Carlos Amano 7 Match Gauntlet

     Carlos Amano vs Dynamite Kansai, GAEA 2/29/2004

I’m a fan of these two, so a match between them could never disappoint me – even that said, I thought this was really great, pretty much the perfect underdog vs monster undercard match with both of them bringing their unique styles to the table. Opening grapple was effective as you immediately had Kansai going for more power-based holds with Amano trying to lock in a shoot submission. As soon as Kansai started throwing kicks she started to look like a cat playing with her food. I also loved her use of the iron claw slam as it establishes that she can always snatch an opponent. In addition to the violent kicks there were also some pretty hard feeling slams with Amano getting rag dolled. Amano was pretty freaking godly here trying to take down a monster as basically everything she did was nifty shootstyle submission counters and several really well timed, really violent shoot headbutts. Her running face first into a Kansai kick was also pretty awe inspiring. Great match, clocking in at just a bit over 10 minutes but every second was worthwhile.

Carlos Amano vs. Aja Kong, GAEA 4/4/2004

Hem, let’s see… it’s Carlos vs. Aja. In Korakuen Hall. No filler, any move could be a finish type work. Of course this is great. Aja is good as usual being an unfuckwithable brickwall and crushing Amano with her superior size and hard hitting, though Amano is pretty much the one who raises this from a somewhat rote (but good) Aja performance to the next level. She comes up with all kinds of cool ways to stop Aja, mostly by trying to crack her skull with her own hard head. Lot of fun to be had just from Amano having so many different ways to smash her head into Aja, even cracking Ajas hand when she goes for the Uraken because Carlos skull is so damn hard, and there are a bunch of great moments in which Aja smacks her down like a fly. I love Carlos fire here, nobody has been so confident and spunky just to get swatted down. I’m not sure which is better – this or vs Kansai – but both matches were pretty different considering they had a similar set up with Carlos taking on a bigger powerhouse – but both were pretty great.

Carlos Amano vs Ayako Hamada, GAEA 12/14

More cool GAEA sprint action. This one’s from a one night tournament and for that I think it does a really nice job bringing lots to the table while still leaving something for the later round matches. We get some cool grappling that kind of forces Ayako to go back to her ARSION roots in testing herself against a slick grappler that is trying to armbar her. Ayako quickly goes to her kick variations that look insanely sharp – boy do I miss wrestlers actually having devastating looking worked kicks and cool ways to hit their worked kicks – the match seems to go to an early finish but Carlos keeps finding ways to go for the ankle lock. It culminates in Amano catching another kick and headbutting away at Ayakos knee, a really nice little bit of a continuous story. I really wish we had a bigger match between these two at their peak, talk about missed potential because the taste we got here was pretty sweet.

Carlos Amano vs Chigusa Nagayo, GAEA 6/29/2003

Carlos throws the god damn kitchen sink at Chigusa. There’s a neat moment early where Amano goes for a suicide dive, Nagayo sidestepping, and Amano sort of catching herself halfway in the ropes and then eating a hard european uppercut from Chiggy. But Carlos is a ball of fiery energy that won’t be contained. She keeps barraging Chigusa with elbows and her signature headbutts. Just when she’s raining forearms on Chigusa and I’m thinking “She looks like she’s about to bite her damn face off” Amanos headbutts start drawing hardway blood and Carlos starts biting the cut. Awesome. That’s the kind of ruggedness GAEA has along with the slick wrestling that made it pretty great. And Chigusa does hit her with the hardest god damn kick you’ve ever seen to come back. I wasn’t quite in love with Chigusa just kind of beating Carlos. Carlos does get to no sell a powerbomb but one lariat later she’s toast. It felt like a typical Chigusa thing, always keen to squish someone like this, even knowing that Carlos would go 18 minutes against Lioness Asuka next. Carlos looked so fantastic up to that point that it made me sad she was jobbing like this.

Carlos Amano vs Devil Masami, GAEA 6/14/2003

Devil Masami was embracing the Undertaker-isms lots around this time, so there were creepy glares and superhuman displays of strength in this. The match had a lot of great ideas and devastating offense, but it was kind of marred by both of them constantly popping up and no-selling everything. Also thought Masami spent a bit too much time lying in Amanos submissions, though she looked good otherwise. After spending like half the match surviving Carlos’ fully cranked armbars Masami takes the win with a basic figure 4 necklock. Shit just doesn’t make sense sometimes.

Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA 5/25/2003

Very 2003 Mayumi Ozaki style match, so that means KAORU and Police interfer a bunch, there’s blood, weapons, lots of odd complexity. If you can get past all the shenanigans there’s some really sweet wrestling here, Ozaki looks great smacking Amano and she has a fun ragdoll-ish way of hitting jumping kicks, while Amanos slick submission counters look great. At one point Amano was just this juggernaut cracking Ozaki with one headbutt after another, landing a sick Honda-ish deadlift german and then going to eat her forehead, it was awe inspiring. She knew she was in a chaotic brawl and she had to work this like Kintaro Oki or Bobo Brazil, downtune the fancies and instead go to crush skulls. I do wish the shenanigans had been tuned back here or there but for this kind of chaotic attitude era style match it’s really good.

Carlos Amano vs Chikayo Nagashima, GAEA 4/6/2003

Fuck did this rule. We’ve seen Amano against a gauntlet of old time veterans, playing underdog to monsters. Now she gets to face a peer that she can go toe to toe with, and they really use the chance to cook up something good. These two could easily just hit spots and please the crowds but they went far beyond that. This was a match that really felt like it was being crafted as it went. Lots of really cool wrestling and struggle early on, Nagashima hangs on to a headlock, Amano takes her over with a beautiful hip toss from there. Then Nagashima does this cool bit where she refuses to be moved, there’s also a bit with Nagashima working guard and doing crazy legs and hitting Amano with a nasty upkick, to which Amano responds by jumping on her and raining some angry strikes. Just really cool, creative wrestling. Later we get another moment where Nagashima goes for an upkick but Amano is wiser and they reset into a really intense lock up. There’s a great bit on the ramp that’s as well done as any ramp bit I can remember, really putting maximum struggle into a potential suplex on the ramp. Match had great grappling and some insanely nasty offense, Nagashimas double stomps and Amanos headbutts being hellish, Nagashima at one point just punching her straight in the face, but still keeping the nifty technical stuff important. Great shit, the kinda match that can not be replicated, they were both totally in their own world here and killed it.

Eternal GAEA

     Chigusa Nagayo vs Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA 12/9/2001

You know I should just sit down and watch GAEA all day long. This was a chaotic brawl with an insanely gory bladejob from Chigusa, so just what you expect. There’s comical amounts of outside interference from Police and KAORU, chairs are thrown, staffs broken, and Chiggy hits a full on Terry Funk style punch combo to comeback. Chigusa has the unique ability to make even mundane submissions like a sleeper or abdominal stretch look dangerous and they do get a ton of mileage out of that here, as of course Chigusa can drop Ozaki with some mad bombs but the focus was mostly on Nagayo doing nifty submission counters and trying to squeeze out a submission. Ozakis backhands and open hands looked good. Yes yes, they may overdo it a little on the outside interference and I maybe would’ve liked a moment where Chigusa goes full Stone Cold and beats the hell out of everyone, but what we got was pretty nifty, and felt unique, like a joshi take on a WWF Attitude Era brawl mixed with Villano III/Atlantis and a dose of Inokiism.

Ran YuYu & Toshie Uematsu vs Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada, GAEA 11/30/2003

Incredibly neat match where they basically packed as many nifty moments and transitions into a short match as they could. Nagayo has a bad leg and YuYu and Uematsu are like terriers trying to due further damage. An angry Chigusa would in turn try to snap their legs with some really fast dragon screws. There was also some brutality thanks to Yamada and YuYu, mostly. Uematsu and Ran are so mean here that it seems Uematsu busts out a foreign object, and YuYu keeps trying to strangle Yamada and throwing the refee around, which made for some unusual intensity. After the match Chigusa hits a downright criminal kick to YuYus face. A match where every second was interesting and nothing felt by the numbers. GAEA was wild.

Sakura Hirota & Carlos Amano vs Ayako Hamada & Ran YuYu, GAEA 10/25/2003

Pretty much the Sakura Hirota show. She was on fire here. Mind you, it was comedic, but the match still felt like competitive pro wrestling, and the jokes were funny, creative and displayed considerable skill especially the little lucha routine she did with Ayako, so it was fine by me. Basically Hirotas thing is that she’s a useless idiot, but she keeps on trying despite her failures and she is totally capable of putting someone down for the 3 with a roll up if she just gets things right, so that’s compelling. There’s like a 9 minute stretch or so in this that’s almost all Hirota antics and it’s exhilarating. When Amano is in there’s some pretty damn good straight up wrestling too. It all builds to a really good and quite intricate finishing stretch with Amano hitting flash armbars and Hirota upsetting people with her unique ways. Pretty damn fun and unique match that never missed a beat.

