Cosmo Soldiers YouTube Channel

 Cosmo Soldier vs Kenta Kosugi, KAGEKI 5/6/2023

Very good match with Kosugi looking like a beast and Cosmo trying everything in the book to crack him down. Soldier hanging on to headlocks and sleeperholds and booting Kosugi in the face early on reminded me of a smartly worked early 90s AJPW match. Soldier was hitting insanely hard, both trying to crack Kosugis jaw with european uppercuts and laying really hard kicks into his body, and he had a few classy moments such as a really graceful sweep into a submission, as well as a great upside down scarecrow submission hold. Kosugi powering out of Soldiers holds was epic and he looked like a monster manhandling Soldier and ragdoll tossing him into the buckles. It builds to this really nasty finish with Soldier trying to chop through Kosugis neck with weird sideway hitting lariats and Kosugi just trying to chokeslam him through the ring. Really good, honestly probably the best singles match I’ve seen of our man Cosmo.

Cosmo Soldier vs Yoshikazu Taru, WYF 10/5/1997

Pretty fun 5 minutes. This was probably the most asskicking I’ve seen Taru dish out. He sure was confident putting a beating on Soldier here. Soldier can hit some quick takedowns but he eats lots of hard kicks and even karate chops from Taru. It looks like it’s gonna be a one sided trashing but the Soldier is able to land an awesome punch to the head and then fly recklessly into TARU with his awesome fast flip dive. It looks like Soldier can mount something, but then he knocks himself loopy while trying a suplex and seconds later is KO’d by a big Taru high kick. Fun for all the things people like indy scum wrestler vs karateka matches, and condensed into 5 minutes too.

Cosmo Soldier vs Makoto Saito, WYF 1997/5/18

This appears to be taking place in the WYF Dojo, so that alone is amazing to see. The match is fun too, as it’s basically raw unpolished BattlARTS style. Lots of tight grappling and evil strikes with both guys weaving in some big moves to keep it exciting. Saito looks really cool here, really peppering Soldier with sharp kicks. Soldier tries a few things, some come off well, like his out of nowhere headscissor takedown, some are slightly ill fated, but the spirit was there. Nothing here locks planned and it’s just really raw and uncooperative stuff. Not for the faint of the heart but sometimes a raw messy fight like this cleans the soul.

Assorted EAGLE Pro

 

Shoji Ohno vs Hiroyuki Kondo, EAGLE Pro 2/28/2021

This was from the plague era, so they wrestled in the empty EAGLE Pro dojo. I love Shoji Ohno now, I am not super familiar with Hiroyuki Kondo since he is another very elusive guy, but I thought Kondo was cool when he was in BJW 20 years ago. And oh my god this is a great match! They start with 10 minutes of ground wrestling like a classic NJPW match from the 90s and these two are really interesting to watch twist each other up on the ground. Kondo is really cool here – at one point he tried to snap Ohnos wrist with a headbutt that looked really good. Eventually it devolves into Kondo damaging Ohnos arm and Ohno damaging Kondos leg. This makes things further interesting both guys would try to go for their signature moves but couldn’t hit them because of the limb damage. Rarely do you see the logical conclusion of limb damage drawn to the end, and it really paid off in making this match more exciting. Kondo even hit a an arm-breaking piledriver on Shoji Ohno, which was amazing. Ohno is as straight forward as we know him from Mutoha. He doesn’t have the palm rushes yet, but he throws a lot of closed fist punches, and he is already really cool, he had this awesome reversal of an attempted russian legsweep. This was just the kind of minimalist, technical pro wrestling I really like, really it’s a gem considering what a small stage it was put on for.

Shoji Ohno vs Hiroyuki Kondo, EAGLE Pro 9/24/2023

Another match between them, and this one is in front of an audience. It’s also great! It’s also a pretty different beast from the 2021 match. Here, Shoji Ohno is a dirty heel bastard, and he has learned how to palm strike. So Ohno spends the whole match pummeling the hell out of Kondo with his hard as stone palms, even mocking a little girl in the audience. Crusher Takahashi is also with Ohno, ready to beat on Kondo with a kendo stock. Kondos only chance is to dismantle Ohnos arm and lock in the Scorpion Armlock. We get to see some great arm attacks from Kondo, including him busting out the arm breaking piledriver again, and there were a few great moments. The one problem was that I thought Kondo should’ve been slowed down more by Ohnos assault to his leg, but it wasn’t a huge problem. Kondo also busts out a great senton to Ohnos arm. Another really unique, cool as hell match from Shoji Ohno.

