Ultimate Spider Jr. vs Yasutaka Oosera, Osaka Pro 7/27
Decided to check out some Osaka Pro since they are nice enough to upload their stuff for free now. That turned out to be a really good decision because this was actually really good lucharesu, a breath of fresh air in 2025. The match started with actually good matwork for a bit before Spider Jr. woke everyone up with an eardrum shattering slap to Oosera. Oosera seems to be another scummy heel, and while he doesn't seem to have a ton of personality he strikes a good balance between heel tactics and wrestling. I really liked how Spider Jr. initially prevented the cheap eye rake. Oosera ended up hitting a hard flip dive that took out Spider and set up Oosera being in control for a bit. This really felt like lucharesu, some cool athleticism, a bigger focus on submissions and pins so things don't delve into senseless bomb dropping too hard, another great dive from Spider Jr. There were nifty reversals and most importantly, actual selling which made even something like a superplex feel pretty epic. They didn't even do any no-selling fighting spirit spots! Spider Jr. looked good as your masked sympathetic technico, by far his best peformance that I've come across, and Oosera also looked really good, his super fast Tornado DDT was awesome, which is really cool to hit such a spot out of nowhere. Immensely cool to check out and definitely one of the better singles matches out of Japan that I've seen this year.
Tonikaku Yaritai Akiyama & Nakata Bide vs Masanobu Koppu no Fuchi & SUMA, AZW ?/2025
What a match! This kind of well executed, innovative ama-pro wrestling is some of the funnest wrestling you can watch. There was pretty much no difference between this and a match from the pro leagues, and in many ways this was better that what you get to see in the pro leagues these days, which is pretty insane. Masanobu Koppu no Fuchi and SUMA are the heel champions and they do a good job early on working over Akiyamas arm. Akiyama is this thickly built guy, which makes him a bit more interesting than your typical skinny small guy. Nakata Bide is a more energetic type wrestler and he's a great hot tag. I also really liked Masanobu Koppu no Fuchi - he doesn't look like Fuchi at all, he is a sleazy gangly guy with a sleeveless shirt and scuzzy jiu jitsu pants, who hits some really awesome palm strikes and a great STO. Fuchi vs Nakata exchanges had some great stuff and counters, there was an awesome spot where Fuchi went for a spinning torture rack type move and Nakata hit a sling blade which looked more awesome than pretty much any sling blade I've ever see Tanahashi hit. The fun really begins though when Akiyama tags back in. The whole time I was wondering what Akiyama was gonna do because of his interesting look. SUMA is a fun dickish guy with kickpads, and he does a great job cutting of Akiyama and building to Akiyamas bigger spots. When Akiyama hit a basic samoan drop it popped me and it looked the most awesome thing ever. And Akiyama had a lot more cool stuff up his sleeve after that. They build to everything really well, and it's just a cracking match. I was surprised even the armwork from earlier mattered later in the match. A level of thought in this that you don't even see in pro leagues, and it was peppered with a number of awesome spots and inventive ideas. Definitely on the shortlist of the funnest matches I've seen in 2025.
Sareee vs Konami, STARDOM 7/27
Sareee saying 'Fuck this bullshit idol company' and just coming in straight trying to kill people may end up making for the angle of the year. Vicious opening here with both of them going for sick headbutts. Sareee not caring about Konami being out of position and just kicking her in the face was harsh. Konami trying to weather the storm by working the arm was good, only for Sareee constantly going to crush her with her crowbar dropkicks and double stomps. This kind of shorter match really works well for Sareee with her killer offense because she just comes across as trying to crush whatevers in her path. Konami eventually remembers that she's an asskicker and really blasts Sareee with some strikes of her own. Cool finish. This STARDOM grand prix is off to a hot start with this.
Act & Mari vs Nagisa Shiotsuki & Natsuki, AWG 7/11
I watched this on a whim not really knowing anything about any of these wrestlers. Turns out this is really, really good stuff. Everyone here was pretty much going all out from the get go in the best way. Act and Mari looked like quite the badass heel tag team unit here destroying their opponents with cool kick variations, like a face painted leather clad 2025 joshi version of Heisei Ishingun (yes, there were Inazuma Leg Lariats). Face team also had quite the asskicker in Natsuki, too. She was all hard kicks and crashing into people with running knees that mostly looked great. Aside from one or two occasions of thigh slapping she was great. Nagisa Shiotsuki was the low light with her flimsy offense, but thankfully she's not in the match much. Second half is basically all Natsuki having a series of violent standoffs against Act and Mari that were badass. These matches can easily devolve into a frenzy of moves, thought they did a great job here working in a few neat moments. Act and Mari were both great setting themselves up for Natsuki and cutting them off. Big credit goes to Mari who looked like an absolute badass and lagely carried this, although Act also carried herself remarkably well. Also really liked the moment where they got carried away taking their time to finish off Shiotsuki with an absolutely sick double team move, allowing the sidelined Natsuki to recover and rush in with a jumping knee. Finish aswell as the build to the finish were excellent. This low key ruled, Shiotsuki aside this was one of the best joshi tags of 2025.
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