2025 Matchguide Week 47

 Yu Shimizu & Yuta Oya vs Ali Najima & Hajime Enshu, Sportiva 11/19

Best Sportiva in a while, for 2 reasons: 1) we get some cool Najima/Oya matwork at the start and it's always awesome to see Oya grapple it out and b) an unusal level of disdain between Najima and Shimizu, and thankfully they settle out to deliver a hot finishing stretch between the two that is packed with everything you can ask for. Enshu very much exists in this match, apparently he's a 40-something year old guy who was briefly an AJPW rookie in 2010s and only came back to wrestling last year after a +10 year hiatus. Interesting backstory aside he is a not very impressive skinny old man wrestler, though he can lay it in here and there, and we do get to see Oya judo throwing his skinny ass, so that was cool, and then he doesn't get in the way anymore. Shimizu vs Najima is just great. Obviously these are two very straight forward hard hitting pro wrestlers and they do clock each other with their kicks and elbows good, but the really impressive finish is built around submissions. All year we've seen Shimizus rear naked choke and Najimas achilles hold built up as killing moves so seeing them scramble out of those here was a really sweet piece of long term wrestling storytelling, and the surrounding wrestling was impressive. Finish was actually great too. If Sportiva at some point ends up giving us a singles match between these two I'll be delighted but for now this was a really nice stand-in.

Tomoki Hatano vs Shota Marlon Miwa, HEAT-UP 5/25

This was unexpectedly good. I've only known Hatano as the less impressive, less scummy tag partner of Yu Shimizu. But in this match, he was breathing the spirit of the scum bastard as he basically made it a point to be as evil to his opponent as possible. Really uncooperative looking matwork where Hatana threw the skinnier Miwa around and scrambled for chokes, hard brain scrambling elbows, shrugging off his kicks and just being a total prick. Just the first half of this was like 20 times more interesting than the average indy match due to sheer uncooperativeness and a disdainful nature. Shota Marlon Miwa has the dubious fame of being the first German-Japanese pro wrestler, he is a kind of skinny lanky karateka, he sells his ass off and his kicks are really fun which is all you really want from a karateka. His axe kick and big jumping leg lariat are awesome, so when you have an awesome leg lariat you are an awesome wrestler in my book. Hatanos enzuigirs were also impressively hard kicking, catching Miwa right in his skinny neck. Really good uncooperative little match.

MARU & Ayano Irie vs Marino Saihara & Yukina Uehara, AWG 11/24

A lot of pretty badass wrestling here. MARU continues to look like a killer as she's constantly inflicting punishment, biting, pulling hair, waffling people with a chain and killing them with double stomps. The chain stuff is cheap but effective and the surprise chain attacks are fun, and I am even fine with the comical amount of ref distractions, and it always looks punishing. There was also some great stretch muffler work here. Initially Uehara scrambled right out of the hold, so later MARU goaded her into throwing kicks just to catch her leg and go for the move again. It's super simple stuff but it's a lot of fun and somehow very few wrestler are smart enough anymore to do things like that. Uehara and Saihara were also pretty great here dishing out punishment constantly barraging people with kicks. Uehara seems to be turning into a good wrestler now, even her somewhat goofy hip attack hit hard, and she's just a ton of fun, imagine Torrie Wilson blasting people with credible shoot kicks. One thing that stands out here was the smart use of transitions, it never felt like I was just watching people run through their offense. They settle into a Saihara vs Irie finishing run which is surprisingly white hot. Irie had some problems executing stuff early on, but she held up pretty well against Saiharas UWF style barraging her with big boots from every angle. Saihara is a super reliable wrestler too just constantly putting the heat on people with shoot kicks and submissions and her suplexes. It's simple, straight forward wrestling that hits hard. There were also some great dramatic saves including Uehara just running in and braining Nagai with a BattlARTS-worthy high kick. Just great action. The finish is Saihara nailing Irie with a jumping knee to the face and then throwing her with a huge deadlift German which is one hell of a finish in 2025. I have no explanation for the greatness of AWG, they draw small crowds, which mostly seem to be uncles that seem to be there to look at the pretty girls, yet they keep putting on these banger matches that are more straightforwardly enjoyable than almost anything else I'm seeing in 2025.  

Mari & Act vs Haruka Ishikawa & Kyoka Iwai, AWG 1/24

Great tag, which was refreshingly different. Basically, Mari and Act are the top heel act in AWG and Ishikawa and Iwai are a pair of lesser evils. Haruka Ishikawa was going after Mari like an absolute pitbull here, just an absolute demon, and in turn Mari would maul her with some really violent kicks. Iwai likes to hit people with a gimmicked umbrella, so Mari shutting that down quickly and Act giving her a taste of her own medicine was good. Mari and Act toyed with their opponents for a bit before Ishikawa and Iwai gained control in a smart spot. After that it was just a relentless as they tried to take down Mari with Mari having great violent retaliations. Heck, there was a chair throw in this that felt like one of the most memorable things I've seen in a while. The one slight let down is the finish, since they were setting up the upcoming Mari/Ishikawa title match. But this is a great prelude to that, as convincing and intense as you can ask for any match to be mostly thanks to Haruka and Mari.