Hiroyuki Kondo & Kazunori Yoshida vs Leo Isaka & Takahiro Katori, EAGLE 2018/12/16

Another cool match from EAGLE Pro, based on what I see the promotion seems really cool. From what I gather Kondo and Yoshida are the veteran stalwarts of the promotion, with Yoshida being the founder of the company and Kondo its long time ace. Isaka and Katori are SHOCK DA HEROES, the budding young hotness of EAGLE, and they are trying to upset the veterans. This is a really good sprint, lots of spectacular moves but it’s really made by the veterans vs rising stars story. Kondo once again looked like the king of unorthodox arm attacks here, busting out an awesome Russian Legsweep targeting the arm. Yoshida may be some kind of best kept secret of the japanese indies, he has all these amazing looking rope climbing springboard moves, and also brings a trampolin for assisted springboard moves, he’s really graceful and awesome to watch. Isaka and Katori are mostly outgunned but I liked the few bits of offense they got in this too. Check this out if you want to spend 10 minutes watching some fresh wrestling.

2025 Wrestling Week 12

 Yu Shimizu vs Leo Isaka Marvelous 3/16

A lot of big matches happening in March 2025, and here I am, excited to watch Yu Shimizu vs Leo Isaka. This was a bit slow but solid and had a really good ending. Shimizu has really come into his own providing lots of cool moments with his dragon sleeper/reverse DDT work and his rear naked choke is the best I've ever seen. Isaka is a fun fast moving babyface. It kind of rules to have a short mens match like this on a joshi card.

Meiko Satomura vs Chihiro Hashimoto, 3/21

It's Meiko on her way out vs her top student. Obviously it's a great match. Great straight forward hard hitting pro wrestling. Hashimoto is clearly Meikos best opponent in recent years and this was probably their finest match together. Hash with her grappling skill and sheer physicality really forces Meiko to show more intensity of her own. Some genuinely violent strikes, sick head kicks and Chihiro trying to take her head off with vader hammers here. Loved the constant teasing of the basic German Suplex and something like a basic powerslam from Hashimoto being a huge nearfall. I assume this was ran in a much too large building so the heat was a little subdued early on, so the crowd coming alive with a big Satomura chant breaking out late in the match was awesome. Plenty of great spots and transitions without becoming too cute, I also loved the sleeper hold. What really makes this pop as a great match is the 'passing off the torch aspect' with Hashimoto trying to topple her teacher and Meiko being so unwilling to just lay down and stay down for the 3 and trying her damndest to win the title even on the brink of retirement. Great stuff and easily one of the finest matches not just of the year but of the decade so far.

Yumiko Hotta vs VENY, Seadlinnng 3/20

Yumiko Hotta main eventing a big show in a cage match. Why? I don't know, but I'm watching it. Hotta is 58 years old. She really can't bump, she doesn't even do cool kicks anymore. They just chuck metal objects at each others heads, bleeding, Hotta punches through a chair, they use a rickety ladder to try and climb the cage... some outside interference happens and a bunch of other girls storm into the ring, one of them diving off the cage. VENY is a psychotic hero in this, taking the gnarliest bump and also moonsaulting off the cage with nobody really catching her. When she hits the red mist on Hotta it looks like she spray vomited blood on her. I can't tell if this was any good but I sure enjoyed the spectacle of it, so it was good.

Sareee vs Syuri, Sareee-ism 3/10

I'll start with the positives: they both have plenty of great looking offense and a fair amount of intensity. They really blast each other with everything they've got for 30 minutes and there are a few murderous headbutts. Maybe I was too tired while watching this, but this match just didn't click for me. It starts bad enough with the super generic beginning - perfunctory matwork where nothing happens, some lucharesu-flavoured running exchange before they exchange snapmares and kick each other in the back a lot. It gets better later on, but aside from their offense there is not really much too hook me in. There is some semblance of psychology with Sareee attacking Syuris leg to slow her down, but Syuri never really sells any of it and quickly goes back on offense anyways. Syuri keeps going for armlocks but again Sareee never really sells it and at some point the submissions start to feel like padding. With the lack of a story or focus and the only selling point being how many moves these two can hit in a lot of minutes I started to zone out. Plus, 30 minutes was far too long for this, especially since they both lack offense, so Sareee must have hit like a dozen meaningless uranages in this. At 20 this could've been pretty good, at 30 this made the most bloated early 2000s NOAH matches look fresh and conservative.

