Shinya Ishida & Yu Shimizu vs Ari Najima & Masanori Watanabe 7/2
Really good match from Sportiva this week. Solid no frills pro wrestling early on and a bunch of really good stuff in the second half. Once again, I was really impressed by Yu Shimizu. His brutal elbows rule and he's always doing something nifty. His boot that knocked Watanabe off the apron was straight out of 90s AJPW. Ishida stuck to his stuff, but he looked slick and did a bunch of awesome quick exchanges with Najima in the second half. Najima has also grown to the point where he now keeps up with more complicated stuff pretty well. Watanabe is still green-ish but he's really good when he's grappling or attacking someones arm. The finish was Shimizu mauling him with elbows and Watanabe trying to break Shimizus elbow with nasty kicks and elbows. Very good stuff, I can't wait to see another singles match between these guys.
Senka Akatsuki vs DASH Chisako, Tenryu Project 5/21
Great little match that brought some sick violence worthy of WAR. DASH just beat the hell out of young Senka here, some crazy violent slaps and dropkicks and stomps on display. Senka takes a big beating, but you know it all can change when she gets her opponents shoulders down and starts working for the pin. The shoot pin still rules. I liked when DASH did the 'okay, hit me' Senka was immediately right there and started to maul her with open hands, Senka is pretty big. Some great cutoffs from DASH here. I'm digging this 2025 joshi resurgence, you know the passion is back when a throwaway match on a mens show is this heated, and it all started with Senka.
Ari Najima vs Yukito, HEAT-UP 5/3
This had the rule that it was a rounds match with the 1st round being kickboxing with gloves, 2nd round being grappling only and the 3rd just regular pro wrestling. Kickboxing part was alright, they were holding back a little. Grappling part was really good, Najima is clearly really good at this kind of slick shootstyle grappling and it was nice that he get to test himself like this. 3rd round was also really fun with both guys kicking and slapping each other in fun ways and developing good intensity, check out Aris arm selling. Good stuff but I'd like to see just a proper shootstyle match between them because at just 3 minute rounds this felt a little short.
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