Showing posts with label 1999. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1999. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Yumiko Hotta Matches

 Mariko Yoshida vs Yumiko Hotta, AtoZ 11/9/2003


Really great match which delivers exactly what you want. Early grappling was very cool, as Hotta is slower and less skilled but bigger. Yoshida was moving around her pretty fast but you get the sense that it’s hard to move Hotta, and when Hotta gets a hold of you it really sucks to get out. When Hotta tried to be more aggressive Yoshida would instantly reverse her, but then run into a wall due to Hottas stubbornness. There is one cool moment where Hotta has Yoshida cinched so tight Yoshida has to get a rope break because her bad arm is bothering her. The bad arm doesn’t even come up again but it’s just one of those random cool bits of sellings Yoshida does because Yoshida is a fucking great wrestler. Second half had some absolutely disgusting violence that was up there with any BattlARTS match, insane kicks, bare knuckle punches, Yoshida taking some absolutely insane punishment to make Hotta look like a total monster. It was still a very well worked match with some awesome submission counters to add to the violence. I also really dug Yoshidas “My soul is leaving my body” selling whenever Hotta would hit a particularily brutal shot. When Yoshida took her glove off to punch Hotta bare knuckle in the face it really felt like one of the most epic things you’ve ever seen. The finish was kind of genius too, as it seems like the one way to take out a tough lunatic like that. Sick ass match that felt as violent and cutting edge as the best of BattlARTS, Yoshida was clearly one of the best in the world still in 2003.


Yumiko Hotta vs. GAMI, AtoZ 2/29/2004

Seedy rotten bloodbath with both women bringing some serious violence. Brawling is often forgettable in joshi, that wasn’t the case here as GAMI immediately started busting Hotta open with Necro-level punches, headbutts and biting. Didn’t know GAMI was such a great brawler as she did a great job working over a bleeding Hotta. Her stoic demenaour also makes her look like a psycho. Hitting Hotta in the face with the paper fan was delightfully deranged. Hottas bladejob was also grizzly as her eye and mouth were full of blood, she looked like she got shot in the face. As soon as Hotta got control she also amped up the reckless violence by smashing GAMIs face with chairs. I also didn’t mind Kumiko Maekawa interferring in the match as it adds to the chaotic “anything can happen” feeling and GAMI looked like an even bigger badass when she was beating up two opponents. There was also the crazy moment where all the ring girls had enough of Maekawa and start jumping on her. They keep the crazy moments coming (big suplex into pile of chairs, GAMI randomly getting a table smashed in her face) and working a fast pace with out any letdown. The re-start may have been a bit unnecessary but I really liked the final 5 minutes with both of them pulling out all the stops with crazy out of nowhere strikes, big bombs, green mist being used, really good spectacle ending run. GAMI hitting a surprise rolling kick to a bloody Hottas head is about as good as pro wrestling gets. Early 2000s joshi has a bit of a bad rep but this was just great and belongs up there with the better brawls of the classic era.

Yumiko Hotta vs Manami Toyota, AJW 6/6/1999

Great match because it was free of the usual Toyota bullshit and Hotta was going after her with a vengeance. Basically Hotta would not allow Toyota to do her usual stuff so Toyota gets pissed and Hotta just tries to crush her. Hotta trying to crack Toyotas skull early reminded me of a rampaging Hansen. Even a basic back elbow almost seemed to take Toyotas head off. Toyota trying to stiff Hotta and tightening up her act by going for armbars etc. was really good. Even Toyotas dive came across as reckless. Last few minutes were pretty great and different from the usual joshi bombfest. I loved how Hotta would pull Toyota into armbars whenever she tried to go for her signature moves. Toyota figuring out a better way to hit her convoluted finisher was really cool. Even that one Toyota no sell kind of worked because she's supposed to be this indestructable icon who goes harder than everyone else and Hotta had clearly cracked her pride. Hotta destroying a stubborn Toyota with reckless headdrops and insane kicks made for quite the finish, too. Loved that face stomp as well. Not shootstyle but felt very uncooperative and like there was legit bad blood.

Yumiko Hotta vs Manami Toyota, AJW 1/22/1996

Savage violent car crash match, maybe the most brutal I've ever seen. Basically Hotta is a psycho monster and out to kill Toyota from the get go throwing full force kicks to her head and mouth. Toyota can't do her usual stuff so she is forced to fire back. Loved Toyotas violent retaliations, stomping on Hottas face, kneeing her, headbutting her bloody etc. Even her dropkicks seemed to land flush in Hottas face. I also loved her using that huge trophy to beat on a bloody Hotta and standing on her, surprised you didn't see that kind of thing more often in the 90s. Toyota trying to survive and catch Hotta with her crazy flying moves kept the middle interesting. Floor dropkick was certifiably insane. Finishing stretch was a bit the usual stuff though Hotta finding violent counters to Toyotas finisher attempts was pretty entertaining, not to mention her tendency to just go berserk with the kicks again. Probably concussed Toyota just barely pulling off the finish suited the chaotic nature of the match, I thought. Hotta isn't very good at selling but she kind of worked like a monster here so it worked and Toyota didn't do any no selling (to be honest she was probably legit damaged by Hottas psychotic onslaught). Not as interesting as the 1999 match but must watch for the sheer brutality alone, I thought.

Monday, November 28, 2022

Bart Gunn Matches

 Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama, AJPW 6/9/1999

I imagine the 20 or so diehard traders of Japanese tapes who existed at this time scoffed at MOVEMENT, the team of Johnny Ace and Bart Gunn/Mike Barton. Even today some people scoff at Aces AJPW work, saying he was carried. But fuck that because Johnny Ace ruled and he was hanging and banging with Kobashi and Akiyama and post-Brawl 4 All Bart is such a great character and nothing to scoff at. The opening of this is really solid and full of cool little moments with real emphasis placed on solid moves like a Kobashi hitting a stalling vertical suplex on chunky Johnny Ace, or Barts really high jumping dropkick. The fun begins when Ace hits a surprise Ace Crusher to Akiyama on a chair outside the ring. We get a really solid control segment with Ace and Gunn really stretching Akiyamas rattled head and neck, building to Kobashi getting the hot tag only for Ace to catch him with a surprise Ace Crusher after an awesome sequence that was like a fast junior sequence except done by chunky heavyweights. They build to Akiyama getting another nice hot tag and it sets up this really awesome second half of the match with Ace busting out his awesome Ace Crushers left and right to crack people and Bart threatening to KO Kobashi with his dreaded punch. Bart looks absolutely massive so when he gets dropped on his neck with a half nelson suplex or Exploder it's double awesome. The nearfalls towards the end of this are real edge of the seat stuff, you get awesome moments like Gunn & Ace busting out a fucking Splash Mountain into a Neckbreaker, Akiyama getting absolutel spiked on Aces Cobra Clutch suplex, Kobashi being saved from a dangerous move at the last moment etc. Great shit and felt like MOVEMENT were putting it all together and working their absolute A-game to contain the power of BURNING.