Mayumi Ozaki vs Ai Fujita, GAEA 4/4/2004

Ai Fujita in GAEA?! She was a really fun wrestler. Anyone who can do lucha exchanges and look athletic, bust out slick submissions and shoot punch people in the face has some real talent in my book. It’s a good showing from Ozaki too. Not everything she did landed perfectly but her palm strikes and backfists were pretty fun, really catching Fujita to the mush. She also busted out a cool rolling leglock. Match was going fun but really kicked into next gear once Fujita started punching Ozaki in the face. Her punch combo may be one of my favourite ever in wrestling, it was Takeshi Ono level. Match also had the GAEA-typical odd touches nifty moments. Good stuff, bit unfortunate Fujita retired just shortly after this, though I guess the joshi scene didn’t hold much more for types like her at this point.

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada, GAEA 4/10/2004

Tons of fun, even for a tag that’s kind of on a smaller show. Early goings were basic but engaging, as they put a ton of struggle and vigor even into things as basic as a test of strength or struggling over a top wristlock, and with the people involved there’s always the factor that someone might get kicked really hard. Yamada in her later days may be physically over the hill but I always find her interesting to watch. This stuff rules not because it's hard hitting (it is) but also because they display lots of creativity. Things kick up a notch when Satomura started getting into kick battles with Kansai and Yamada. You know these 3 are GOATs and they are breathtaking to watch even compared to GOATs, every thing hitting snug and they have a bunch of different interesting ways to land their kicks and strikes. Especially dug Satomuras out of nowhere mule kick from the corner. The finishing run is Kansai vs Nagashima and it’s more about Nagashima trying to pull off a tricky pin combination to take down the juggernaut but it’s also pretty great. Kansai is so good even late in her career, her strikes land hard and she knows exactly how to be a monster, these two have a cool dynamic together like a more hard hitting Rey/Psicosis.

Shinya Hashimoto in ZERO1

   

Shinya Hashimoto vs Hirotaka Yokoi, Z1 6/5/2003

This was pretty freaking awesome. It’s Hashimoto vs an aggressive hard hitting shooter in a Korakuen Hall main event, so that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise… still, this a gem. Opening establishes the story of the match nicely as Yokoi came at Hashimoto with a barrage of wild punches but get knocked back by a karate chop. Hashimoto was a total killer here, basically every single thing he did was awesome. Cutting through Yokoi with extremely well timed strikes, trying to break his leg with punches, catching him with a Fujiwaraish leg hook… really had the feel of a wily veteran putting a faster younger fighter through the wringer using experience. So Hashimoto is not just a monster, he is an intelligent monster. Even basic things like a kneedrop looked insanely violent. Yokoi was swinging his fists fast and hard at Hash but kept getting caught by Hashimotos counter kicks and occasionally a shoot heabdutt to the face. At the same time, it seemed Yokoi could beat Hashimoto anytime if he just punched him hard enough or locked in a submission. As such the whole match was intense. Another chapter in the book of Why Shinya Hashimoto is the Greatest Wrestler of All Time.

Shinya Hashimoto & Kohei Sato vs Katsuhiko Ogasawara & Akio Kobayashi, Z1 3/27/2003

Fuck yeah Pro Wrestling vs Karate! Ogasawara breaks a baseball bat with a spin kick before the match to establish dominance. This is really the dream match of every 8 year old kid who loves pro wrestling and karate (now you can guess what I was like at 8). Just 4 men leveling gritty beatdowns on each other for 13 minutes with hardly a breather. The first Hashimoto vs Ogasawara exchange is so awesome as you really get the feeling that Ogasawara was pushing Hashimoto to break out faster and more agile strikes than he usually does. It’s rare Hashimoto faces someone who matches him when it comes to killer strikes but fuck Ogasawara was destroying people here. He looked insanely precise and killer here just stabbing through people with his axe kicks and piercing gut punches. And Hashimoto would always time his strikes and put people down with a big swing. Kobayashi feels very sleazy with his oily hair and colour mismatched taped hands. You look at him and you immediately want to see Hashimoto stomping his guts out and and that’s pretty much what happens. Kohei Sato is kind of the red headed step child here – he’s outmatched against the striking expert. When Hashimoto tags him in, Sato would gleefully take the chance to lay some hard kicks into an exposed Ogasawara. Later we see him going for a running move only to crotch himself in the ropes like a goof ball. One big Ogasawara punch to the gut sent Kohei crawling to the floor clutching himself like he just got his intestines rearranged. Though to his credit Sato fights hard dropping karatekas with some hard suplexes that looked like they had minimal cooperation. It all builds to Ogasawara taking a huge beatdown as Hashimoto just decides to punch him in the face until he starts bleeding. That is actually what happens – Hashimoto nails his signature double stomp, landing on Ogasawara like a fat cartoon dog would land on Tom from Tom & Jerry, then taking a look at Ogasawara and deciding he wants this old man to bleed, and a couple measured knuckle punches to Ogasawaras face later he is indeed covered in blood. The finish is Sato putting the pressure on a seemingly dead Ogasawara only to get knocked out by a lucky hit like the goofball that he is and then crawling all over the referee in confusion. It’s a sudden ending but it makes sense given the build, Ogasawara can just KO anyone with one precise blow. I would’ve hoped this would set up some kind of epic Hashimoto/Ogasawara bloodfeud but instead they only tagged together for the rest of the year because japanese wrestling is like that. I wrote a lot of words about this one but to sum it up they hit each other with lots of really hard punches and kicks and it was great.