2025 Matchguide 

Of all things... a look at Tony Garea

 

2/3 Falls: Tony Garea & Steve Travis vs Johnny Rodz & Jose Estrada, WWF 9/18/1982

My foray into Tony Garea begins with this illustrious combination! And wow this is just a straight forward great match. Right at the bell they go into a criss cross running which I imagine is a hot workrate beginning in 1982 WWF. There is nearly nothing beyond the absolute most basic of wrestling moves here, but everything is executed so believable and with conviction. Everyone here throws good punches, and whenever the babyfaces one up the heels e.g. by kipping out of an armlock, they punctuate it with a punch to the face. Rodz takes an awesomely big back body drop, faces have great dropkick, and there’s lots of leapfrogging. Garea hits a really beautiful handstand kneedrop at one point. Heels stooge around the ring and beg off lots, selling punches like shotgun blasts, and they pretty much never get any offense except when they leap into eye rakes or distract the referee. US wrestling really lost a lot when they moved away from face punching and begging off. They do a pretty brief heat segment and then it’s back to the faces clowning and wasting the heels fast. I really appreciate the departure from a typical long heat segment and they really continue to deliver the action. Finish to the first fall is just a basic splash and it was followed up with some cool work to the mid section in the second fall. GREAT transition when a knocked unconscious Johnny Rodz is blind tagged as he knocked Garea down and fell to his corner, Jose Estrada then coming down off the top rope with an attack to the neck. Johnny Rodz also hit a pretty nice thrust kick at one point. By the end they just keep delivering with the heels putting heat on the babyfaces and being met constantly with great looking punch combos. The first hot tag is just Garea coming in and punching back and forth with Travis. They do seem to meander a bit in the 3^rd fall but I appreciate Johnny Rodz saving things with a little swaggering to give things a chance to get back on track. And get back on track they did as they really went all out. Even doing some quite hot nearfalls throughout all the falls. The announcer were talking about how this is an all action match and it really doesn’t feel like an exaggeration. I especially enjoyed the spot where Garea leaped over one heel, causing said heel to dive head first into the other. It’s such a fun simplistic creative approach to things in this era. To be fair, Garea and Travis were so competent but bland in this match they might as well have been interchangeable, but they still did a good job, and Rodz and Estrada were pretty great. I really appreciate how none of them were really big stars yet they went out and had a great match in the middle of the card here. That’s the spirit. This was pretty much everything that modern wrestling is not, and for that I enjoyed the heck out of this.

This was the only appearance of Tony Garea among the top ranked matches of the DVDVR 80s WWF set, so I guess the DVDVR folks did not like Garea very much.

Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs Masa Saito & Mr. Fuji, WWWF 10/13/1981

This was a great tag sprint. You would usually not associate early 80s WWF with sprints but this was pretty much just that. Martel is a house of fire right away. Saito and Fuji are just great in this, bumping all over the place and setting themselves up. Martel does a ridiculously high leapfrog where Mr. Fuji barely goes down. The heat segment was just masterful as Fuji and Saito were constantly in and out and dominated the action without things getting boring. Garea is very much just a guy in this doing everything right, though the crowd rallied behind him in a big way when he powered out of Fujis nerve hold, and the leapfrog spots are fun still. Martel hits a jumping headscissor in his hot tag and that is just delightfully old school highflying babyface stuff. Salt throw finish looked just amazing. I also really enjoyed young Masa Saito looking quite unfuckwithable as he always does. Super super enjoyable tag that could be shown as textbook example in wrestling schools.

Tony Garea vs Larry Sharpe, WWWF 12/31/1977

This was some workmanship. Garea really looks so bland with his everybodies darling look but just his prison tattoos make him interesting. Sharpe has the blonde bowlcut and a Buddy Rose esque figure. This starts as a scientific match. There’s actually some quiet swift work and Garea busts out a handstand into a wristlock takeover that we’d associate with the fancier European technicians. At one point Sharpe works the old hammerlock pin and Garea does some cool bridging and twisting, even bridging over to reverse the pin on Sharpe. Garea knocks Sharpe over with a shoulderblock and a woman in the audience goes “Woooo! Woo!” Interesting transition where Garea goes for another and Sharpe sidesteps and misdirects him into the turnbuckle where Garea hurts his shoulder. Mostly technical action, but the crowd quickly starts rallying behind Garea. Sharpe does a bit of cheating and a cool thing where he falls while holding onto the wrist of Garea to attack the arm. Garea gets out of the armlock with a nifty drop toe hold (basic but you never see anyone do that anymore). His hot comeback is mostly hammering away at Sharpe with headlock punches. They wind down a bit as Garea keeps hanging on to headlocks as they go to a somewhat lukewarm 10 minute draw. To my surprise, the referee awards the win to Garea, which causes Sharpe to flip out and beat on him further, but Garea comes back hitting some beautiful dropkicks that send Sharpe to the outside of the ring as the crowd absolutely erupts and old ladies jump out of their seat with joy. For a 70s WWF match this wasn’t boring at all and it was very much textbook stuff that just plain works as evidenced by the crowd reactions.

Tony Garea vs Adrian Adonis, WWF 4/24/1982

Another scientific match! Hugely enjoyable stuff, however, the problem here is that Adonis is clearly trying to draw heat with his swaggering persona, but then he ends up looking way better at wrestling than Garea. Nothing wrong with old Tony Garea here, but Adonis pretty much smokes him with a beautiful firemans carry, beautiful drop toe hold, even flipping out of an attempted monkey flip. That is hard flip to pull off and seeing a chunky man like Adonis making it look smooth as butter is magical. Adonis keeps running into Gareas armdrag takeovers though, and he takes these cool bumps for shoulder blocks where he is turned around on the spot by the force of Garea charging into him and flops to his belly. Eventually, Adonis grabs a handful of hair and hits this really cool knee lift. The crowd is way behind Garea though as he makes a cool escape from Adonis abdominal stretch. They spill to the outside, with some surprisingly hard moves on the floor being uncorked as they brawl to a draw. A pretty sweet TV match although Adonis stood out head and shoulders above Garea and it made me want to see what would go down further between them.