Bart Gunn vs. Hardcore Holly, WWF 2/16/1999

The two sides of wrestling in 1999! This is Barts only WWF match besides the Butterbean fight in 1999, and he wouldn't come back until 2003 when he did 2 dark matches teaming with Jim Steele. This is a hardcore title match. While the hardcore title was mostly supposed to be comedic I guess, but these two work it without any humor at all, Holly hits hard as fuck, boots to the face and hard punches and they keep bringing out more and more  ridiculous props to smash over each others heads. Both guys take hard as fuck bumps on the steel ramp and then they just keep killing each other with the ring bell, a crate of bananas, water melons, a bag of flour etc. Finish has some guy in a weird mask doing a run in on Bart and throwing him off the stage with Bart taking this sick as fuck shoulder bump through a table. Brutal and comical stuff.

Friday, September 16, 2022

Assorted Joshi

 

Kaoru Ito vs. Junko Yagi, AJW/LLPW 7/2/1999


Cool, scrappy, unique match. Opening judo grappling was pretty cool, Yagi kept getting the better of Ito early on and there were some cool throws, until Ito absolutely spiked Yagi with a huge back suplex. Frustrated Yagi started hammering away at Itos head with fists, causing them both to take the jackets off. Ito comes across as such a murder machine that when she gave Yagi the death stare and threw her jacket and belt away it felt like a real „oh shit“ moment. Last few minutes were gritty with Ito hitting some lariats and dropkicks on Yagi that made me feel Yagi did something to piss her off. Nasty nasty double stomp finish too, but that‘s pretty much a given with Ito matches.


Takako Inoue vs. Kyoko Inoue, NEO 5/5/1999

This was the kind of insane and great spectacle that you pretty much only get with joshi. Takako has MMA gloves and she gave the kind of „kicks the shit out of you“ performance that gets you over with me as a badass. Kyoko starts right away trying to take Takakos head off with lariats but Inoue is able to get her with a taser. The taser stuff may seem goofy but they didn‘t waste much time with it and Kyoko sold the fuck out of that taster, and they got right back to Takako stomping on Kyokos face, throwing body shots and landing some insane solebutts. What I loved about the match was how they really worked this like a big time arena brawl, a lot of stiff matches feel seedy and back alley, which is cool, but this was clearly worked for the huge crowd they had and that‘s a pretty unique thing for this kind of violent brawl. And they just succeeded in giving everything the right amount of space. Second half had some psycho bumps, more fantastic striking from Takako and at one point Takako takes her gloves off to hit a punch that may have been one of the most insane punches I‘ve ever seen in a wrestling match. I didn‘t love Kyokos superheroine comeback but it was the kind of frenzied insane ending a frenzied insane match needs.



Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Thoughts on 30 minutes of Volk Han vs. Zaza Grom

 

Volk Han vs. Zaza Grom, RINGS 6/24/1999


Opening 20 minutes of this or so were fantastic and some of the greatest shootstyle grappling I‘ve ever seen. You know Grom is a badass when he is like 35 here and as grey as a caesar. This is all about Groms ability to takedown Han at will and Han trying to counter that. Naturally Han is really great at creating incredible counters, but Zaza is also really great at creating incredible counters to those counters. It starts like the usual Han deal, with Han getting a rope break in the first minute. Then Han loses another point on a break and one on a technicality, and it seems like no big deal, but Zaza keeps racking up points. Suddenly Han is with his back against the wall, and then he eats a vicious shotai and he‘s out of points. I really wanted the last 5 minutes to be more epic considering how great they had built it up but sometimes you just gotta ride it out. Incredible showing from Grom regardless, and another piece of untouchable Han work.

Friday, May 13, 2022

Unseen GAEA

 Meiko Satomura vs. Carlos Amano, GAEA 1/17/1999

I tried tracking this down years ago but the TV version ended up being quite clipped, so getting the full match after 20 years is really nice! And the complete version made a whole lot more sense than the clipped version as we get a bunch of really cool opening matwork and the story of the match unfolds. Basically Satomura thinks Amano is beneath her but Satomura comes in with huge disadvantages, as her shoulder is bandaged AND Amano has a bunch of hostile OZ Academy punks at ringside. These two are really tenacious wrestlers and they do a bunch of great wrestling really ripping into each other with submissions and hard shots and not letting go whenever they grabbed a limb, and the outside interference stuff was done in such a way that it didn‘t hurt the match but instead added to the story of Satomura having to fight through. The bandaged shoulder stuff was cool as there was never a point where Amano controlled Satomura for a long time working the shoulder, but she would tear into it here and there and it always came across as a nasty heel move. Great ending run as Satomura did her darndest and it really felt that if she just hit the Death Valley Bomb she could win. Amano wasn‘t yet the headbutt machine but her grappling and submissions were great as always and she did a nice job showing a mean streak being an asshole. Really really good match with some great wrestling and a they did a great job slowly escalating it and maintaining the emotional connection to the crowd.

KAORU vs. Yasha Kurenai, GAEA 4/15/1995

The GAEAISM channel continues to deliver, this match seems like it wasn‘t on the Comm. Release so this is another hit upload. Ultra heated spectacle match, the kind of thing Kurenai is so good at. Hot start with KAORU diving right into a chairshot and eating a big chokeslam. KAORU going back to her heel Infernal KAORU roots to combat Kurenai was fun, and the match ended up being about KAORUs skill vs. Kurenais rough style. Loved Kurenai busting out the staff, and the ending run was really good, KAORUs springboard moonsault may be one of the prettiest moves in wrestling history. And the heat was just off the charts.


Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari & Michiko Nagashima vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Bomber Hikaru & Sonoko Kato, GAEA 3/25/1996

Sawai is a monster here and dominates Chigusa early, so Chigusa busts out a bullrope! The LLPW girls bust out a chain to counter! Everyone on the GAEA team wears the same outfit! Fun chaotic match. Unfortunately we only got about 5 minutes of 18, but it was fun to check out. Kato was fired up and almost choked out Yukari at one point which was cool. The Yukari/Hikari finishing stretch also doesn‘t suck.

