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.
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