Tony Garea & Larry Zbyszko vs Baron Mikel Scicluna & Tony Russo, WWWF 1978/8/19

Boy Larry Z looks like the goofiest man you’ve ever seen here with his hair combed to the side and his whispy mustache. Talk about being born to be an obnoxious heel. 70S WWWF has a lot names that are lost to history, but whose solidness stands the test of time in a way. Garea definitely is one such guy, and the same goes for Scicluna and Russo. Sciclona works a forearm choke and some hair pulls and then they go pretty much right to heat with the heels being all over the faces constantly. Tony Russo, a man built like an angry apple (all body and no arms or legs), has this great kneedrop where he landed right on the mans throat. I think that was about the only fancy thing the heels did. They were all kicks and punches, but they were solid kicks and punches. There are actually multiple heat sections and multiple babyface comebacks, most of which are fun, until a double down signals to actually go to the finish. One notices that after getting a hot tag, Zbyszko and Garea would usually just go for another armlock so the heels could cheapshot again and go back to heat. Gareas hiptosses and dropkicks look as good as you need hiptosses and dropkicks to be. He does show some fire, and the double Sunset flip finish is fun. 70S WWF was faster paced wrestling than you might think.

2025 Matchguide Week 46

 
Yuji Nagata vs Shinya Aoki, DDT 10/14

A 30 MINUTE Yuji Nagata match in 2025?! I am too prone to morbid curiosity to not watch. The first 10 minutes of this was great as it was all matwork. It's probably been forever since Nagata grappled with anyone for longer than 5 minutes in a match. 2003 Nagata would've put up a good fight, but Aoki was mostly toying with him here. Aokis single-minded focus to put Nagatas shoulders to them was fascinating to watch and there was some really compelling grappling going on. I was ready for them to go completely sicko and just grapple for the whole duration, but alas, after 10 or 12 minutes they start to do some blatantly pointless 'brawling' on the floor. Aoki is great on the mat, but he is pretty bad at regular wrestling things like irish whipping someone or even looking like he is in a fight when Nagata is doing stuff to him on the floor. A lot of the time he just stands there and looks like he's just waiting for his opponent to do something. Back in the ring I get some hope back in the match as Aoki hits a really choice counter from Nagatas exploder into a sweet rolling chokehold. There are some more somewhat compelling moments of struggle down the stretch, but mostly they kill the rest of the 15 minutes with overly drawn out submissions - including a 5 minute figure four leg lock, and lots of Nagatas signature weak elbow exchanges. The worst was probably that Nagata just absorbed basically everything Aoki did, never really doing anything particularily interesting to get back at him. It was probably Nagatas best match in years still since he was forced to actually wrestle and not just coast with elbows and funny faces. But even for all the good stuff this brought I thought it could've been a heck of a lot better. And most importantly I want to see Aoki face someone who can match him on the mat.

Minoru Suzuki vs Yuki Ueno, DDT 11/3

A 34 MINUTE Minoru Suzuki match in 2025?! We are really going beyond the limits this week. In fairness, this is a really respectable performance from Suzuki and he's pretty much the reason why this is an entirely watchable match. From the very get go you could tell Suzuki was putting in the effort and trying to make this compelling all the way through. He was really fun here stretching Ueno like Fuchi, beating the snot out of him, and hitting cool Fujiwaraish counters. Ueno is... athletic and well that's about all that I can say about him. The match had a ton of legwork, and while Ueno was selling it almost all his offense involves jumping or leaping and running and all that. It seems everytime he makes a comeback it's just him popping up and hitting a move. What he does he hits well, but he puts in zero extra. He just hits his moves and that is maybe the worst sin a wrestler can commit in 2025 in my eyes. Especially when facing a freakshow like Suzuki. And the goofy finish just kinda underlines that. This was really well worked and had  good layout, but holy shit why are they making all these 60 year old wrestlers have 30 minute matches. This felt slower than something from the 1950s. I think there was like a 5 minute achilles hold or something. It's a bit of a shame because there's a genuinely great Minoru Suzuki performance here and it's wasted in a type of match that just feels like a chore to watch at this point. I loved everything Minoru Suzuki did here, the counters, the leg kicks, the viciousness in going for the sleeper. It's an A+ performance in a type of match that is just grating my nerves now.

Rico Fukunaga vs Chii Aoba, AWG 6/28
Their little feud has produced some good stuff, and this was more of that. The most important thing here is that this is an atypical match. Nothing here came across as cookie cutter, and that alone is really refereshing. Just give me two wrestlers with credible offense who look like they are trying their hardest to win. That was the case here. Right at the go, Aoba took Fukunaga down and latched really hard onto a leglock that forced Fukunaga to the ropes. Fukunaga in turn tried to go for an armbar that Aoba desperately resisted. Seconds later, Aoba avoided Fukunagas kicks and surprised Fukunaga with a really elegant judo throw. While their execution wasn't exactly UWF-level, just the fact they did something other than the stereotypical side headlocks and wristlocks that seem to begin every match now made me enjoy watching. Aoba is really small and skinny and she comes across as trying to prove herself as a wrestler and it's really respectable. Her holds are cool, she has the bridging full nelson which is awesome (and they really made that full nelson look like a struggle) and she also did this cool series of chancery takeovers, her basic powerslam was also perfectly timed. I've no idea how to quite classify her but she's cool. Fukunaga caught her with some pretty hard, credible kicks too. This was a good match that stood precisely because of what  I mentioned: not cookie cutter, both treating the match as really important, credible offense from both, clear story/hierarchy etc. It's not mindblowing greatness or anything but somehow it's way better than what other feds are putting out. Give me something like this over another trite 30 minute DDT main event slog every day.

MARU vs Kyoka Iwai, AWG 11/15

A hard as fuck brawl with both of them beating the hell out of each other with chairs, chains, a ladder and basically everything they could get their hands on. There were some creative spots without getting too cute, and even something a bit silly like the hits with the plastic bucket felt pretty mean and evil. It felt straight out of early 2000s JD and that is a very good thing to me. Execution was a bit slow here and there especially from Iwai but that aside this was a ton of fun. I really liked how whenever one of them turned her head too long the other would come and ambush her from behind. That is exactly what should happen in a crazy brawl. And there were some damn big bumps to top it off too. It could've just been the brawling/hardcore stuff and it would've been a really fun match, but then they really did this dramatic finishing run with MARU trying to smash Iwais legs to dust and Iwai doing some great desperation selling. Iwai needs a bit of work before she'll be a great wrestler but she brought it here, and MARU is quietly one of the best wrestlers on earth.