Mariah May vs Toni Storm, AEW 3/9

Fun psycho bumpfest with plenty of blood and gross out carnage. I imagine this is how people felt watching Ian vs Axl Rotten in ECW. Brawling or subtleness were non existant but this has enough broken bottle to the crotch to make up for it. Actually thought the one broken glass punch was pretty sick so it was funny they didn't continue with the taipei stuff. I also liked May constantly selling the self-damage and the hip attacks were actually nasty looking and felt innovative. Not something I would want to watch again because I would get desensitized to piledrivers and headdrops but they made the most of what they had.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Kentaro Shiga Matches

 

Kentaro Shiga vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, NOAH 8/19/2000

This ruled. Basically a semi shootstyle bout with Shiga trying to get underneath Takayama for a flash submission, and Takayama being a monster crushing him everytime he hit back. This was still early NOAH where Akiyama had choked out Misawa on the debut show so all submissions were hot nearfalls. There were even some savage bare knuckle punch exchanges. Awesome 7 minutes, young and hungry Shiga was great.

Kentaro Shiga vs Takao Ohmori, NOAH 10/7/2000

Another really cool, crafty Shiga performance. He was working this like Regal, spending 5 minutes going after Ohmoris arm in cool ways, with Ohmori doing a nice job that he really doesn’t want to get pulled into Shigas armlocks. Not many have named Takao Ohmori as a great wrestler in 2000 but he does look mighty fine here. I loved how he chucked Shigas annoying ass over the top rope like a piece of shit and his big dropkick and thrust kick looked great. Last couples minutes were really good with Shiga busting out some Kenichiro Arai in Mutoha level stuff like an awesome flying headscissor into an armbar, a cool straight jacket pin and throwing punches. Really cool finish too where Shiga powers out of a full nelson but gets flattened by the Axe Bomba.

Kentaro Shiga vs Daisuke Ikeda, NOAH 10/8/2000

I like this little run of singles matches Shiga was getting in 2000. He continues to try his submission master act, but Ikeda is stubborn and Fujiwara trained so Ikeda keeps reversing him. NOAH Ikeda is always a bit weird to see him engaging in rope running and some of the weird things he tries (he hits a suicide dive in this) but his reversal to Shigas leglock was spectacular, and he hit one absolutely disgusting kick on Shiga. Pretty fun.

 

Kentaro Shiga & Tamon Honda vs Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, NOAH 3/17/2002

A 13 minute match that felt like a 5 minute sprint. Really good stuff here, you get the usually fun Shiga vs. Akiyama interactions where anytime Shiga gets the upper hand it feels epic, plus an insanely fired up Honda. Honda running in early to save Shiga and bust Akiyama with a huge Dead End in like the first 2 minutes was awesome. I really liked how they set your expectations for Akiyama to end up getting worked over but avert them. Shiga eating a piledriver on the ramp while Honda was unable to help him was also great. I also loved Hondas hot tag tagging Akiyama with hard clotheslines, and how Akiyama and Kanemaru would constantly attack his bad knees to cut him off. We get another cool Olympic Hell spot, and Honda averting another Akiyama assault in cool fashion. Shigas constant submissions were great and his deadly finishing move was completely unexpected. It felt like a big stepping stone for Shiga.

2025 Wrestling Week 11

 Hanako Nakamori & Leon vs Crea & Moeka Haruhi, Pure-J 3/9

Really good go-go tag with lots of quality exchanges throughout. Everyone here is really fun to watch. Nakamori still has vicious kicks, Crea is a really fun energetic enforcer booting people in the face, and Leon hasn't lost anything in all these years. I wasn't familiar with Haruhi but she was pretty cool too, she had some really violent double stomps and cool ways to stretch opponents. They bust out some bigger spots than you'd expect from a dojo show and the finish is a damn finish. Real quality stuff, just all 4 of them going hard and it was really cool.

Chon Shiryu & Leon vs Mei Suruga & Baliyan Akki, Choco Pro 2/2/225

This was a MOVEZ~ match but it was a pretty fun one. Shiryu is still really awesome and can bust out awesome exchanges and nifty things like no tomorrow. Enjoyed Leon a lot as always, her team with Shiryu is really random but they have some cool moments together. The cutesy act of Akki and Suruga isn't for me, but they also did some cool stuff especially Suruga. The finish was really cool as the constant double team assisted moves blew back up in their face and it was the kind of nifty touch Shiryu is so damn good at pulling off.