Shinya Hashimoto vs Shinjiro Otani, Z1 12/24/2003

I don’t think I’ve seen this match before, and it’s not something that’s brought up much, which is a bit odd because it’s two of the greatest Japanese wrestlers stiffing the daylights out of each other in a big match. Undoubtedly the action here was simplistic, but rather great. These guys really know how to get the most out of everything. During the opening grappling, which was classic New Japan style, simple but believable, they really made basic things like going for an armbar feel meaningful and putting some grit and struggle into it. Of course, Hashimoto is this really towering presence and everyone is thinking if Otani can somehow overcome the king. Everybody knows Otani will probably not tap out to a kimura from Hashimoto 3 minutes into the match but just the way Hashimoto would really crank would let everyone know that he was putting Otani in trouble. Otani knows this so he goes and slaps the shit out of Hashimoto. They stiff the hell out of each other, spirited Otani gets the advantage, he facewashes Hashimoto, and to top it off puts a kimura on Hashimoto for some nice mirroring. Hashimoto would in turn increase the viciousness again, kicking Otani all over the ring, until Otani is the one crumbled in the corner. Otani stopping Hashimotos beastly onslaught with a messy headbutt to the shoulder is so great because it’s simple, believable and Hashimotos selling immediately lets you know that he’s in trouble. Not just because he’s in pain and screaming, but also because he stops using the arm and instead opts for his spinning legsweep in a great spot. This is why Hashimotos just the fucking best, whole match was done in a fairly simple fashion but just oozing with aura and everything meaning something. I could see some people being unhappy with the finish but I thought it was just fine since I am tired of 2.9 ending runs anyways. In a way that would have gone against the story they were telling. Tall that and they absolutely stiffed the daylights out of each other, goodness gracious.

Shinya Hashimoto vs Alexander Otsuka, Z1 7/13/2001

This was kinda like the pro wrestling version of those PRIDE fights with an insane size mismatch. We don’t really think of Otsuka as ‘small’ because usually he works like he’s such a beast, but he does look quite small next to Hashimoto here. This is close to a squash but it’s memorable. Basically Otsuka tries to get something in on Hashimoto and just gets mauled. Hashimoto would shrug off Otsukas early attempts at takedowns and then proceed to try and pulverize him with vicious kicks. Just destroying his shoulders and arms with bone breaking kicks and karate chops. Otsuka looks really tough not backing down against the beast and he gets a few cool hope spots but is quickly destroyed. Highlight was clearly Hashimotos gritty crowbar shoulderblock that blew Otsuka away, and the finishing submission which looked like a killing. Still you want it to be a bit more epic considering it’s Hashimoto vs Alexander freaking Otsuka but sometimes you can’t have it all.

Back to GAEA

 

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Ran Yu yu & Ayako Hamada, GAEA 10/13/2003

Not as good as the August tag with all the youngguns, but still pretty damn good pro wrestling. After a good opening exchange from Satomura and Hamada, Nagashima and Ran kinda flub something and Nagashima puts the pointless Figure 4 of doom on Ran. The match gets back on track fast though when Ran starts beating the shit out of Nagashima. Nagashimas headscissors and ranas give a different vibe to everyone else, some of her stuff looked a little clunky but its fun, and I liked when Ayako just chucked her to the mat like a piece of trash. Match gets awesome really quickly again when Satomura tags back in and everybody just starts teeing off on each other. Satomura vs Ran is especially great, just two badass wrestlers who hit like a truck squaring off. Rans elbows once again ruled and there were a handful of cool experimental moments. Really liked how there was a sense of going for the kill constantly, all killer no filler, and the finish is freaking sweet.