2025 Matchguide 

 

 

More No Ring Dragon Gate

 

Dragon Kid & Shingo Takagi vs BxB Hulk & Naoki Tanizaki, Dragon Gate 8/9/2008

I loved the tag with Arai, so I decided to watch the rest of that no-ring Dragon Gate. This was definitely a Dragon Gate match – very spotty, little selling and everything is thrown out seemingly too fast – but the no ring factor makes it pretty fun and enjoyble mostly for the curiosity of them pulling off their shit, notably Dragon Kids whacky satelitte headscissor moves. And whether or not Shingo will hit his headspiking moves on that thin mat – and yes, he does. Shingos punches were fun and BxB Hulk took a great looking back body drop at one point, probably the biggest and most painful looking moves on the match. But this was definitely a match for the ‘the more moves per minute you hit the better’ crowd. But, they went really hard. You never see wrestlers going this hard in undercard matches anymore. Maybe for the wiser, but it’s also fun to watch something relentless like this once in a while.

Cyber Kong & Yamato vs Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi, Dragon Gate 8/9/2008

This was better. It had an understandable story with Kong and Yamato being more of a heel team, they let everything breath a little more, and they made good use of the non-ring. There were some insane sprinting dropkicks that looked fantastic among other things, and some fun chaos with brawling and chairs and a table coming into play. Mostly the match wasn’t super predictable. Cyber Kong is a really fun powerhouse here and he did a great job both basing for people and killing the little dudes with hoss offense. Once again, the no ring bumps looked just brutal with Yoshino getting spiked on his neck by lariats. Yoshino also looked pretty good with his vicious dropkicks and fast movements and the other guys were solid. The clipping probably helped – as they cut it down from 19 minutes to about half that length – but it’s a super enjoyable watch regardless. Dragon Gate really should’ve kept going without a ring.

2025 Matchguide Week 45

 Shinya Ishida & Ali Najima & Masanori Watanabe vs Yu Shimizu & Yuta Oya & Ryutaro Ohno, Sportiva 11/12

Sportiva with an all star 6 man tag! And yeah this resembled one of those 90s AJPW 6 mans just in a sportsbar. A bit less grand in scope if you will, but everyone here got to do some fun wrestling and it ended up being a very well put together super enjoyable match. Starts out nice and basic. Shimizu always looks great in these tags, in this case by kicking things off booting people off the apron and putting effort into working an abdominal stretch. We do get touches of everyone doing what they do best and giving an impression of what has made Sportiva such a good promotion this year. We get a great Najima/Oya exchange, which made me think we're due for another singles match between them. Their progression continues as they keep going toe to toe, and the same goes for Najima standing up to higher ranked guys like Ishida in a bigger way now. Ohno is still in his rookie role, but we know he can be fun doing his thing. This was a lot of fun and a reminder that this crew is one of the best things going in 2025 altough I am thirsting after some singles matches between any two of these guys.

Yukito vs Bomber Okuno, HEAT-UP 9/13

I quite like Yukito. In a world full of guys with a shootstyle moveset, an actual Kiyoshi Tamura trainee is always a welcome change of pace. Even more interesting is the fact that he's a 47 year old rookie, although you don't really notice his age. This is not shootstyle or anything, but just the way Yukito would aggressively hook his boody into Okuno and take him down loos just legit enough for it to get my attention. The match soon becomes about Okunos toughness. Okuno is more of a Jun Izumida type guy: hard head, slow moving, doesn't do many things. He's often trite, but in this match Yukito gets just on his grill enough that everything becomes a bit more contemptful, making this match interesting. Okuno would keep shrugging of Yukitos kicks, laying back into him with really hard elbows and headbutts, and rattle him with cool outdated offense like Coconut Crushers or falling headbutts. It's compelling precisely because it's not your typical even steven match up. Okuno would absorb Yukitos kicks and then just grab him and slam him really hard again. It becomes about Yukito trying to crack a tough, stubborn opponent. When he finally starts gaining momentum and starts to get ahold of Okunos arm, it really feels like he was going for the kill rather than getting in some cute reversals. Some really nice desperation down the stretch here with those submissions, and you do get those kicks vs hard head spots and Bomber cracking Yukito really hard. Super simple but highly enjoyable match.

Mari & Haruka Ishikawa vs Yui Tensho & Sakura Mizushima, AWG 2/24

'nother good match from AWG. Aside from a few light hearted moments, this delivered plenty of good action. Yui Tensho was in goofball mode early, trying to hit the AXE BOMBA~, which lead to Mari and Haruka doing an Anderson Bros style job working over her arm. We got see some good armwork from both of them. When Mizushima tagged in, I thought she would be one of these idol types - you know, very skinny, hits flimsy dropkicks and rollups, but she tried to take out Maris leg with some pretty brutal double stomps. Her dropkicks aren't amazing but I thought she was pretty effective as she always knew what to do. Loved Mari putting her in her place with some hard kicks and then almost ripping her in half with a crazy submission. Second half was about Tensho vs Haruka Ishikawa. Tensho cut back the goofiness and I thought Ishikawa was quite efffective pouncing on Tensho with sentons over and over, she looked like a pitbull. They just build to the axe bomber and it's good stuff. I like that Tensho getting a win over Maris team was made to feel like a big deal.