Yuta Oya & Ali Najima vs Konaka & Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 2/26

Another week, another quality match from Sportiva. These 4 guys are some of my favourites in the world to watch so it's really nice to see them all square off in a tag match. First half is really solid, we get to see Konaka grappling with Najima which is always cool, while Najimas skillset is stil basic he will only get better wrestling guys like Konaka on the regular. I like how Shinya Ishida is always a total dick to Oya, fully taking advantage of his blindness to attack him. The 2nd half is really really good - I don't know what got into them, but Ishida suddenly starts wrestling like Yasushi Sato and busting out a bunch of awesome Russian Leg Sweep variations, even a cool Russian Leg Sweep into a submission hold. Konaka would join he madness with some Russian Leg Sweeps of his own and even a Russian Leg Sweep into a pin. Both these guys wrestled Sato a lot, and sadly I don't think we have any of the Sato vs Ishida and only a few Sato vs Konaka matches, but if that was not a distant homage to the Russian Leg Sweep god then I don't know. Some really nifty counters in this, especially those around Oyas signature sidewalk slam and harai goshi. Those are two cool moves to build nifty counters around. Really cool, really unique stuff that would absolutely recommend everyone to check out, don't sleep on this just because it happens in a tiny sportsbar, it's easily some of the best wrestling around.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

RIP Osamu Nishimura

 

Osamu Nishimura & Keiji Mutoh & Tadao Yasuda vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata & Junji Hirata (NJPW 10/15/1995)

Really awesome match for a 12 minute 6 man tag. Nishimura isn’t Mr. Muga yet, he’s clad in blindingly silver gear and wrestles a more generic but energetic style. He puts the heat on Hirata early on, and then challenging Hashimoto. Hashimoto won’t tag in for a while, until he’s finally had enough and a hellish vengeance is unleashed on Nishimura as he just gets destroyed but he still hasn’t enough and dropkicks Hash in the back of the head. Awesome. Yasuda is also pretty great here like a more massive version of Taue, sumo rushing people and putting the boots to Hash. Mutoh doesn’t do shit in this match and it’s for the better. I also enjoyed Nagata and Hirata delivering straight forward punishment. But in general this is a really awesome ‘Hash fucks everyone up’ match and another chapter in the book called Why Shinya Hashimoto is the GOAT.

Osamu Nishimura & Manabu Nakanishi vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono, NJPW 6/5/2002

This is a legendary match in Osamu Nishimuras career, which for some reason has never been available in full until NJPW made it just now available on NJPW World. Bit sad they waited until Nishimuras death to release that, but this is an absolutely amazing match. Namely it is famous because of that moment where Nakanishis leg is injured and he leaves the match, leading Nishimura to remove his boots and turn into a barefoot grappling demon, but there’s lots of amazing wrestling surrounding it. I’ve never been super big on the non-Hashimoto, non-Fujinami side of NJPW heavyweight wrestling, so I was surprised how well Nakanishi, Tenzan and Chono did here. There is some really cool Chono/Nishimura grappling, people don’t think of Chono as much of a grappler but he does have that Lou Thesz heritage and he gets into some pretty interesting stuff with Nishimura. They work this in a very old school, almost Jim Crocket feeling fashion, not as in that there’s a ton of holds or something, but rather that everyone here really works to make the maximum out of basic things such as strikes. I also really appreciated that Tenzan and Nakanishi didn’t do any braindead endless chop exchanges, instead what we got was far more interesting with Nakanishi kind of bullying Tenzan with his own mongolian chops, and an angry Tenzan sometimes angrily shoot headbutting him. First half the match had lots of good stuff, also because I am used to modern wrestling being a trained monkey show even something as simple as Chono working over someone with knees in the corner was refreshingly straight forward. There were a few great moments, in particular Nishimura almost choking out Tenzan. They did a great segment with Nish really wrenching the fuck out of Tenzans neck, and Nakanishi coming in to smash Tenzans head into the mat like a gorilla was just perfect. They also do a nice job increasing the stakes of the match, with Chono going for his yakuza kicks early on and increasing the pressure on Nishimura, while Nishimura ends up taking a big beating. A really good energetic 1^st half that sets up the amazing second half which has the legendary barefoot warrior Nishimura moment, as well as an amazing Nakanishi performance. It feels shameful that Nakanishis performance here is rarely brought up among the greatest ever, but his leg selling really was that fucking good, and him smashing Tenzan to a bloody pulp may be one of the Top 10 greatest moments a match has ever had. Stretch run is absolutely fantastic working the crowd into a frenzy and also has the greatest nearfall for a backslide ever. They really drove the point home going for minimalism and getting the maximum out of the basics, that point is especially hammered home when Chono hits like 10 Russian Leg Sweeps on Nakanishi, followed by Nishimura repaying him with 10 barefoot dropkicks. An enraged Nishimura throwing the referee around and punching a bloody Tenzan in the face is about as good as wrestling gets. Amazing amazing match, I cannot say enough to emphasize how cool this was, just about the perfect broadway, never boring, interesting all the way through with some amazing moments and wrestling hewn in and Nishimura being just the best in his stubborn glory.