Friday, February 11, 2022

Matches from and old Scott Mailman comp tape

 Watch

 

 Takashi Sasaki vs. Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 9/30/1999

Pretty good quasi-BattlARTS match. Sasaki was the real deal ripping out fast submissions and landing knees to Takagis face. I didn't really appreciate Takagis stomp-punches-Stone-Cold-Stunner style much next to Sasakis cutting edge spin kicks and cool Destiny Hammers, but to be fair Sasaki ate the fuck out of those Stunners. Takagi kind of redeemed himself busting out some cool backfists. Full indy scum point to this match.

Asian Cougar & Kurokage vs. Kyohei Mikami & Takashi Sasaki Onita Pro 9/16/1999

This is a really 'comp tape' match. They do some brief opening work and then get to their cool highspots. Sasaki looked good once again being surprisingly vicious to Kurokage. It's nice to have a guy who can kick ass and while punch the shit out of people inserted into a more spot oriented junior undercard match. Dive train on the concrete was really sick and the neck-crunching big move ladden ending run was choice without getting on your nerves. I miss when juniors did moves like Powerbombs or Flying Armbars instead of superkicks and canadian destroyer like shit all the time.

Asian Cougar & Yuki Nishino vs. Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO Onita Pro 12/1/1999

Even more 'comp tape' highlight reel match, since they clipped a 9 minute match down to five or so. This was worth watching though. Nishino is my boy and he and Sasaki beating on each other with lariats and running headbutts was pretty badass. After that we get a Korakuen Hall upgraded run of sick highspots mostly involving Asian Cougar. He hits the chair senton to the floor, a bunch of whacked-out legdrops right on peoples jaw etc. Sasakis spinning kick to an opponent placed against the apron was a pretty sick regular spot. Full point, once again.

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

JWP Title Matches

 

Hikari Fukuoka vs. Yasha Kurenai, JWP 12/6/1997


The more Kurenai I watch, the more I think she‘s among the most underrated women in joshi history. This was an epic JWP title match all about the yanki ways of Kurenai. It‘s easy to dismiss her as a run of the mill brawler… but she will chop you in the throat, boot you in the face and hit you with a kendo stick, all done in a way that sets her a step above. She has no problem going Fukuokas speed, and Fukuokas workrate spots are made a lot more interesting by the factor of Kurenai smashing her with a chair in the middle of a handspring move. Kurenai kind of no-sold a Fukuoka tombstone, but it was a pretty soft tombstone, and she came back chucking a chair at Fukuoka, so I guess it was a rightful no-sell. I have no problem calling her performance here flawless. I thought Fukuoka was no selling Kureanai here a bit, but then Kurenai kept coming back (without being your turn-my turn) and making bigger and bigger dents in her. Early on Fukuoka was pelting Kurenai with nasty kicks and you got the sense she considered Kurenai an annoying lower ranked LLPW scoundrel, but Kurenai soon put some respect in her. Loved how Fukuoka went into panic mode whenever Kurenai went for her signature submission. Her moonsault to the outside also felt like an epic spot due to it being late in the match and the elaborate set up. Another highlight was Fukuoka blocking a chokeslam in cool fashion and then hitting an out of nowhere high kick. Overall I‘d file this as an excellent nuanced ace performance from Fukuoka. Kurenais last hurray being her hitting Fukuoka in the leg with the kendo stick out of nowhere also ruled. Great match between two workers people should talk about more.


Ran Yu-Yu vs. Azumi Hyuga, JWP 12/23/1999

Hyugas 1999 title run has to be up there with the greatest in joshi history. Too bad it was largely overshadowed by what Yoshida was doing in ARSION, but these matches still hold up. This was another excellent contest. Yu-Yu got to look like dynamite here. She is such a unique wrestler while being able to go the usual joshi pace. This didn‘t have some kind of hook-sinker story like other Hyuga title matches, but the work was consistently strong and everything made sense. Just the way Yu-Yu would work a random sleeper was outstanding. And she was fierce and competitive against the champion. Hyuga has a rep for being queen of workrate matches, but I thought Yu-Yus athleticism easily overshadowed her. They had excellent chemistry and made the whole match look like a struggle. I especially appreciated how hard they worked to build to the bombs, without just dropping them one after another as you often see in joshi matches. The finish felt a bit easy and an unbecoming end to Hyugas great reign, but you end up happy for Ran Yu-Yu.

Thursday, December 23, 2021

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #17

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/27/1999 - GREAT

MIKAMI comes out barefoot and with MMA trunks and gloves. Amazing. This was a great little scrap. MIKAMI realizes quickly he‘s outgunned by Tobas striking and just goes for armbars left and right with Toba making dramatic escapes. The fact Mikami could do this kind of match shows why he was a special boy then. I really enjoy this kind of singular focus in shootstyle, and these two did a great job working a 5 minute match around armbars and KO blows.

 

Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba vs MIKAMI & Super Uchu Power, DDT 8/30/2001 - GREAT

This was another match that exemplifies what made all these guys so fun back in the early 2000s. We get some cool exchanges between MIKAMI and Sasaki before Mikami and S.U. Power begin putting a beating on Sasaki. MIKAMI has quite good chemistry with the Space Monster, Uchu Power was brutally shoot throwing, stretching and kicking Sasaki, and MIKAMI held up the violence with some full bodyweight flying moves and a neat Tiger Spin kick to the face. Loved Tobas hot tag where he flew into Super Uchu Powers face with a huge, huge knee and then he proceeded to brutalize the Space Monster. Could have done with more Toba content (he only gets in after Sasaki makes the hot tag) but the finish was great with Sasaki trying to finish off Mikami and Toba running in to help with some face kicks.


Sanshiro Takagi & Fake Takagi vs Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba, DDT 9/30/2001 - FUN

This was just a 2 minute match. Pretty much just a Toba/Sasaki control segment on Ichimiya before Ichimiya steals the pin with a flash pin to Toba. It was a really good control segment, Ichimiya has worked CAPTURE so he has no problem getting kicked in the face by Toba, and that pushes this into the FUN territory.

 Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

Friday, December 17, 2021

CMLL Japan Lucha Revolution 2nd 2/24/1999

 Watch

Kurokage vs. Takashi Sasaki

Unusual match to open your CMLL Japan show, but I‘m not complaining about your DDT boys getting some work. This was a fun 5 minutes, these two really work un-lucharesu like and pelt each other with kicks and open hands. Kurokage kind of gets a showcase here, he busts out a slick armbar, spikes Sasaki with a vicious Dragon Suplex and gets the pin with a cool combination.

