2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 28

 Dick Togo vs Daisuke Sasaki, DDT 6/18

Impressive showing by Dick Togo. Man retired like 12 years ago and here he is again working the same pace. You really couldn't tell he's a 55 year old man here, he even busts out the old rolling senton to the floor. This is mostly delightfully old school work with a few impressive moments that catch you of guard. Felt wonderfully spontaneous throughout, with moments such as Togo punishing a weak stomp from Sasaki by instantly taking him down, or later cutting him off with a gritty lariat. Sasaki is solid enough angling to attack Togos leg from all angles, without ever falling into drawn out limbwork. Could've done with a bit more leg selling but it's not like that stuff ate up a big part of the match. Got a bit too drawn out at the end for my liking, though it delivers the big punch exchange, senton and crossface nearfalls that a Dick Togo fan will like. And the finish is just a big old punch to the face and you have to love that.

Strong Machine J  vs Madoka Kikuta, Dragon Gate 7/13

How strange that the son of the legendary Strong Machine is a Dragon Gate wrestler. If it wasn't for that I never would've watched this, and well this was a reminder why Dragon Gate isn't for me. Machine looked cool, he has energetic offense, his dropkicks are awesome and he looks really good when he starts punching and lariating a guy, and just the fact he wrestles a lot like his dad and is willing to get his mask ripped open makes him interesting. This Kikuta guy really sucks, I thought there might be potential when he clocked Machine J with a hammer but then he proceeded to just slowly rummage around for weapons and it was probably the slowest negative intensity wrestling I've seen all year. Really too much rummaging around and not enough hate. Machine throwing the table at the cameraman felt crazier than anything in the match. I think that kid really needs to show up in Tenryu Project.

Gauntlet: Hummingbird vs Komomo Minami vs Nagisa Tachibana vs Senka Akatsuki, Marigold 6/28

Didn't really care for all the non-Senka wrestlers in this, as far as I can tell everyone just did a bunch of flimsy offense with little intensity. The contrast when Senka steps in with her basic offense that actually looks good and means something is stark. Really enjoyed watching her take out these half baked wrestlers with shoot pins and body slams. Senka is getting the monster push, and rightfully so.

Ari Najima & Yuta Oya vs Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Ryutaro Ono, Sportiva 7/16

'Nother good match from Sportiva. Najima vs Watanabe continues to deliver, they did some more cool grappling and another cool grappling exchange. Ono continues to be fun in the hapless rookie role. What's cool about this is that we now get to see Oya and Najima beat on some lower ranked guys. That brief section of attacks on the back was pretty fun. Good stuff, not mindblowing but they are all continueing on the right path.

Poison Sawada & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Masaru Toi & Vasara Ikeuchi vs Guts Ishijima & Masked Mystery & Michio Kageyama & Yuki Kanzaki, Yoshino Aid 6/22

This was CRAZY UNION vs TTT and a pretty fun take on an indy brawl. Just a bunch of crazy looking guys with charisma beating on each other, and running in and out really fast so it doesn't get broing. Ikeuchi and Kanzaki wailing on each other was probably the highlight but there was also a crazy moment where Poison Sawada busted out a damn knife. It was kind of over in a flash, but it was a blast to see guys like Toi and Matsuzaki still around and brawling, Toi looked so energetic.

2025 Match Roundup