Osamu Nishimura vs Kazuo Yamazaki, NJPW 12/10/1995

You look at this match up and think “this sounds like a technical clinic”. But this is 1995, Nishimura is basically a young lion who looks like a lankier version of Muto, and he has not yet become the embodiment of MUGA. Instead of holds Nishimura bitchslaps Yamazaki and then it turns into both guys throwing down, with Yamazaki throwing bombs with his aggressive headbutts and razor sharp kicks and Nishimura throwing hands and blasting him with dropkicks. It’s a fun look at what could have been though MUGA Nishimura is still cooler. Nishimura shocks the crowd with how much he is able to beat up Yamazaki but then he goes for suplex and Yamazaki pulls him into a Fujiwara Armbar which he cranks as far back as I’ve ever seen a Fujiwara Armbar being pulled back for the tap. Just about a 5 minute match but it was really cool and this kind of ‘it can end at anytime’ stuff is what kept NJPW exciting in the 90s.

2025 Wrestling Week 10

 Crea vs AKARI, Pure-J 3/2

Never seen these two before, based on this they are pretty cool. Lots of slick transitions and submissions here, especially from AKARI who seems like a really cool wrestler. Creas offense was more straight forward and punishing, lots of boots to the face, I dug her, she also had a really cool wristlock suplex. The pace and energy here is really good for a mid card match. I didn't like some of the no selling, I think that is unnecessary for a match in the middle of the card, but the finish was pretty nice.


Rydeen Hagane vs Crea, Pure-J 2/2

Really good title match, nice to see that Pure-J is still putting on the real thing. Basically Rydeen Hagane is a big monster and Crea comes at her with all her might. Thought Crea looked really good here, her stiff elbows and boots looked great, and those almost-deadweight suplex on her much bigger opponent were damn impressive. I cared more about that build to a basic German Suplex than pretty much anything in any other joshi big match I've seen so far. Hagane is a credible monster, this is mostly the Crea show but Hagane just nuked her at the end. I didn't like the superkicks, that move is just overused to death, but it's a minor complaint since everything else was good.

Oleg Boltin vs Konosuke Takeshita, NJPW 2/11

Boltin is this beastly Kazakh wrestler. I made the mistake of assuming that he would be like a soviet shooter in  New Japan, but this isn't 1989 anymore and he just wrestles a more generic style with some power spots thrown in, like 2002 Brock Lesnar. This was a bit like something that could be a Smackdown! main event. Boltin knocks him down with a shoulderblock and then Takeshita soon works his arm for a bit to slow him down. Boltins arm hurts so he can't hit all his crazy throws, then his arm doesn't hurt and he hits all his crazy throws. They go into this really trite elbow exchange and some more. There's some fun to be had here with Boltin manhandling Takeshita in riduculous ways. Takeshita is solid but never seems to leave a huge impression on me. His elbows looked off. He's not as good as Crea when it comes to fighting a monster. I think Boltin vs 2006 Fit Finlay would be awesome.