Maxx Bunny & Super Cacao vs. Masaru Seno & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa

Fine undercard lucharesu with some comedic elements. Give me some amusing gimmicks and the occasional neat pin or submission and I‘m happy. Tubby boy Kikuzawa looks good doing armdrags and twisting sentons. Seno is the future Daioh Quallt and works as a thick amateur boy here and he is fun. Bunny did the occasional comedy but also brought some wrestling. I think Super Cacao is Nozawa and he‘s inoffensive. There was no need for this to go twice as long as the previous match, though.


El Olimpico vs. Rencor Latino

I always enjoy luchadores in Japan getting 10 minutes to impress the audience. These two do some really funky matwork to start, lots of cool unorthodox throws. It‘s a pity CMLL pretty much got rid of matwork in the 2000s because things were getting very experimental at this point. The match took a bit of dampener when Olimpico was hesistant on his dive, but they picked up again for the finish when Latino hit his own big dive. Enjoyable stuff, why does it feel like ages since I‘ve seen two luchadores do this kind of match in Japan?


Halcon Negro & El Salsero & Zumbido vs. Super Delfin & Masato Yakushuji & Naohiro Hoshikawa

Another really fun lucharesu match. Everyone had their working boots on. El Salsero was a fun discovery here, he would do his crazy dancing and then plant people with big powerbombs and spin kicks. Yakushiji is one of the most spectacular wrestlers ever and he matches up extremely well with Zumbido here. Halcon Negro is a lumpy bodied luchador and it‘s fun watching him bust out dives and get kicked hard by Hoshikawa. Structure was a bit iffy since the Osaka Pro guys kind of tried to work rudo but weren‘t very convincing at it (Yakushiji keeps getting face spots and Delfin doesn‘t do much). Finishing run was fun though with a big dive train etc.

Ultimo Guerrero & Virus vs. Oriental & Tsubasa

Any long Virus match from this period is a treasure. And this was all these guys going balls out for +20 minutes. Really aiming for the most spectacular match they could possibly produce. We get a bunch of ultra slick opening mat exchanges to start. I‘ve never really noticed Tsubasa before, but he matches up well with Virus, not just „guy who is a warm body getting carried through some sections by Virus“ but actively looking really polished. And Oriental is really underrated and a really good worker. The match goes a bit awry when Oriental goes for diving rana to the outside (an insane move for 1999) and UG miss-catches him. He ends up being fine though and it may have added to the match as immediately there was heat on the rudo beat down section. Oriental regained his senses and later actually hit the big diving rana in a really nice moment. And the rest of this was spectacular and smooth to the max. I‘m surprised I‘ve never heard of this before because how on earth would 90s workrate smarks not love this?! If you want a crazy spotfest you might as well get a bunch of pro luchadores to do it, and they went for big fucking spots here, aside from all the slick ranas and spectacular dives there was Virus busting out a dominator from the top which looked like it could have killed Tsubasa, and Ultimo Guerrero busts out his avalanche reverse suplex on the hard as hell Japanese ring. They executed everything with grace (safe for one or two mishaps) and logic and it was really good shit. Also dug out UG trying to pull out the victory against the odds, real stoic rudo determination. Another really great Oriental performance, too, and did I mention Virus? I'm not overly familiar with 1999 CMLL but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the 2nd or 3rd best Lucha match to happen that year.

THE LIBRARY

Monday, November 22, 2021

SPWC 3/29/1999

 Watch 

Yoshiya Yamashita vs. Gilgilgan, Jr.
 
Gilgilgan Jr is a masked guy in a plain black drunks outfit. This was pretty basic like a rookie match. What, it's an SPWC show and you're not gonna be outrageous? I guess having a ring made them up their standards. Yamashita worked nice and snug and the masked guy hit some okay-ish dropkicks. Yamashita with a really nice chokeslam for the win.
 
Chotaro Kamoi vs. The Karate Devil
Karate Devil wears a gi and a Destroyer mask. NATURALLY. Kamoi has been dreadful whenever I've seen him, but he was actually laying in his punches here. He beat the devil pretty fast. Nothing much else to say on this.
 
Toshiyuki Moriya vs. Edward Sexton
Moriya would later assume the Fake Onita personality. Sexton is a pudgy and unassuming gaijin who wears scuzzy judo pants and boxing gloves. Yes, this is really like the scuzziest low level FMW parody. Sexston does some leglocks too but nothing about him is very impressive. He defeats Moriya pretty fast, at least. If Edward Sexton is still around I'd love to hear his story on how he got to work for Survival Tobita.
 
Naoshi Sano vs. The Karate Devil

The previous two matches were part of some kind of tournament, and this is the match for the lowest rank in that tournament... because why not?! Where's the 3rd place match? Sano tries working a wrestler vs. karateka match in this, but man he doesn't have the skills to pull it off at all. Karate Devil beats him good. Another so-so-mhm-I-guess-there-were-some-cool-punches-and-kicks-in-this short match.
 
Chotaro Kamoi vs. Edward Sexton
This is the finals. The guys with the boxing gloves going to the finals is some next level scuzzy indy shit. Couldn't they get another martial artist with a different style? Like Seikendo Vader, or one of the CAPTURE opening match grapplers? I guess boxer vs. undefined martial artist is interesting enough for the Japanese fans because they actually got excited for this. And both guys laid in some combos. They went long too, almost going broadway~! I dunno, it was fun I guess.

Survival Tobita vs. Ape Man Virgon
 
This is what drew the house. No offense to Edward Sexton and The Karate Devil, but everyones here for Tobita fighting a monster. Naoshi Sano is actually at ringside for this, indicating he is not portraying Ape Man Virgon. This goes almost the same as the Tobita/Virgon match from Michinoku Pro. Virgon doesn't really have interest in fighting and just terrorizes the arena. The back bump into the ropes Tobita takes on the first throw is a thing of beuty. Sano gets whipped around too and gets his shirt torn! I love dedicated whipping boy Sano. They go to a Double Countout~! and restart the match and Tobita ends the monkey. It rules that the Ape Man has super strong shoves. If he actually knew what fighting is he would've ended Tobitas life, but our camo pants sporting hero prevailed. It's amazing how perfectly they put this bullshit together.

