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.
No comments:
Post a Comment