hashi kick out of a bunch of offense, but Scorp and Saito wailing on each other early on was pretty cool too. In the end it was Slingers night and he made the most of it.
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
2025 Wrestling Week 5
Meiko Satomura vs Sareee, Sareee-ISM 1/23
Excellent bout between arguably the greatest female wrestler in the last 27 years and the current top prospect in the Japanese womens wrestling scene, glad this happened. In a way there are not a ton of surprises here - the first half is very much carried by the fact that they both have great offense and don't do anything illogical, I thought. It was a bit of back and forth with Satomura trying to put down her opponent with authority and Sareee surprising her with some off-guard violent offense. There's not a ton of surprises if you've seen your share of Satomura and Sareee matches. The second half though was great stuff with both of them reaching to the next level and having some crazy hard hitting moments. I loved the vicious sleeper work, Sareee uncorking the headbutts, Satomura dishing out some brutal kicks etc. Sareees most well put together match that I've seen so far, and a nice chance for Satomura to add another banger to her vast resume.
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #17
The WAR/New Japan feud is such a special occurance in wrestling history. You basically had all these guys, producing multiple excellent matches per month, all ultra heated, at an excellent pace, packed with violence and great moments. This was no exception, just +20 minutes of scrappy unpredictable chaos, guys running in and out beating on each other, throwing uncooperative strikes, getting blindsided and having he fight spill over and so on and so forth. The NJ crowd absolutely despise Kitahara in this, like they totally resent every fiber of his mulleted kick-throwing shitstirring existance, and he is pretty amazing here just bathing in the hatred, cheap shotting guys, disrespecting Aoyagi, getting his nose bloodied and almost dying in a 3-on-1 gang beatdown from the NJPW crew. Everybody in this match is amazing, though. Koshinaka not being afraid to crush peoples faces with kneedrops and punches, Kimura flying in hitting people with his awesome jumping kicks, Ishikawa trying to stomp people to death, and of course Grande Tenryu really elevating the big fight feel of the match. I also loved Aoyagi who was having scrappy violent exchanges with everyone and occasionally hitting people with his cool flying kicks, really having a GOAT "tough aging karate master going all out" performance. The ending is especially cool, as Tenryu tags in realizing he's facing Aoyagi and gets this amazing smirk, but then gets blindsided and destroyed a bunch for the crowd flipping out at Tenryu potentially being pinned by Kimura. Just amazing pro wrestling, so much fight, attrition, hatred, struggle, great timing, and to think this not in the most talked about matches from this feud is mind boggling.
Koki Kitahara & Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Jushin Thunder Liger, NJPW 8/3/1993 - GREAT
Another round in this great rivalry. Here we get a great 10 minute sprint. The fast paced Fujinami/Tenryu sections rule, with Tenryu immediately bloodying Fujinamis nose with a kick to the face, and Fujinami trying to destroy Tenruys leg. Once again, Kitahara was insanely hatred - just what did this particular fellow do? But he has the audacity to show up with his dopey mullet and sleazy jeans and karate kick people and that is really fitting for this kind of street fight feud. We also get to see Liger in this kind of heated bloodfeud environment which is really fun, he has some great moments including getting into a shotai battle with Tenryu, and in turn getting kicked in the face. At 9 minutes you really can't go wrong with this stuff with everyone bringing lots to the table and the general "anything can happen-"feel of these matches.