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Going through Shodates Best Matches of the 90s List Part 5

 The List

231. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka, NJPW 10/11/1999 

This has to be among the stiffest matches I‘ve ever seen the NJPW juniors division produce. Seriously, they went out of their way to make every second of this as unpleasant as possible. Kicks, smacks, Otani facescrapes, Takaiwas level, everything was executed at maximum violence. Even something like a Takaiwa elbow drop landed with a smack. Loved the pissed off exchanges involving Otani and Kanemoto. Everyone here was catching hands, though. You know it‘s great when even Tanaka is laying it in and taking beatings. The match didn‘t have some kind of arc or story, it was just one violent exchange after another. It builds to some huge sequences before the finish, though. Takaiwa looked great pounding dudes into paste with his multiple powerbombs and death valley drivers. Greatest junior match in the Dome ever? It was certainly the loudest.

 

234. Mayumi Ozaki & Cutie Suzuki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Sumiko Saito, JWP 8/9/1992

Ah let‘s see… fast pace, hot crowd, insanely stiff, simple moves…? It‘s the early 90s baby~! Seriously pro wrestling just doesn‘t feel like this anymore and it‘s sad. This was hard working and exciting. Sumiko Saito was a rookie who didn‘t stay around for long, but she looked tenacious here. She was paired with Kansai who as usual acted as a super asskicker, so you got a match built around Kansai kicking ass when she was tagged in, and Saito getting her ass kicked when she was tagged out. As usual Ozaki looks good working against Kansai, and Cutie throws some beautiful suplexes. The stretching holds actually felt meaningful in this due to Saito fighting hard and trying to evade the rookie beatdown. Couple really good moments here. Notice how epic the superplex reversal felt due to both womens selling. This was 2 Count Rules for some reason and while it didn‘t really factor into the psychology much it made their athleticism more impressive I guess.

 

31. Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Georgi Kandarahki, RINGS 7/13/1993

Young Yoshihisa Yamamoto takes on Georgi Kandarahki… Kandealaki… Keandelaki..?? Ahh to hell with it! Kandarahki has boxing gloves, a singlet and boxer trunks. He looks like a basketball player decided to be a boxer. Yamamoto doesn‘t have gloves. If you can get over the silliness of that, this was pretty fun. Kandarahki throws lots of nice combinations and this had some heated moments where he came close to punching out Yamamoto who fired back with spirit. Obviously Yamamoto was gonna dominate on the ground but they do a pretty decent job making it not too obvious or drab. This went 5 rounds (OF COURSE!!!) and didn‘t drag and was pretty fun overall. So… the 31.th best match of all of the 90s? Probably not but I enjoyed discovering this for Yamamotos fire and Kandarahkis cool punches.

Friday, November 5, 2021

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #19

 Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 8/29/1999 - FUN

Only 3 or 4 minutes where shown here, but every second was great. Otsuka at this time was experimenting with pro style moves a lot, and he was working Ono like a Power Plant guy using a grappling dummy here, just ragdolling him around. There were a few great moments, such as Onos rolling leglock, and Otsuka scrambling over Onos low blow and dumping him with a big suplex that Ono desperately tried to counter. Of course, we get a big Giant Swing spot where Otsuka just launches Ono across the ring like a cartoon character. Finish was totally great with Ono scrambling out of a Dragon Suplex and locking in a slick armbar. Crowd went nuts for Ono tapping out Otsuka and rightfully so.


Takeshi Ono & Mohammed Yone vs. Katsumi Usuda & Daisuke Ikeda, BattlARTS 9/23/1999 - FUN

Exciting looking match, but we only get the second half. Good stiff BattlARTS action. Yone was tolerable as he was there to eat brutal kicks and lariats from Usuda and Ikeda. It‘s always stunning how good Usuda looks even in short clips. His backhands are awesome. The finish was Ono vs. Ikeda and it was some great bomb throwing and counters. Another great finish with Ono scrambling out of Ikedas Death Valley Driver and into another neat lucha rollup turned armbar. Seems Ono was raking in some big surprise wins towards the end of 1999 but it didn‘t seem to go anywhere.


Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 12/25/1999 - GREAT

One of the few Ono matches that year to even air in full, and it‘s a great one. Mostly just Ono being a freak, putting on slick submissions on Hijikata, busting out neat counters and punching and kicking him in the face. A lot of Onos stuff could easily be stolen in a pro style context, it just looks so good and makes sense. Hijikata was green-ish but he could strike back when it counted. Loved Ono struggling against Hijikatas Fisherman Suplex. Well executed finish. This hit all the marks in 9 minutes and was just a great opener.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Sunday, October 24, 2021

WAR 6/20/1999

 Masao Orihara vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Both these guys were pretty great in the late 90s, so I was pretty salty about this being clipped down just a couple minutes. Ishii was a wreckingball during this period, but Orihara easily outstiffes him trying to crack his jaw with lariats. We also get Ishii working Orihara over with chairs and whiping him out with a crazy rolling senton to the outside. Fun stuff but I wanted at least 3/4ths of the thing.

Nihao vs. Koki Kitahara

This was a CAPTURE showcase match and holy fuck after this I‘d kill to get the entire CAPTURE back catalogue. Brutal brutal match, just the most primitive grimy shootstyle you can imagine, two guys with gloves trying to pummel each other into oblivion. Nihao takes Kitahara down and bloodies him with punches and headbutts, but the boss comes back just trying to crush his face with punches and teeth loosening kicks. There was one spinkick that would‘ve made Daisuke Ikeda wince, and also at one point Kitahara reverses a takedown into an armlock that looked to almost tear Nihaos shoulder. They showed 4 out of 6 minutes, and really would it have killed them to include those 2 minutes? Still 80 % of a sick spectacle is better than most, and those 4 minutes were some of the most insane of the year.

Ryuma Go vs. Thunder Warrior Alpha

I respect Tenryus tendency to bring in Go to squish random aliens. This was clipped to almost nothing but we got to see Go acting crazy and destroying the alien.

Genichiro Tenryu & Magnum TOKYO vs. Nobutaka Araya & Sumo Fuji

The boss is involved, so we got the full match here. Didn‘t know what to expect from this, but it ends up a really entertaining match thanks to Tenryuisms. Basically Sumo Fuji acts like a big shot and annoys Tenryu some and ends up paying for it. Also really liked Araya as a scuzzy guy potatoeing Magnum TOKYO. Toryumon guys also looked solid in their sections against each other, and TOKYO hit a pretty great top rope asai moonsault amongst other things. Loved Tenryu here, I think he didn‘t even take a back bump but pretty much carried the match by being a prick, as he usually does.

Osamu Tachihikari & Arashi vs. Daikokubo Benkei & Ichiro Yaguchi

We get about 30 seconds of this and I am not bummed at all about that. I liked Tachihikari busting out random moves like an STO and a Magistral.