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Exploring PURE-J

 

Leon vs Yuu, Pure-J 5/4/2022

Great title match. The more I watch Leon the more I realize she’s one of the most skilled wrestlers around. Yuu is a pretty simplistic straight forward wrestler, all splashes, sentons and thundering chops, and it’s really fun to watch Leon work a big match around that. Basically the story here is that Yuu is a brick wall and Leon would have to barrage her to break her down. Really enjoyed the submission work here. There wasn’t any limbwork or something like that, it was very in the moment with Leon going for a rolling kimura at one point and Yuu just grabbing the sleeper when she could. Love Leons spears and her making sure to target Yuus mid section some more when she hit her big splash. I admit Yuu isn’t super interesting and could’ve done a better job with her selling here or there but other than that this a really good match, really puts the PURE in PURE-J as they stayed in the ring the whole time and did a straight forward match with no bullshit, something that wouldn’t hurt to see in other joshi organizations.

Blanca Maho vs Momo Tani, Pure-J 10/14/2024

Blanca Maho is this ex-kickboxer who throws lots of awesome kicks, so it’s really nice to see her in a lengthy singles match for a title. I am not familiar with Momo Tani, she is one of those frail looking wrestlers with a very pretty outfit, so I wasn’t sure how good she would be, but it turns out she’s a competent wrestlers too with lots of cool knee strikes, and she looked good when she was on top controlling the match with holds. She also had some cool suplexes and a slick transition where she moved herself to the ring apron. Just her foreram smashes need some work. Mahos kicks were awesome, her chest kicks were really popping Momo, and she has a bunch of different variations, and this match has a really good pace without becoming too much. Really fun to check this out, Blanca Maho looks to be a star in the making.

Chie Ozora vs Risa Sera, 9/15/2024

This is a really good match, mainly because of Chie Ozora. Ozora is this really non-threatening wrestler, she’s short, wears a hoodie in the ring, and doesn’t exactly have a dangerous build, but oh my god she does give her opponent hell here. Really really good fired up underdog performance from her. I loved her viciously going for the arm, and she just kept coming. Sera won’t blow your mind, but she does a good job keeping Ozora down with nasty knee drops and her arm selling was solid. Some great spots and nearfalls here especially Ozoras roll ups. Great underdog vs champion match.

Megumi Yabushita vs KAZUKI, Pure-J 5/3/2022

It’s too bad Megumi Yabushita doesn’t make tape often, because even at 50 years old she looked cool as fuck here. She had all these awesome slick legbar reversals and a judo throw that spiked her opponent. KAZUKI kind of sucked here, but sometimes you just want to enjoy a cool one woman show. The finish is a flying armbar. I’ve probably seen a thousand flying armbars and this one may have been the most spectacular I’ve seen ever.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #25

 Tanomusaku Toba & Tyson Maeguchi & Keisuke Ishii vs Shuichiro Katsumura & Takeshi Okada & Yumehito Imanari, Ganbare Pro 2/5/2022 - FUN

Pretty fun 6 man tag with TOBA~ spicing things up. Man I probably would never watch this if Tanomusaku Toba was not in it. Thankfully he is here, having some brief awesome exchanges with everyone and punching people in the face. He’s old, slow, but he’s seen in it all and can anticipate his opponents in such a way that they are sure to get punched in the face. His first exchange with Okada really had that feel. Toba even ends up taking Imanaris hot tag eating some hard chops and lariats. Everybody else here is a bit half baked and indyriffic, with not a ton of selling as everyone gets their shit in, but they are able to create some fun moments. Even Maeguchi, a shooter who likes to throw lots of kicks and open handed strikes, annoyed me somewhat with his irritating high pitched yelling. At the end he and Katsumura were able to have a decent PANCRASE-ish exchange into a cool finish with Katsumura hanging on to a ninja choke. Still, fuck that: TOBA~!

