Chon Shiryu vs Samas (Hot Shushu 5/6/2024)
I’m a big fan of Chon Shiryu, and I’m naturally inclined to check out any match he’s in. Samas is a pretty interesting guy, he’s a tall-ish foreigner with a cool mask and odd agility which allows him to hit some cool looking high kicks. Samas was a bit dainty with his movements at times but he sure looked convincing when has dropping bombs, I can definitely see potential in him, plus I am sucker for guys who look straight out of a 90s Mortal Kombat game. This was a lot like how I would fantasy book a hypothetical Chon Shiryu run in a US TV promotion, really nice fast paced big vs little match with Shiryu hitting his awesome spots including the diving kick to the floor. Samas was really cool to watch in this, lots of cool hurty looking offense without being cliché big man stuff. Cool little match in that dojo,
Kiku vs Banako (Hot Shushu 5/6/2024)
So I was looking through the Hot Shushu highlight videos trying to figure out what match ups look interesting, and I thought this girl Kiku looks cool. Then I look her up on Cagematch and SHE’S 47 YEARS OLD??? And her debut was just in 2021? I have a fascination with wrestlers who start wrestling late, they always seem to have a better mind for wrestling and with guys like Yasushi Sato, Yuta Oya or Hiroki Sakai the genre has produced some greats, so to see someone like that show up in the cosmos of Ice Ribbon is fascinating. And yeah, watching this Kiku is definitely really cool. She has actually hard kicks, and cool submissions. Banako is another one of those wrestlers whose personality is pretty much ‘joyful clown in a world of asskickers’. Banako didn’t strike me as insanely talented – not really having more than a basic dropkick and roll ups – but the contrast with her and Kiku being a more serious asskicker and putting the boots to her with said hard kicks and cool submissions is really fun. Kiku sets herself up for Banako in ways that really help the match too. I’m definitely gonna have to watch more Kiku.
Takahiro Tababa & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Samas & Yoshikazu Yokoyama (Hot Shushu 7/20/2024)
Tababa and Takaiwa, what a team. Unfortunately Yokoyama may be one of the worst wrestlers I’ve ever seen, he’s just super low effort to the point where he shows up wrestling in a t-shirt, so this was a little rough. Samas also wasn’t in the match a ton. Takaiwa still looks insanely tough but can barely move. Tababa kicking Samas really hard was pretty fun, and Yokoyama did get it together to at least hit some nice Death Valley Bombs for the finish.
Chon Shiryu vs Kouyo (Hot Shushu 4/7/2024)
Another Chon Shiryu showcase match baby. This was also really cool. Shiryu could just coast and hit his spots, but he strayed from his usual stuff to work an indy main event formula match with his opponent. That means a bit slower pace but we get to see what Shiryu can do, working some cool matwork, attacking Kouyos legs with some nifty holds. He did have some cool parkour spots where he used the walls of this tiny dojo to his advantage in awesome ways. Kouyo is a bit green and bland, but he’s solid enough, he does hit some nice kicks, his 619 setup was cool, although his thigh slappy kick combo was pretty weak, he did sell the leg work though. Pretty insane finish. I love watching Shiryu do his thing.
Daisuke Sekimoto vs Samas, Hot Shushu 2023/7/17
Apparently, this was Samas 3rd match ever, unless he was working some place elsewhere before that Cagematch doesn't know about. And this is wisely kept very basic. Sekimoto could probably wrestle in his sleep. With him, you always get your test of strengths, your shoulderblocks, your forearm exchange... he has a simple formula that works, and it tends to bore me to death so I can only watch him once every couple years. Samas being the opponent makes things more interesting than usual, since he's actually quite a bit bigger than Sekimoto despite how freakishly large this short Japanese mans chest and shoulders have gotten. Because Samas is bigger and hefty Sekimoto is actually forced to come up with a few different touches and when he hits the deadlift german it's actually impressive. Samas didn't show a ton here, none of the cool stuff he did in the Shiryu match really, but sometimes a 3rd match is just a 3rd match.
5 minute exhibition: Yoshiko Tamura vs Tanny Mouse, Hot Shushu 12/24/2023
It's Christmas and Tamura is dressed as Santa and Tanny is dressed as a reindeer. And well... they work this pretty much exactly as if it were a serious 2005 NEO match or so. Just both of them going really hard, nailing their signatures, not wasting much time with comedy (though Tanny does get her due here and there) All their stuff still looks good and you get the sense either of them could return to in-ring competition and be near top level still. Tanny looked especially slick still, like she had never stopped. And they do it all while dressed in those ridiculous costumes. Too surreal not to talk about this. It was getting awe inspiring when Tanny went for the muscle buster but then the time ran out. What a Christmas dream!
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