Yuji Yasuraoka & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa

This was 4 solid pro wrestlers doings lots of solid pro wrestling, building to a pretty exciting second half. WAR reckless kicker Mochizuki ruled, I am just going to pretend he retired after WAR folded. He had some pretty great exchanges with Hoshikawa here, and I loved him flying into the scenery out of nowhere to take out people with spin kicks. Delfin & Hoshikawa worked well together and it was cool to see them acting as a crew. For some reason, juniors getting dumped on their heads or diving around the place was a lot more satisfying to watch in the 90s.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

I guess Mochizuki wasn‘t happy with Yasuraokas performance in that tag, so he gets on the mic to challenge Yasuraoka to a singles. Yasuraoka then proceeds to hit his awesome dive, getting insane height, and we get a fun short explosion of them throwing bombs at each other. Wouldn‘t have minded if this went longer, but they just did a 17 minute long match before so it made sense for this to be short and intense.

 

Shigeo Okumura, Sambo Asako & Atsushi Onita vs. Nobutaka Araya, Genichiro Tenryu & Shoji Nakamaki

Exactly what it looks like on paper. 6 tubby asskickers brawling all over the place, bleeding and pasting each other with chairs and lariats. That plus the megastar charisma of Tenryu and Onita. Tenryu is such an awesome menace here, punching people in the face and chucking chairs at them. Him vs. Terry Funk would’ve been one hell of a program. Then again, Tenryu was pretty much untouchable at this point in his career. Onita & Asako looked pretty much like regular guys at this point, which made Asako getting abused by Tenryu feel all the more violent. Okumura was in charge with bringing a slight bit of workrate to the match and he did fine, hitting a pretty stiff dropkick. Very predictable match but all too fun.

THE LIBRARY

Friday, July 9, 2021

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #11

 Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Masao Orihara & Naoki Sano, SWS 6/26/1991 - GREAT

Man, I love SWS tags. This had juniory touches - Orihara and Kitahara do a battle of kip ups of all things to start with, but there was a strong base of guys being chippy and stiffing the hell out of each other. Orihara gets over in a huge way by busting out a bunch of crazy dives and getting brutalized by Kitahara. These two beating the snot out of each other was awesome. Sano as in insane shape here, looking like a superhero, and he does all kinds of fun hybrid junior/shootstyle exchanges throughout. He also clocks Ishikawa with probably the stiffest thrust kick I've ever seen. I wanted a bit more of that shootstyle action - perhaps a Shooto vs. PWFG exchange between Kitahara and Sano - but we got here was damn tasty. Just great action with everyone bringing it and the crowd eating the whole thing up.

 

Koki Kitahara vs. Nihao, WAR 6/20/1999 - EPIC

This was a CAPTURE showcase match and holy fuck after this I‘d kill to get the entire CAPTURE back catalogue. Brutal brutal match, just the most primitive grimy shootstyle you can imagine, two guys with gloves trying to pummel each other into oblivion. Nihao takes Kitahara down and bloodies him with punches and headbutts, but the boss comes back just trying to crush his face with punches and teeth loosening kicks. There was one spinkick that would‘ve made Daisuke Ikeda wince, and also at one point Kitahara reverses a takedown into an armlock that looked to almost tear Nihaos shoulder. They showed 4 out of 6 minutes, and really would it have killed them to include those 2 minutes? Still 80 % of a sick spectacle is better than most, and those 4 minutes were some of the most insane of the year.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Saturday, July 3, 2021

IWA Japan NEW YEAR LEGEND 1/17/1999

 Masanori Nakamura vs. ???

Yuki Nishino & Asian Cougar & Phantom Funakoshi vs. Takashi Uwano & Yuji Kito & Tortuga

Akinori Tsukioka & Kyohei Mikami vs. The Great Takeru & Makoto Saito

Miho Wakizawa & Sachie Nishibori vs. Emi Motokawa & Kayo Noumi

Shigeo Okumura & Keizo Matsuda vs. Masao Orihara & Takeshi Ono - GREAT

Tarzan Goto & Freddy Krueger vs. Katsumi Hirano & Yoshiya Yamashita - FUN

Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Thumbtack Death Match: Mr. Pogo & Shoji Nakamaki vs. Keisuke Yamada & Takeshi Sato


Another super fun IWA Japan card. The first 4 matches were pretty clipped, but they gave you pretty much what you want, all the fun juniors in those matches busting out sometimes inventive and often crushing offense. My boy Yuki Nishino looked good stomping the crap out of the IWA Japan boys in the 6 man tag, and the other juniors tag was also really fun. Mikami got a bloody nose from a Saito kick, and Tsukioka would potatoe guys with chairs. Junior wrestling really is better when the guys look like they are actually trying to do damage to each other and not run through a routine of elaborate sequences to get brownie points from an audience.

The last 3 matches all had blood - IWA Japan rules, baby. Really liked the Tonpachi Guns, as they have a knack for mixing in unpredictable sequences while keeping the sleaze level high. Takeshi Ono is a treasure in that match kicking and punching people in the face and sometimes in the nuts. Okamura and Matsuda are good enough as thick guys pasting their scrawny opponents with lariats and it ends up a fun match that sadly doesn’t have a finish.

The Goto match was 23 minutes clipped down to about 10. Probably a wise decision, but what was shown looked very good as it was a total slaughter of Hirano and Yamashita. Both guys got busted open and I imagine all their offense was clipped out. Freddy Krueger did almost nothing in that match, which is a good thing as Tarzan Goto is just great as a monster punching and stabbing the shit out of people.

The main event was also really fun, although nearly a squash. Pogo & Nakamaki are like the Road Warriors in that – here to beat the fuck out of the young guys, and not selling shit. It ends up being a really fun match due to the underdog charisma of Yamada & Sato and the character work of Nakamaki and Pogo. At one point Nakamaki stuck his own face in the thumbtacks to prove that he doesn’t give a shit, and later Yamada took a nasty suplex into the tax, coming up looking like a christmas tree. But the story was how long would Yamada and Sato last, and the answer is not very long.

THE LIBRARY

Friday, June 18, 2021

Assorted DDT World

Super Uchu Power vs. DAISAKU (DDT 2/28/1999)

DAISAKU is a kickboxer dude who has worked CAPTURE, so can handle himself against a stiff monster. Doesn't matter though cause S.U. Power just crushes him. Daisaku puts on a good fight but is put to sleep in about 3 minutes. Very brief but very painful looking. Amazing promo after the match and Super Uchu Power struts away as the theme from Terminator 2 blasts from the speakers. All hail the Super Cosmic Force!