Mari vs Sakura Mizushima, AWG 3/16

Their exchanges in the February tag hinted at a good match, and this pretty much delivered just that! This was pretty great overdog vs underdog stuff. Mari outclassed Mizushima initially, and the match quickly turned into a nasty trashing with Maris kicks and sadism. Mizushima took one of the hardest throws into a row of chairs I've ever seen (and think of the ground that covers in joshi). Mizushima was able to catch one of Maris kicks and hit this nasty move where she dropped her entire body weight on Maris leg. She then proceeded to drop some more nasty double stomps on Maris leg. That legwork is very brief and doesn't slow Mari down too hard, probably since they wanted to keep Mari being the overdog, but it gives Mizushima some breathing space to mount a comeback. Thought the match was pretty much perfectly laid out with Mizushima getting just the right amount of desperate and urgent hopespots and Maris cutoffs being hard and mean. Mind you, Sakura could be a bit better when it comes to footwork and the force of her execution, but for what her role is she does pretty well. Also loved Maris quick use of the Gory Special. Very good stuff and Mari continues to deliver. 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

guidedbyrocketscomp

 Daioh QUALLT vs Takehiro Murahama, Osaka Pro 3/17/2000

This was when Murahama was doing his unstoppable shoot boxer act in Osaka Pro, which has to be one of the craziest single runs of a rookie anywhere ever. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Daioh QUALLT singles match, but after seeing this, fuck I need more of this Daioh QUALLT in my life. Basically QUALLT is a monster with caveman like strength and serious force in anything he did. He was just mauling Murahama, and Murahama was fighting back with some monster punch combos and knees of his own. This was just two guys putting insane violence into everything they threw at each other. Eventually Murahama starts getting the advantage, leading to a distraction, and then QUALLT blowing mist and trying to strangle Murahama with a rope. Totally crazy, and there’s a crazy post match too with an angry Murahama punching Delfin in the face really hard. God does this make all current wrestling look lame as hell.

Kenichiro Arai & Taku Iwasa vs Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Gate 8/9/2008

No-ring Dragon Gate!! I love no-ring wrestling, and in this case removing the ring and just wrestling on a mat in Korakuen Hall adds exactly what a Dragon Gate match needs to be actually compelling. Any bumps look hard as fuck, and as such the wrestlers here were desperate to avoid even a bodyslam or suplex. This makes the stakes feel higher, and adds that little something that Dragon Gate normally often lacks: urgency, struggle, meaning… the crowd for this was molten hot too, so they were feeling the vibe as well. That said, Arai and Iwasa are awesome here. Really great unit of a tag team. Their team moves were awesome, and they did a great job cutting off the mat. We all know Arai as the crafty master, and he is crafty here, taking some hard as fuck and awesome looking back body drops on the mat, locking in slick sleepers and abdominal stretches – but he is also awesome as a lanky guy throwing bombs and cracking people with headbutts. Iwasa also looked quite good – he was hitting damn hard, and he almost ripped a guy apart with a cool submission at one point. Some awesome sequences and double team stuff here. Saito and Yokosuka aren’t much to write home about, but their offense is solid enough and I appreciate a guy like Saito just bringing hard lariats and spiking people with suplexes instead of doing something overly cute. Just a lot of good, brutal, heated action here.

The Moondogs vs The Warrior & Spirit of America (USWA 1991)

Somebody tells me to watch the Moondogs, I watch the Moondogs. The Warrior and Spirit of America are such a sight. They look just goofy and rip-off enough to be complete jobbers but also have good bodies and could plausible something of a deal in a small league like USWA. There is no question to what goes down here. Moondogs lay a savage pounding on these goofballs. Punching them in the face, throwing them around the ring, even bringing out chairs. There’s such an uncaring savage aura about the Moondogs that makes them awesome. They are not there to impress, they are there to kick ass, and that makes everything more impressive because it doesn’t come across as tryhard. The finish – something of a diving elbow while the opponent is held in a backbreaker position – looks like a total decapitation. And then they bust out a hurty looking big splash too for good measure. Great studio TV squash match.

Cactus Jack vs Arachnaman, WCW 1991(?)

I’ve never actually seen an Arachnaman match before. I’ve only ever just seen grainy stills of him. So here he is against Cactus Jack too of all people! Arachnaman – who I think is Brad Armstrong – actually tries to go all scientific on Jack. He hits some rollups and works the arm, even trying to snap it over the rope like he’s a spidery Regal. Armstrong tries to add a bit of flavour with his stances etc. I could see him being in a fun match against Great Muta as long as there’s blood and mask ripping, but that could be said about nearly everyone. Jack actually takes a back body drop on the floor in this nothing match against a guy saddled with a shit gimmick. Arachnamans finish is the ground abdominal stretch pin. I appreciate the Inokiism, but he is a bit sloppy in his application, and Jack quickly takes it home with a shitty jumping facebuster and holding Arachnamans costume for the pin. Well, know I can say that I know about Arachnaman.

2025 Matchguide Week 44

 Merman Masakazu vs Aesop, Health Pro 10/5

Two somewhat lumpy old men, hitting the mat and displaying their love for pro wrestling. The match felt like a love letter to 80s NJPW type wrestling. Masakazu is a really cool Inoki worshipper. He looks older than dirt but he will give his all. Aesop also looked like quite the nifty technical wrestler, and he had a great discus punch. Mat work was really fun here with both guys rocking the figure 4 necklock, multiple stump pullers, really cinching armbars and finding cool ways out of holds. Most importantly everything felt spontaneous. There were no overly set up spots, instead Aesop would just rush over and blast Masakazu in the face with a jumping dropkick. Epic feeling finish too with both guys trying to blast each other with jumping kicks. In a way, guys like these two understand the heart and soul of pro wrestling better than most, even if they are limited by age. 