Tanomusaku Toba vs KAZMA, Ganbare Pro 8/11/2017 - GREAT

I haven’t heard much about KAZMA. He’s seemingly been around forever. So long that he was in BML. So long that he was in WWE one time. And apparently even did at least one match in TNA? Then he kind of went into an infinite loop of having multiman matches in promotions like GLEAT and Dragon Gate and WRESTLE-1 and the corpse of Pro Wrestling NOAH where there’s no chance I’ll ever watch him. I definitely don’t remember anyone ever coming out as a KAZMA Sakamoto fan. But fuck all that, KAZMA is facing Tanomusaku Toba now, and when you face TOBA it’s ride or die. Tanomusaku Toba is pretty much Everyone Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face: The Wrestler and that really makes all his matches into something special. Right at the bell Toba is punching KAZMA in the face really hard. And, well, maybe KAZMA really is an underrated great of the indies and has been illuminating all those GLEAT and Wrestle-1 tags with a kind of greatness that people have unfairly failed to notice. Or getting punched in the face by Tanomusaku Toba has awoken something in KAZMA. Either way, Toba beats the living dog shit out of KAZMA here, with the super close camera work being pretty great as we get all these close handheld shots of KAZMAs soul leaving and re-entering his body. It turns into a brawl fast as they lay into each other on the floor. KAZMA actually puts violence into all his stuff – even his open-handed-probably-learned-from-Lord-Tensai-WWEish punches look sick, and there is some serious grit as Toba stonewalls an attempt at lazy brawling and punches KAZMA in the face some more, and we get close up handheld shots of KAZMA laying on the floor after getting his bell rung, and Tobas aging-kind-of-pudgy body being flung into the chairs. Back in the ring KAZMA contiues to match the tone putting some nice violence into all his stuff, really trying to crack Tobas frail old body. and Toba only knows one thing. Old Man Toba doesn’t really do any of the fancier kick and punch variations anymore that he would do in his younger days, all he knows is forward with straight rights driving into KAZMAS face and it’s awesome. That kind of simplicity is well appreciated and totally works for me. This thing kind of ruled. Does KAZMA rule? No clue, but he looked good in a gritty 10 minute match getting punched in the face a lot and giving back some violence. That’s a well worthy achievement in any wrestlers career.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

2025 Wrestling Week 9

 
Ari Najima vs Yuta Oya, Sportiva 2/24

Another very good little performance from the Sportiva super rookies. I love the absence of bullshit and rope running in Oyas matches. This was really straight forward, two guys hitting the mat, with Najima eventually working over Oyas arm with nasty cranks and kicks. Another great harai goshi spot from Oya here, and I loved the intense fighting for the sharpshooter with Najima selling his back. Really simple but enjoyable match.

Leon vs Hanako Nakamori, PURE-J 2/16/2025

These two had some of my favourite matches of the last decade. This was a 2 count pinfall match with the extra rule that there was a plastic circle in the middle of the ring and if you touch it you lose. That is a lot of bullshit ruleset. These two have a ton of fun ways to work around "the middle is lava" and clearly still have awesome chemistry. Lots of fun to be had here and some wild body control and ring positioning stuff (I imagine working a match where you can't touch the middle of the ring is pretty hard with most wrestlers being trained to work towards the middle). Still I want to see these two get up and face each other in a straight match again.

Ai Houzan vs Senka Akatsuki, Marvelous 1/4

Really enjoyed their shoot pinfall match, so I decided to check this out. Starts a little mundane but soon turns into hard as fuck match with Houzan beathing the hell out of the rookie. Lots of evil slaps and stomps from her. Sick moment where Akatsuki really cracks Houzan with a headbutt and Chigusa on commentary cracks up. Last couple minutes were pretty intense with Akatsuki trying to hit a bodyslam for the finish. For a wrestler whose signature moves are 'body slam' and 'intensely worked pinfall' she's really cool.

Ryo Mizunami & Sonoko Kato vs Mio Momono & Yurika Oka, OZ Academy 2/9

A lot of this was very good, but a lot of this was also not my cup of tea. One of the most annoying things about modern wrestling is the insistence of getting all your contrived sequences in, especially when you are a  babyface tag team. Lots of hitting 3 or 4 moves after another really fast that just comes across like Momono & Oka were just running through their offense with none of it meaning much. I kind of hate the Motor City Machineguns for infecting wrestling with this shit. That said a lot of what Oka & Momono did was really solid and some of the sequences were genuinely impressive, so maybe I am just a miserable negative bastard. I was impressed with Kato and Mizunami. No offense to Momono and Oka, but once Kato stepped into the ring the match got about ten times more real. Her kicks are still vicious and she never looked out of place in this fast paced go-go match, which goes pretty hard considering she's 48. I also dig Mizunami when she's not goofing around. Her leg drops and Honda-ish shoulder chokes are great. Also, watching Momono doing the second half of the match with her injured arm in a bandage was pretty insane. I'd say this was very good for a modern style match.

2025 Wrestling Roundup

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Mutoha Premium 2/16/2025

As always, buy it from the source on X or  the base!