No Rules Streetfight Handicap Match: Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU & Takako Inoue, GAEA 10/13/2003

No Rules Streetight, yeah! Takako had done a run in on a previous show, costing the Crush Gals a win with her goofy cattle prod. They had all kinds of props for this – barbedwire boards, a ladder, various weapons and that damn cattle prod, and they really got the most mileage out of it all. This could easily have been a total geek show if it was just a bunch of deathmatch guys but these are all talented enough to get serious drama out of everything. Chigusa in 2003 is so good that she makes even something like tugging on a chain compelling, and of course her crowd connection is just unreal. Asuka is good as you need a sidekick to be, being stoic, dropping bombs, spin kicking people in the head, bringing out her goofy tribal design table that she really likes. Right at the go Inoue - who's in a Playboy shirt - has her cattle prod but gets headkicked into dropping it. Later she ends up getting it back but seems to shock herself somehow when she touches the barbedwire. Awesome. And these legends are all not afraid to roll around in the barbedwire. Frantic pace, super heat, lots of chaos and fun unique spots and drama, all leading to a satisfying ending where they all get bowled into the wire, GAEA was on a roll with these crazy spectacle brawls in 2003.

Dynamite Kansai vs Chikayo Nagashima, GAEA 10/24/2003

If I had to name a perfect big vs little sprint, I think this would be pretty close to it. Tremendous match which delivered hard all the way through. The more I watch late career Dynamite Kansai, the more I appreciate her. She is clearly marred by her health, but still totally works as a monster and can still pull off great stuff. Lot of great cat and mouse chases here with Nagashima being like an airplane trying to take down King Kong. Nagashimas offense being a mix of lucha rollups and really violent double stomps was pretty perfect. Of course, Kansai still has those violent kicks and can drop bombs, but she uses everything sparringly, which makes her one of the smarter wrestlers around IMO. A few mind blowing counters here especially the finish. Just a great 10 minute match.

Toshiyo Yamada vs KAORU, GAEA 10/25/2003

Frantic brawl with a lot of raw chaotic energy. This was all action, but they weren’t just doing moves, they were constantly creating moments, so it was intrigueing all the way through. Right away KAORU starts brawling. She goes for a moonsault off the top to the floor, missing but landing on her feet, which is pretty crazy. Yamada ends up kicking the guardrail, and there’s a lot of hard banging on metal in this match. KAORU proceeds to clobber her knee with a steel chair. Ozaki is also at ringside, interferring in a few ways including just tossing a steel chain at Yamada here and there. It could get grating but it doesn’t and I appreciate the referee for not counting a pin after Ozaki had just done a blatant run in to hit a 3D with KAORU in Yamada. Yamadas selling of the leg is just fine – acknowleding that damage had been done, limping a little, but not going too over the top with it and just working her way back into the match and moving on. She starts kicking the shit out of KAORU and there’s real heat here and it’s great. They just keep going relentlessly, and keep creating moments. KAORUs athleticism is really good, I also liked how she pretended that her bad knee gave out, and she has a lot of cool ways to get out of Yamadas finisher. Yamada still has badass kicks in 2003 and shows fire here. Selling in the last minutes wasn’t super important but I thought for this kind of hit and run brawl it works. Good stuff, and these two seem underappreciated.

In the beginning God created heaven and GAEA

Meiko Satomura vs Ran Yu Yu, GAEA 9/15/2003

Once again GAEAism delivers the goods. Ran Yu Yu is one of my favourites of all time, Satomura is obviously one of the greatest too, I had no idea this total dream match was filmed or that it even happened, and here GAEAism delivers it to us, for free. It’s not what we deserve but what we sorely need. This is not in Korakuen Hall, so the the match is not uber-heated or anything like that, but it’s exciting. Both these two are strong on the mat and can deliver some hellish strikes, so at baseline it will be a good match, and this had a few cool flourishes to elevate to the extra level. Really enjoyed the early build here, I wasn’t sure at their rankings at this point since Meiko has gone toe to toe with the biggest names in the company and Yu Yu is an outsider, but Yu Yu does a nice job working overdog and outclassing Meiko, until she takes a nasty spill which allows Meiko to capitalize and attack her weak spot. I enjoyed the little section where Meiko landed awkwardly on a backdrop and Yu Yu tried to capitalize locking in some cool spinning leglocks. There’s a pretty great palm strike exchange and some cool bits of dodging and outstriking. Rans selling was really good and her offense is so classy and cool, I loved her comeback with the nasty strangle into the perfect setup for her jumping enzuigir, and young Meiko while kinda overzealous and landing awkwardly on a few of her spots is a ton of fun as always. Really good match, says a lot how good this was considering they put it on for a quite crowd on a tour spot.

Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka & Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU & POLICE, GAEA 9/15/2003

An excellent, heated, exciting, blood-drenched match that is largely built around Policeman getting his scrawny ass kicked. Stone Cold Chigusa once again rules hard in this punching Police in his ratty face. The match is great because they stay in the ring, and they create just the right amount of chaos but also a lot of fast paced, cool exchanges thanks to KAORU, Oz and Kansai. Of course Kansai/Nagayo/Asuka is one might trio of asskickers and they all kick ass a lot in this. There’s also blood, biting, lots of clunky weapon hits with chairs and tables etc without over indulging. A few cool ECW style chair spots as well. And well the bits where Policeman gets his is some of the best comeuppance you’ll see in a wrestling match, I can’t overexaggerate how good this was. I mean, Kaoru getting her head shoved into POLICEs crotch got one of the biggest pops of the match, and if that isn’t pro wrestling done right I don’t know what is.

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Devil Masami & Aja Kong, GAEA 9/23/2003

It’s JIP : ( Doing that to a 2003 GAEA Korakuen Hall main event feels almost criminal. What we get is really good, though. Masami was questionable at this point but she could still engage in some great big vs little exchanges, especially against the ultra talented likes of Nagashima and Satomura. And the Satomura vs Aja finishing run was just tremendous stuff again. 2003 GAEA really feels peak level with creativity, fast pace, high effort and heat that the matches have going on, without getting too cute, there’s a lot of cool shit but everything still feels scrappy. Nagashima had also gotten quite great at this point with her cool agility and destroying people with those crazy rolling double stomps she’d do. Sick stuff, although some annoying no-selling was there.

Meiko Satomura vs Toshie Uematsu, GAEA 10/5/2003

A lot of wildly good shit juxtaposed in a frantic and sometimes overdone way, GAEA style. For example, Uematsu hit a big dive right into a kick from Meiko, which is barely acknowledged seconds later. Some silliness ensues with Uematsu teasing blowing a spitwave at the audience, then they both take turns throwing a bucket back and forth. Uematsu, whose spiked hair may have been at peak level here, hits a great dropkick and throws some sick punches. There are a few great submissions and counters and Satomura throws some great combos of her own. Worth checking out for the cool shit they do, although the layout could’ve been improved.

Toshie Uematsu vs Devil Masami, GAEA 10/13/2003

Way too fun. I’ll admit: This is almost a comedy match, and will probably mainly appeal to people who are already fans of the too. That said, I thought this was a great big vs little match that had a ton of uniqueness going for it. Masami tends to overdo her ‘invisible monster’ act and Uematsu while insanely talented didn’t quite seem to have it all together at this point. Against each other, I think they reeled each other in just about perfectly. Masami does an almost Fujiwara-ish amount of carny jokes and not taking Uematsu seriously here, and it pays dividends for the story of the match. Lots of unique spots, Uematsus stuff looks great, Masami is great shutting her down and doing all those ‘I’m a comically unstoppable force’ spots, the hair throw into the guardrail being the perfect example. Builds pretty well thanks to Uematsus intense selling. It works really well and makes for a super entertaining match. Ridiculous finish. Pretty great overall if you ask me.

GAEAISM continues

 

Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, GAEA 8/17/2003

Another banger upload from GAEAISM, that channel is on a tear. This was just great as you had your high concept chaotic Ozaki brawl that stays in the ring + plenty of vicious kicks from the monster duo of Kansai & Yamada. Kansai especially was amazing here blasting people with brutal kicks and being a menace. Ozakis execution has worsend throughout the years, but she was pretty fun here with her backhands, cool jumping kicks and occasionally just hurling a chain at people. Police gets involved briefly but he gets his ass kicked pretty fast. And KAORU is as precise and on point as always. Badass finish and there were a number of unpredictable moments and everyone going for the kill from the start with nearly no downtime. I especially enjoyed all the work around Kansais splash mountain. 

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Carlos Amano & Ran Yu Yu, GAEA 8/17/2003

All-star match up that delivers. Just a blindingly great match with one awesome exchange after another and a lot of violent strikes, everyone here matches up insanely well. Just the first Satomura vs Ran YuYu is exchange is really intense as they start with a hard-fought lock up and then go into open handed kickboxing exchanges like a PANCRASE fight. I’m used to seeing later years Satomura sticking to her usual stuff, so the more unpredictable younger version is always a blast. Ran Yu Yu was awesome in this and may have been the best woman in the match. She was great with everyone and her elbow smash is one of the most awesome strikes ever. Amano was really coming into full bloom at this point too, really revelling in all her glory with the crazy headbutts and flash armbars and the occasionally cheeky eye rake. Nagashima doesn’t quite stand out as in-your-face spectacular as the other three, but she can go hard and she does have a few sick moments including her forward rolling double stomp that had to be the sickest move in the match. The finishing run is Nagsahima vs Amano and it’s really good nimble high end workrate stuff with relentless suplexes and submissions, some fantastic counters and Amanos reliable hard head. Breathless, exciting stuff, just what you hope for when you see 4 of the most talented wrestler in the world at the time in a match.