Hechicero vs Bandido, RoH 8/29/2025

Long modern style epics aren't exactly my cup of tea, but this was better than most of that style. A lot of that is due to their skillset which is way better than what your typical thighslappers have to offer. Hechicero is a credible badass grappler/powerhouse, and Bandido I buy as a superhero type. So there was a ton of enjoyable action here, mostly Hechiceros excellent submission work and some high level athletic spots. The drawback was that as typical the match went way longer than it needed to and eventually it stopped feeling like a competitive match and more like a loosely strung together sequence of cool moves and spots. Don't get me wrong they were some immensely cool moves and some huge spots and bumps, but the 15th cool spot in a 35 minute match eventually just doesn't hit very hard anymore, especially since there was little consequence to what was going on. Arm work, legwork, a huge slam on the guardrail, didn't matter, Bandido kept coming back in the same way. It very much felt like they were just shoeing as much different stuff as they knew. I don't need every match to have a loser focus on a singular story but there wasn't really much of anything to focus on here besides 'wow look at what these guys can do'. Not even something basic like a power vs speed aspect because Bandido just gorilla pressed Hechicero. In a way this stuff is the counterpart to the Masakazu/Aesop match discussed above: way higher in athletic prowres, variety, even ideas, but the soul was lacking.

Shinji Kamakura vs Blankey Maho, Kobe Meriken 11/7

Blankey Maho has come back from Mexico, and she starts this by showing off some cool lucha armdrags! Nevermind that, because this match soon turns into a WAR style match with both of them hitting each other insanely hard. Still, it's fun to watch a wrestler developing new skills. Maho still has some of the best kicks around. I especially love her thrust kick. It's an actual thrust kick, not a half baked superkick, and she nails Kamakura right in the throat with it. Kamakuras skillset is very basic at this point, but he's fun, and everything he hits he seems to nail with 100% force. Nothing deep her just two talented wrestlers cracking each other hard for 8 minutes and that is very respectable.

Seri Yamaoka vs Chihiro Hashimoto, Marigold 10/26

Well.... this match up is a real no brainer. You have two amaresu freaks in colorful singlets in a match, and they deliver pretty much the kind of match you expect. Mostly Hashimoto putting Yamaoka through the wringer, and Yamaoka having to work hard to even do minimal damage to Hash. The rank difference is well integrated and there is some cool grappling and a few neat moments. Nice to see this kind of Alexander Otsuka/Tamon Hondaesque match in 2025 and the finish was very much Tamon Honda flavoured. Not blowaway great - Seri is still getting there - but a cool little match.

Keita Yano vs Zack Sabre, Jr. Tenryu Project 11/4 - GREAT

Yano takes on the former IWGP champion! Okay, it's crazy that ZSJ is that. They do mostly smooth World of Sport style grappling here. It's probably the best of that kind of stuff you'll see in 2025. Nothing mindblowing if you've seen your fair share of that thing but it was fun, and Yano being such a cult hero taking on a star adds a lot. I found myself hoping Yano would just shoot headbutt Zack in the face or something, though. I would actually look forward to seeing them rematch because I thought there was still plenty on the table here.

2025 Matchguide 

Keita Yano Documentation 

Assorted 19 O Clock Girls Pro Wrestling

 Chii Tomiya vs Makoto, Ice Ribbon 12/10/2010

This is from the 19 O’Clock Girls Pro Wrestling era. Basically Ice Ribbon just livestreamed dojo matches every week. This was way way better than you’d expect a match like that to be, as they basically went all out to have a great 10 minute TV match with no audience. Starts out very good with both of them showing some slick mat wrestling. Tomiya has really fast ankle picking takedowns and Makoto also looked good exchanging holds and making fancy escapes. It’s just really solid, targetted wrestling with purpose. I always like when every move has a follow up, i.e. Makoto would target Tomiyas back further after locking in a boston crab. Cool transition where Makoto tries to do further damage to Tomiya outside of the ring, but Tomiya is able to hit a Dudley Dog into a chair. Tomiya then climbs onto a poll and hits a diving stomp to Makotos mid-section. Tomiya proceeded to further attack the mid section, with an angry Makoto in turn attacking her mid-section too in retaliation. Finishing run had some really awesome rewindworthy submissions and pin counters with both of them really sinking deep into Fujiwara armbars. There were cool transitions, unique spins on more standard move, good pace, believable offense from both of them. Great intro to the world of 19 O Clock Girls Pro Wrestling.

Nanae Takahashi vs Sayaka Obihiro, Ice Ribbon 12/10/2010

Yeah, another really good 10 minute match. By far the best I’ve seen Obihiro look – not that I’ve seen a ton of Obihiro. From what I know, she’s seemingly a comedy character in recent years, but she was fighting hard here. Starts great with Obihiro stopping Takahashis onslaught by latching onto her leg, leading to some cool stubborn grappling. The match story is simple: Takahashi would blow Obihiro a way, and Obihiro would desperately try to latch onto any kind of advantage. When Obihiro got a basic sleeper she really went for that sleeper like she wanted to choke out Takahashi more than anything else in her life. Takahashi is great here – putting a ton of force into basic moves like a dropkick, shoulder block or back suplex, and punishing Obihiros audacity. Even the blown spots kinda worked for the story of the match, and the Ice Ribbon complicated pin housestyle works pretty well for an underdog story. Yeah, I’m having a lot of fun here.

Chii Tomiya vs Hikari Minami, Ice Ribbon 6/1/2011

This was two talented wrestlers going really really hard and having a match that was just off the wall with unique ideas and some amazing wrestling. I’ve never seen Hikari Minami before, but she looked good – quite athletic in fact. She had no problem doing springboard dives, basing for Tomiya, doing slick counters and engaging in some wild shit outside the ring. I’ve no idea if her falling off the rope to the outside was intentional but they continued so seamlessly in their chaotic rhythm that I want to believe it was. They do some pretty fun stuff outside the ring, going into a full on lucha sequence with leapfrogs and legsweeps on the floor, which is pretty unique and worked really well. Tomiya ends up hitting a tornado DDT into the ring bell and then using the hammer in a unique spot. Tomiya is looking quite great in these old webcam matches, just relentless constantly going for flash pins, cool takedowns and submissions. Minami brings quite a bit to the table too. I love how they put a lot of gruesomeness into things as basic as a crabhold. Finishing run had so many unique and cool counters. Tomiyas Jungle Clutch has to be the greatest flash pin I’ve ever seen and then Minami reverses it and it’s real jaw dropping stuff. So good, I’m so happy this stuff survived the Ustream apocalypse because it’s tremendously fun.