 

Hideya Iso vs Crusher Takahashi

A cool opening match between two fighters who look older than dirt that still have more fire in them than you expect. As is the style of Mutoha they spend a lot of time grappling on the ground, but they do a cool job keeping it unpredictable and going at a fairly quick pace. A lot of this felt like an old Mid South TV match from the early 80s or 70s. Crusher still throws some of the greatest punches you will see in pro wrestling. I also loved when he did the Mutoh leg snap thing because he's so massive. You don't expect it given his size and age and when he does it it looks like he really snapped Isos leg and that's what makes it awesome. Iso was also pretty fired up - he would hit these really cool jumping enzuigiris. I don't recall many instances in the past where I saw Hideya Iso, who is as stoic and grappling-oriented as they come leaving his feet, but his enzugiris looked great. I also went crazy when he tried to hit the German suplex on Crusher. And the finish was really cool too. A nice way to open this card.

Unicorn Rules:
Kenichiro Arai & CHANGO & PSYCHO vs. GENTARO & Akira Jo & Taro Yamada

As any die hard Mutoha fan knows, a Unicorn rules match is a 2/3 falls where the first fall is a 1 vs 1 match, the 2nd a 2 vs 2 match with the remaining participiants and the 3rd a 6 man tag with everyone involved. This always creates an interesting dynamic. The story of this match were CHANGO and PSYCHO, who I believe appeared in MUTOHA for the first time. They are technically skilled, but they are also scumbags and not afraid to steal a win using foul tactics. That was heavily felt when they put the Mutoha regulars under pressure with their underhand moves. Really this was some highly intelligent pro wrestling where you could never be sure what would happen next, and everyones tactics were really cool, with PSYCHO and CHANGO also providing plenty of slick technical moves. It was awesome to watch Yamada and Jo turn the tables on them. Obviously, the best part of this was the 3rd fall, however. They all just get down and wrestle and it reminded me of the best of the CMLL Ciberneticos. Everyone on the Mutoha team is among the best grapplers in the world and CHANGO and PSYCHO showed that they can handle themselves with them, I especially enjoyed PSYCHOs twistiness and penchant for odd angle moves, he is really interesting to watch. Man alive GENTARO is just an absolute grappling master at this point in time. He and Arai probably stood out in the biggest way, GENTARO for his classiness, and Arai for his talent at turning the most miniscule actions into something memorable. Arai really wrestles to prove a point, what he does is just a giant flex of his intelligence and skill. There was this takedown he did where he stepped on Akira Jos foot and painfully drove his knee into Akiras leg that was amazing and I will probably remember that move more than anything else this year. There was also this great segment he worked against Yamada built around snapping Yamada down in really forceful ways. At the end we get another grandstand exchange between Arai and GENTARO so yes this is really worthwhile. Yamada and Akira Jo are kind of supporting players but everyone who is familiar with them knows how good they are and they showed their classy skill level in contrast to the scumminess of CHANGO and PSYCHO, Jo with his great suplexes and submission skill and Yamada with his penchant for quirky technical wrestling. In the end this ended up being extremely enjoyable, highly skillful wrestling with a multilayered story and everyone looking great. I cannot say enough to praise the craftsmanship of all these guys. I came out of this wanting to see singles match between everyone involved, and that's why I hope Mutoha will continue, or that at least another promotion will see the potential in these matchups here. A great match that stands out in a big way in the 2025 wrestling landscape.

Yasushi Sato vs Shoji Ohno

The last gong of Mutoha for now, and this is a memorable match. This was really freaking amazing as well. You had the usual enjoyable technical pro wrestling that is the signature of Mutoha, but this also told a great story. Yasushi Sato is the defiant champion, unwilling to be humbled by the young spry 40 year old challenger Shoji Ohno. We know Sato is a master wrestler, who is always tireless and rarely humbled, so seeing Ono getting in his head and forcing him to show a meaner streak was something else. Ohno is so cool in Mutoha and this match is a fantastic conclusion to his Mutoha trilogy with his 2 amazing singles matches last year. He has technical skill, but he is also really straight forward and goes for the kill when he can, and his palm strike rush is the coolest thing in wrestling. The second half here was really great with Ono being relentless, going after Satos neck with sick looking stretches and a desperate Sato trying to comeback and increasing the violence with headbutts and Ono just drilling him. Outstanding big match, what a way to end Mutoha for now. Hopefully to come back some time, but in the meantime we should cherish the amazing wrestling they gave us, a totally unique and charming style of wrestling in the modern era!

 The Library