MIKAMI vs. Yuki Nishino (DDT 3/25/1998)

Younger years Mikami really was something. His combination of sudden athletic bursts, grappling and willingness to exchange manly assbeatings made for a quite compelling wrestler. Nishino is an SPWF guy with a crazy mullet who works kind of like a sleazy Finlay. He keeps it simple, and puts a major assbeating on Mikami, hitting some sick headbutts, chops and lariats, and Mikami cracks him back hard on the occasion, and sometimes he will hit a huge powerslam or suplex. In a different universe Nishino had Tomohiro Ishiis career. This was simple and to the point and a really fun undercard match built around two guys crushing each other until one stayed down.

 

MIKAMI vs. Takashi Sasaki, DDT 12/22/1999 

Cool, somewhat experimental junior style big match. This was Mikami as a slick junior before he started the Ladder thing, here he was just as prone to bust out slick armbar transitions aswell as fast springboard huracanranas. I really liked how they started out simple working headlocks and hammerlocks and slowly morphed into more tricked out stuff. Mikami looks damn good, technically sound and unpredictable on the mat, while pre-deathmatch kickpadded Sasaki is a perfectly good second rate Ikeda spin kicking him in the throat. The match turns into a style mix where they land stiff kicks and work flash armbars building towards AJPW style headdrops and Mikamis big flying moves. It's pretty much the ideal indy style match as they take from various styles and produce something that feels sound and fresh. The finishing run is great as they just kill eachother. Not only do they bust out the big moves, but there's also some thudding strike exchanges. When a springboard dropkick and lariat feel just as deadly as the big Emerald Frosion style finisher the execution is on point. Really cool to check this out, I would really like this type of indy wrestling to make a comeback. 

Sanshiro Takagi & Kazushige Nozawa vs. Super Uchu Power & Super Rider, DDT 3/25/1997

Out of the ruins of Pro Wrestling Crusader, a new creature emerges. Who would've thought Takagi and Nozawa would control Japanese wrestling 20 years later? And it all began with them absolutely getting their asses beat by a pair of space monsters. This was just a merciless beatdown. Takagi and Nozawa have some fire, but are outgunned. Rider has some crappy junior moves, but is good hen he is kicking the shit out of people. And Super Uchu Power was just a fearsome menace here. Always trying to pop peoples jaws with kicks and lariats or hammering them into the mat with big throws and slams. Not a pretty match, but it felt like a fight and got pretty visceral the more Takagi and Nozawa ate shit.


Monday, June 14, 2021

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #12


Tanomusaku Toba vs. Yukio Sagakuchi (DDT 11/15/2019) - FUN


This was from a martial arts tournament which in style of modern DDT had a lot of silly buggers going on. Toba is an old man now and he moves a little slower. This was just a 2 minute match but there was still a really fun punch exchange and a cool finish with Toba sidestepping his higher ranked opponent and blasting him for the upset win so it’s pushed into FUN territory.


Tanomusaku Toba vs. HARASHIMA (DDT 11/15/2019) - FUN


This was the finals of the tournament. It was just a 6 minute match (probably a good think considering Toba has a gut now and looks alcoholic) with the first 3 minutes being slow anticipating moments, but the last 3 are fun enough with Toba uncorking another nasty load of potatoes in the corner and a cool finish where Harashima somehow springboard dives into a leglock which Toba frantically tries to fight out of so Harashima giant swings into a boston crab for the tap. That kind of struggle is always going to get a match on my good side.

 

Tanomusaku Toba & Takashi Sasaki & Nihao vs. Asian Cougar & Super Rider & Yuki Nishino, DDT 11/25/1999 - GREAT


Another very good early DDT tag. BattlARTS level stiffness mixed with crushing junior highspots. Plenty of brutal spinkicks. Nihao and Rider had some cool exchanges here. Both guys have lineage to Sayama with Rider being a Shooto guy and Nihao being trained by Kitahara who was Sayamas student. Nishino works like a pro wrestling crowbar and he had some really fun exchanges with Toba. He also hulked up during an attempted 3 on 1 section which was a rare macho moment in Japanese wrestling that actually meant something and was cool. Also, as usual, Cougars legdrops were just insane. The match needed more extended Toba sections to push into epic territory, but he was the Toba we all know and love.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

GWE Watching #3: Kazunari Murakami

Kazunari Murakami & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka & Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 9/23/1999

 This Murakamis BattlARTS debut and his 5th(!!!) match ever. Talk about being a natural. Murakami mostly does straight shootstyle exchanges with Otsuka here, which are great. Murakami is really aggressive and Otsuka is of course really great at trying to dive past the striking range and going for a suplex. Hijikata was fired up and had one of his better outings ever. Him and Ishikawa mauling each other was some prime BattlARTS psycho material going on. At one point Hijikat went for mount and Ishikawa just punched him in the jaw like it was bare knuckle MMA. Hijikata also nearly dislocated Murakamis arm with a nasty flash armbar. Finish saw Ishikawa just obliterating him with possibly the stiffest enzuigiri I‘ve ever seen. Another pretty great BattlARTS tag. 

 

Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Kazunari Murakami, BattlARTS 11/9/1999 

Murakamis influence is felt strongly here. He wasn‘t yet the mugging demon, but he was morphing into it, and he brought a hell of a lot of fire. The opening minutes were just a wild old fight. You know things are heated when even Yone is bringing it! Murakami was the focus, but Ikeda came in and reminded everyone who he is by having an insanely violent exchange with Ishikawa. I love Murakami busting out the judo throws. He was a worthy stand in for Ono as Ikedas gloved partner. It builds to a pretty extended an excellent finishing run. Highlights include some sickening muscle busters and Ikeda nearly putting Yones lights out with a chokehold. Yone seemed to be seeing stars following that. Great finish. This went 19 minutes, flew by and was just another great BattlARTS tag. 

Kazunari Murakami & Naoyuki Taira vs. Carl Greco & Yuki Ishikawa, BattlARTS 9/20/2000 

I think this is the first match where it becomes apparent just how much contempt Murakami has for Ishikawa. The match was a really good mix of straight shootstyle exchanges between Taira and Greco and wild brawling between Murakami and Ishikawa. Man, is Murakami just the greatest "aggressive wild offense" wrestler ever? Just wreaking havoc with kicks and punches on his opponents. The spill into the crowd followed by the intense faceoff was just great. Murakami is so aggressive that when they spill to the floor it actually feels like a really dangerous moment. Taira is really fun here throwing both fancy kick variations and hitting the mat. He and Greco have great chemistry. I dug the finish as it was just a series of intense mat exchanges before Greco was able to clamp on one of his special holds. They tease Murakami making the save, but he is too busy with Ishikawa to bother. Great pull apart post match. I imagine this stuff had people in 2000 salivating at the thought of a Murakami/Ishikawa singles match. 