Tsukushi vs Emi Sakura, Ice Ribbon 4/10/2011

Hey – it’s a no ring match! It seems to be held in an elementar school… maybe an amateur wrestling room, but there’s also a blackboard on the wall. Anyways! This match is great shit! It’s another for the category of ‘how hard can you go when you have no ring’. They do it all here. And the match had a good teacher vs student story, too. You may hate Emi Sakura, but when she wants to go she’s pretty undeniable. This had a ton of good wrestling, cool submission work, and it was almost an entirely serious and hard fought match. They put considerable struggle into things like Tsukushis bow and arrow hold, nifty things like Tsukushi using the Pallo Special to get into a Tiger Suplex, and lots of cool counters and moments and both of them waffling each other pretty hard. The atmosphere with all the schoolkids watching is pretty fun and this is really a breathless match. All serious, with the exception of one moment where Tsukushi lead an army of school children to roll over Emi Sakura, and even that was kind of fitting.

2025 Matchguide Week 43

 Dekai Ichimotsu vs Vasaru Ikeuchi, Health Pro 10/5

Dekai Ichimotsu always puts my butt in the seat. This was a lot of fun. I know Vasaru Ikeuchi is another guy from the ama-pro scene who has appeared in Crazy Union a lot, but he can handle himself just fine in a more technical match. They start fun with some smooth World of Sport-style hold exchanges and then got into the more gritty detail-oriented stuff that we all love Dekai Ichimotsu for. Lots of trying to snap arms. Really liked Ikeuchi trying to prevent the figure 4 by twisting the ankle. Ichimotsu was clearly hyped to step in the ring for a lengthier match again and he threw this beautiful bridging double overhook suplex. Finishing run was built around Ikeuchi trying to lock in a WAR special with Ichimotsu producing neat counters and that is a lot of fun too. There was some gritty headbutting too. I love watching Dekai Ichimotsu do his thing.

Yuta Oya vs Shota, Sportiva 11/5

This was a nice surprise. Shota is one of those really good under the radar indy workers. He's crafty and has a knack for making a lot out of very little, so him taking on a guy as talented as Oya is really cool. And the match pretty much delivered as Shota wrestled almost exactly like it was some high end 80s TV match. Shota was being a sneaky bastard and trying to outmaneuver Oya using his blindness to his advantage the whole match. There's really no GIF-worthy moments, no notable high spots, it's just really well worked wrestling with an obvious story and super enjoyable. Well, Shotas reversal of the sharpshooter was super cool. Oya kind of just does his thing here, but I enjoy watching him toss a little rat into the turnbuckles really hard and hit his cool judo throws. His progression is becoming notable as he's now working a 17 minute main event without much issue.There was also some cool blind grappler matwork that was really enjoyable. 

Keita Yano vs Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 10/17

Good to see this little rivalry getting another entry. I'll admit - this was slow paced, filmed from a camera far away, and will probably appeal mainly to people who are already fans of the two. That said, there was a lot of great stuff here. Real chess match type with Yano trying to entrap Sato and Sato trying to beat him to a pulp. Lots of sick hard hitting, gruesome headbutts, and nifty escapes here. Sato was really pushing his striking advantage here raining hell on Yano with hard kicks, elbows and eventually open hands and headbutts, who in turn was almost purely focussed on outwrestling Sato and getting the winning submission. I love that when Yano forces a hammerlock like 20 minutes in it feels like a holy shit spot. These two always bring out the best in each other, and Yanos October of 2025 is stacking up quite nicely.

Rico Fukunaga vs Chii Aoba, AWG 9/18

Really hard-fought opening match that was better than it had any right to be. I thought Aoba would be some hapless idol-type, but she fought hard and showed fire. Fukunaga dominated the action with her cool kicks and submissions and looked good doing that. Aoba catching her with a surprise legsweep and then desperately latching onto a leglock was some excellent simplistic pro wrestling due to both of them really selling the struggle. Aoba was mostly relegated to desperation comebacks and relying on luck here but it made for a pretty good match. Dug her memorable body slam. I don't know if it's because AWG has great up close camera work and sound mixing but I'm enjoying this stuff more than the undercards from Marigold, STARDOM, TJPW etc. The work here feels less spotty and there's more struggle and creativity put into everything.

Rico Fukunaga & Naru vs Chii Aoba & Yukina Uehara, AWG 9/13

I watched this based on the Fukunaga/Aoba match being good. This starts out as the kinda cutesy happy-go-lucky idol wrestling that I don't like, but the second half is hands-down greatness. Basically Fukunaga, who should be above everyone here, has a bad arm and this makes for some great desperation when Aoba and Uehara try to cut her down. Uehara likes to go for kicks, she definitely has the vibe of someone who's still a little half-baked and needs some time to mature into a good wrestler but she was landing some good blows here. Aobas bridging full nelson hold is one of the coolest submissions I've seen in a while, especially when you consider that a full nelson is legit dangerous and barred from amateur wrestling. Fukunaga desperately trying to cut her off by cranking a basic headlock was some great pro wrestling. There was also a great struggle over a tiger suplex which I love. It was genuinely exciting, dramatic stuff with a few well timed spots. In a way in combination with the Aoba singles match on the 18th it makes it more impressive because in the singles match Aoba was outmatched, here she was pushing an injured Fukunaga to the limit and both times it was pretty credible and compelling. Also loved the gritty Dragon Sleeper finish.

El Hijo del Santo & Santo Jr. & Ciclon Ramirez Jr vs. El Hijo de Fishman & El Hijo de LA Park & Texano Jr., TxT/Lucha Libre World Berlin 11/2

This was an amazing experience. A huge crowd had gathered for this event, 2000 or 3000 people, maybe the biggest crowd in Germany for a non-WWE event since the days of old, and that alone speaks volumes about the power of lucha libre. And all these guys are way too proud and too good at what they do to not deliver a fantastic match. Long, quality 2/3 falls match, maybe 20 or 30 minutes in length, that delivered everything you can ask for from a trios and more. Comedy, some spectacular exchanges, the sheer aura of El Hijo del Santo, brawling, mask ripping, some absolutely huge dives. It was classic lucha libre mexicana all the way through and it had the audience by the balls the whole time. What was cool was that there were lots of fans from the Mexican community there (it's Berlin and there were Mexican-themed cultural festivities) but also lots of casuals and typical wrestling fans. I think not many of the more casual fans knew what a legend El Hijo del Santo is but by the end everyone understood it and when the match was over people were jumping out of their seats and rushing to the ring to tap him on the shoulder. Rudos were great here. Hijo de Fishman looks like such a monster in person and it says a lot about how respected he is as a wrestler that he got to work with El Hijo del Santo, and throw him headfirst into chairs too of course. Haven't thought about Texano Jr. in a long time but he looked quite excellent here too, great bumping, timing and crowd control, he also brought a big bullrope like Stan Hansen to beat on people with. Hijo de LA Park was also quite effective as a dickish dancing skeleton who would leather people with his belt. The man who was announced as Ciclon Ramirez also looked great. Cool dance moves, pulled off some really intricate flying headscissors and armdrags, he also may have had the biggest dive of the night when he hit a beautiful high moonsault off the top to the outside (and there were a lot of dives that night with Puma King et al hitting like a dozen in the previous match). He was a great spectacular technico with some spice. Obviously getting to see Santito doing his thing was great. The man is in his 60s, yeah, but everything be damned, he's El Hijo del Santo, he will give people their moneys worth and prove lucha libre is the greatest thing on earth, he still did all his big flying headbutts off the top, a suicide dive that looked faster than everyone elses, and he did fly into the chairs and beat on people with a bullrope as good as everyone else. Santo Jr. also looked good, obviously a bit overshadowed by the presence of the old man but he brought a fun classic vibe with the things he was doing, I was also really impressed by his bridging german suplex that looked flawless. Brawling was great and the audience was shocked by the sudden violence of luchadores flying into chairs, beating on each other with a bullrope, chairs and a leather belt, as well as the visual of Santito and Fishman ripping each others masks open, and then they brought it back seamlessly from chaos back to great wrestling. After the match Santito was carried around like a hero, with an ocean of kids pooling into the ring to get picked up for pictures. Seeing this stuff in person just hits different, it's not hard to see why lucha libre is such a huge deal in Mexico, truely the greatest spectacle in the world, and what a farewell statement from Santito to go a country that he's never wrestled in before and have a match like this. 

 

2025 Pro Wrestling Matchguide 

Old New Professional Wrestling

 

244 vs Masanori Kaneshima, NPW 12/17/2000

NPW baby. A really old amateur-pro wrestling organization that has been around since 1993. Oh, and they weren’t using a ring, they just put a wrestling mat into what looks like a judo practise hall, and they have those ladder-things for corner posts. That automatically makes it really interesting to me. And through some strange godly blessing, a few match videos of them have survived through the magic of the internet archive. This is a pretty fun 10 minute match. Kaneshima has kickpads and works the faux UWF style with kicks and shootstyle submissions, but blends pretty seamlessly with his opponent. 244 is rocking a CIMA worship look. He does some cool things, like turning a snap suplex right into a cool butterfly necklock. Later he does hit the Mr. Perfect flipping neck snap to set up another neck submission which is pretty cool. This is just a pretty fun match with hard suplexes on that amateur wrestling, both guys hitting the mat, busting out some cool submissions (especially liked Kaneshimas ultra-arm bending kimura) and nuking each other. Something like a missile dropkick always looks double devastating when done on a mat like this, and 244 hits a really hard lariat. Pretty cool.

244 vs Yuji Miyazaki, NPW 12/16/2001

This was worked a bit like a 90s NJPW junior match – meaning they start hitting the mat lots and trying to snap each others arm with super tight armbars, then moving on to some hard as fuck bomb throwing with big powerbombs and hard lariats. It’s serious pro wrestling, focussed on matwork and believable offense and no rope running. You have to love it – how serious these guys were about putting on proper wrestling. There is some cool basic work, like hitting a hip toss and then cranking back hard on an armbar. Miyazaki works as a bit of a heel type, even using the corner platforms to try and hurt 244s arm further. 244 slapping his way out of an attempted Scorpion Deathlock is classic pro wrestling stuff. Miyazaki ends up putting him down pretty hard, though 244 does not go down without crashing on his face in nasty fashion leaping off of the corners trying a Mad Splash. God bless him. Super enjoyable, cool match.

244 vs Kenji Yoshioka, NPW 11/17/2002

Pretty raw match. They were hitting each other hard as fuck here with blistering kicks and chops, diving and slamming each other on the floor. Yoshioka is a pretty fun martial artsy guy who’s not afraid to fly around and hit sick huracanranas into armbars. The match is pretty long and they meander a bit but it’s worthwhile just for both these guys being gutsy and going all out. Some insane slams and throws on the mat too with 244 at point hoisting Yoshioka up to the ceiling and letting him splat face down on the mat from like a 2 meter height, crazy stuff. The no ring aspect adds such grittiness, really wouldn’t mind seeing more NPW especially from the earlier days of the promotion, their archived website lists a lot of DVDs and VHS they used to have for sale, so if any old NPW superfans are reading this, there is someone who is totally interested in seeing more of this stuff in 2025.