 Kazunari Murakami & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Carl Greco, BattlARTS 10/1/2000 

 This is really a lead in to the Murakami/Ishikawa singles, and what a lead in! Murakami is the Murakami we all know here. Match is all about wild assaults, evil glares, and some wrestling. Him and Ishikawa may be among the most exciting matchups in puro history. I like how Ishikawa didn‘t even wait for Murakami to ambush him and just went at him immediately. Murakamis wild striking looks great. Also, Carl Greco was really great, but you already knew that. The brief minute of grappling he and Murakami did was awesome. Nagai is solid here but thankfully Murakami hating Ishikawas guts is the focus. More post match going at each other, as it should be!

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #10

 

MIKAMI, Super Uchu Power, Tomohiko Hashimoto & Tanomusaku Toba vs Shoichi Ichinomiya, Tomohiro Ishii, GENTARO & YOSHIYA (DDT 10/30/01, Elimination Match) - FUN

This was an Elimination match which kind of showcased the amount of WWF fandom that was going on in DDT. Toba was only in this for a short time, but he looked damn great potatoeing dudes as usual. He also took some big ragdoll bumps during his FIP section. Tomohiro Ishii was kind of working like a regular heel wrestler here, which was a bit underwhelming considering how awesome he was when he was a stiff psycho during this time period, but there was a great moment where Toba woke him up and he started throwing big damn potatoes. The non-Toba portions were good but never reached those early violent heights again. It builds to a WWF style finishing run with Shoichi Ichimiya doing heel run ins, Mikami overcoming a 2 on 1 scenario, all the heels attacking with Stone Cold Uchu Power running in to lay everyone out only for a sudden heel turn to happen. I liked GENTARO a lot in this, such a cool unique wrestler in his early days with his blend of athleticism and WWF New Generation era worship, and MIKAMIs athleticism is also really fun, but I thought it got a little silly down the stretch. Still, someone who’s really into WWF Elimination Matches will probably dig this a lot.

 



Tanomusaku Toba vs. Futoshi Miwa (DDT 5/29/2004) - FUN


Futoshi Miwa is one of those DDT-style wrestlers with a fat nerdy kid gimmick. This was a shockingly decent match, mostly because Miwa knew how to wrestle like a fat kid, and Toba was beating this nerd pretty hard. Initially Miwa would act smug as Tobas kicks were bouncing off of his blubber, so Toba just brutalized him in the corner with punches. It looked like the ref was gonna stop the match but Miwa came back with a triumphant run of fatboy offense, just burying poor Toba under his blubber.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/4/2010 - GREAT

This was way better. Short and to the point. MIKAMI tries to rush Toba and runs right into a big right hand. After that MIKAMI is eating shit until he is able to spin kick Toba in the face. MIKAMI looks really good here. He doesn’t do any kickboxing, but he has good matwork, highspots landing with a thud. And Toba always comes back punching or kicking him really hard. Apparently this was Tobas return match and he does feel slightly rusty, uncharacteristically whiffing on an axe kick. I hope I can find a match between these two in their peak period.

Tanomusaku Toba & Nihao vs. Takashi Sasaki & Asian Cougar (DDT 11/27/1999) - EPIC

Another excellent match from the DDT crew. Nihao looked very good here. It’s weird that you have to scour the earth for Nihao footage. The boy could go and easily would’ve been a great addition to the BattlARTS undercard scene. Good on the mat, cool suplexes, and perfectly able to engage in a stiff battle. He controlled the early parts of this while Toba would occasionally enter the ring to nail someone with unpredictable kicks and punches. I also really enjoyed Asian Cougar in this. He may seem like a spot monkey who just runs through his shit, but all of his spots where very well timed here and he knew how to fly into the scenery to crush someone at all the right moments. The match also had a great dive sequence. Toba is such a great addition to a hybrid junior tag like this. His springboard kick to the face is so reckless and awesome. The finish is between him and Sasaki and another great entry in their kickass rivalry.

 

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT


Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #10

 Takeshi Ono vs. White Moriyama, FUTEN 1/30/2011 - EPIC

I loved this, a real testament to the greatness of Ono. This was Moriyamas (initial) retirement and while he has never shown much, he was game to engage in a FUTEN level war. Normally you‘d associate retirement matches with feel good moments and the retiree getting their shit in, but that wasn‘t the case here as Ono was incredibly vicious throughout and just trying to turn Moriyama into a pulp. Just a super competitive match even outside the violence, really dug the opening grappling with Ono stuffing Moriyamas takedown attempts and doing some excellent guardwork. Onos relentlesness however may have been at its peak here as he caught Moriyama with a nasty stomp during a scramble in the ropes and then just demolished him with sick punches and kicks and ungodly knees. Ending run felt shockingly epic for a Moriyama match as he uncorked some gnarly head spiking suplexes while maintaining a sense of struggle, Moriyama getting a bloody nose and trying not to get punched out, refusing to die on his sword while getting his face perforated by Onos kicks etc. It works because of how bad Ono was stomping Moriyama earlier, that Moriyama reaching deep and trying to hang on actually feels epic. Strong contender for the greatest retirement match I've ever seen, and its all Ono.


Takeshi Ono & Junji.com vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Tiger Mask IV, BattlARTS 2/14/1999 - FUN


Fun match which may have been BattlARTS hybrid style at its most experimental. These guys were going back and forth from working lucharesu exchanges to shootstyle mat scrambles. Hidaka and Tiger Mask IV tore it up. Ono looked great too, but he spent too much time on the apron. When he was in the ring he went from kicking and punching people really hard, to working cool submissions, to stooging like an expert rudo. Junji was in most of the time and he is the weakest guy in the match, although still decent when he wasn’t hitting sloppy dropkicks. Cool match which felt hard fought, but I wanted more Ono content.


Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. junji.com & Ricky Banderas, BattlARTS 4/26/1999 - FUN

We only got about 5 minutes of this, which is too bad because it looked like a really good match. Junji cleaning house was fun, and Orihara and Ono are real fuckers beating the piss out of him. Banderas seems really out of place in this but does fine dropping some bombs. Finish is spectacular with Ono hitting a spider german, Orihara moonsaulting over him before Ono dives outside and Orihara gets the win with an abdominal stretch of all things. Tonpachi Machine Guns rule, man.

 

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

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