 

Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, GAEA 4/14/2002

Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, GAEA 6/2/2002

Early 2000s were an interesting time. Sakura Hirota had started to find her calling as a comedy wrestler, and in this case she had started teaming with Chigusa Nagayo as ECCENTRIC. I am not going to pretend I understand the gimmick fully, but from what I can tell Hirota got really obsessed with WWF Attitude Era catchphrases and this somehow also infected Chigusa and they both started dressing really early 2000s Nu Metal fashionable, hitting bronco busters on people and Nagayo covering for Hirotas oddball tactics and overall ambitiousness. The first match is probably the quintessence of this. Semi-serious match where Hirota is in her full glory, all oddball tactics and antics that sometimes hit and largely backfire. It works because everybody else is treating this as a serious wrestling match, with Ozaki & KAORU being as befuddled by Hirota as everyone else and then walking over to kick her in the face. There’s some quite good wrestling, and all the jokes are extremely well timed and hit. Great comedy match, and culminates in probably the greatest finish ever that left everyone astounded, must see stuff really. However, the 2^nd match might be even greater. Basically here OZ and KAORU make it clear they have no interest in being foils for Hirotas antics, and the match quickly turns from an asskicking into a blood drenched massacre. There’s something about the fact that Hirota is basically a feel good comedy character at this point that makes the sadistic bloody beatdown OZ and KAORU put on her that much more evil, and it really drives the intensity up to the maximum when a bloody Hirota gets fired up and starts kicking ass in return. Really the kind of stuff you can only get in pro wrestling. Nagayo also looked really great here working as the protective big sister stomping mudholes in Policemans ratty ass and launching people around with powerbombs. The moment where she started to shrug off the blows and give people the death stare for hurting Hirota has to be Top 10 in wrestling ever. Ozaki and KAORU are also quite impeccable here with their knack for both bloody beatdowns and nifty cutoffs and transition spots, the intricate finishing run in this match was among the best in this genre. Truely kino stuff, nothing quite like this thanks to the unique character of Sakura Hirota.

Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA 8/30/2002

It’s too bad this is JIP, because the couple minutes we get are really badass. I’m always impressed with how Ozaki is able to put in a beating on a larger opponent, in this case both using the chain and hitting some badass palm strikes. Kansai was a monster as usual here, all face kicks and freakish Splash Mountain setups, the last one with the multiple backbreakers was some Brock Lesnar stuff. Also dug Ozakis odd twisty rollups.

Some Matches from GAEA STORM SIGNAL 7/14/2003

 

Ran Yu Yu vs Toshiyo Yamada, GAEA 7/14/2003

Really uniquely great under 10 minute match. The problem with joshi is that often the execution of moves is too smooth and things start to feel like an exhibition of moves. This match was so so far away from smoothness and clean execution. Almost everything here was a gritty struggle, a car wreck of reckless strikes and misses, moves are struggled over and awkwardly taken when they hit, and this was never predictable. Ran Yu Yu is one of the most underrated wrestlers in joshi history, all her strikes are such bangers, the absolute monster elbows that she would hit Yamada in this and her awesome out of nowhere leg sweep and jumping enzuigiri, all great, I also loved the weird half-dive through the ropes. Yamada also still fits like a glove in this type match, with this and the Sugar Sato match I’m wondering if she was on an unheralded monster run in the early 2000s. Lot of this felt like a Stan Hansen match which is a very good thing. Check it out if you want to see an ugly fast paced fight.

Carlos Amano vs Lioness Asuka, GAEA 7/14/2003

Hard to watch this and not think Carlos Amano is the coolest wrestler ever. Barefooted, hard headed, and bringing this crazy powerful monkey energy that is really unique. I haven’t been a huge fan of Lioness Asuka in her later years, but I give her full credit as she just went out and had a great match with Carlos here. Asuka provides a serious obstacle for Carlos to overcome, she’s bigger, she’s stiff, she can grapple, and she’s also a megastar. It was really fun watching Carlos try to crack her and get the arm for the tap. Carlos has a million slick ways to get into an armbar and it’s just spectacular show. I also thought the more light hearted moments were really fun and added to the match. Even the obligatory crowd brawl had some good struggle. I was a bit worried when Asuka brought out her goofy early 2000s tribal design signature table but it didn’t hurt the match and it lead to some really painful looking spots. Last couple minutes with Asuka throwing bombs and Amano trying to tap her out with crazy armbar reversals were pretty damn great. This ruled pretty much.

Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada vs Chigusa Nagayo & Aja Kong, GAEA 7/14/2003

Also a really great match, probably even better then you expect it to be. This had the underdog story you expect of Hamada and Satomura stepping up to Aja and Chigusa, but surprisingly, there was a big focus on flash submissions and unpredictable strikes here, with an ‘anything can happen’ layout that made this really exciting cutting edge pro wrestling as Meiko and Ayako threw the kitchen sink at their opponents. I am so used to seeing Meiko as an established veteran badass beating down lower ranked opponents that her performance as the fired up athletic youngsters trying to chop down the heavyweights was exhilarating. Ayako also looks really sharp here, all her offense has such snap, and her match up against Aja is known quality from their ARSION days. Aja isn’t in the match a ton, but she looks great as usual being both an untouchable monster and very vulnerable with her bandaged shoulder. Surprisingly Chigusa was pretty much the best wrestler in this match, she was 100% on here and looked like the queen. Loved all the submissions and her palm strikes were epic. Tons of great moments mostly thanks to Chiggy and Meiko, and the finish was really unique and awesome. Probably the best match on a show packed with great matches.

Digging into a mysterious library of obscure Japanese handheld footage

 
Headhunters vs. Shinichi Nakano & Hirofumi Miura, WYF 8/30/1995
 

The people behind the promotion known was Mutoha have also started putting up various old handhelds on their YouTube channel. Years ago WYF was the first obscure Japanese indy promotion that I fell in love with and I wished to see more of this unique fed, so I am stoked to see this stuff unveiled after decades. And this match was pretty beastly. Headhunters are awesome and extremely underrated. There's nothing like watching two face painted monsters waltz into Korakuen Hall throwing chairs around while March of the S.O.D. blares. This was almost a squash, as Headhunters dominated nearly the entire action. They have great offense so it was cool. Highlights include a brutal powerbomb that almost broke Nakanos neck, and a completely unexpected slow motion German Suplex. I loved the moment where Nakano crawled to his corner trying to make the hot tag only to find his partner was being butchered outside the ring by another Headhunter. It's such a logical thing to happen in a one sided, out of control massacre. Nakano only got in a desperation enzuigiri and some potatoe blows. Miuras brief run on offense was okay but he quickly got destroyed with the moonsault to end all moonsaults. The crowd was super hot for this and lived and died with their WYF heroes. I wish we had gotten to see a bit more of Nakano though it is remarkable that he did not die by that powerbomb. The Headhunters wreaking havoc was absolutely awesome, though.

Masaaki Mochizuki/TARU/Takashi Okamura vs Masakazu Fukuda/Kamikaze/Hiroyoshi Kotsubo WYF 3/20/1997
 

This was the first match between these 6 guys. All their matches are great, and this is in Korakuen Hall and feels especially wild because WYF fans hate the karate guys at this stage, so it feels ultra heated.  Match was pretty much the perfect mix of shootstyle and WAR-esque potatoes/scrappiness with that trademark WYF levels of unpolished, dirty fighting. Early goings were really good as WYF guys kept their opponents grounded in scrappy fashion. Even Kotsubo looked really good as he kept taking downs with explosive shooting takedowns, at one point even leading to both guys tumbling outside and brawling on the floor.  Kamikaze is impeccable in these matches, kicking people in the face, hammering a guy with punches and taunting the karatekas further. Fukuda also looked great - just hurling dudes with suplex that looked insanely forceful, and trying to crush peoples face with dropkicks and stomps. Buko Dojo guys started breaking out their kicks later and it's everything you can ask for. There's a pretty great dive sequence, Mochizuki flying at people with kicks, Buko guys breaking up pins and submissions with nasty kicks etc. Even the Kotsubo vs Taru matchup which is really shit on paper ends up being good. WYF was striking gold with  this feud in 1997, and I'm so happy we get the beginning of the feud, really heated and violent from the get go.

 

Hiroshi Watanabe & Hiroyuki Kondo vs. Crusher Takahashi & Hideya Iso (Bungee Takada Produce 11/6/2003)

Apparently this is from a show produced by Bungee Takada. It's not something I knew about or dreamed that I would see it but it's a strange and cool surprise. We love all these guys when they are old men, and they were still youngish here, so they moved a bit faster and smoother than later. They went 24 minutes without really slowing down, with lots of trying to stay on a guy, and it was a cool match. Lotta matwork, cool submissions and pin combos. Hideya Iso was looking quite unrecognizable here and did some athletic moves including a Kota Ibushi style backflip into a moonsault. Watanabe had a wild beard making him look like a Mad Dog and he was as slick and technically sound as in any other match you'll see him in. The star of the match was Crusher Takahashi, though. The man was on fire doing it all here, throwing really beautiful bridging suplex moves, his amazing Terry Funk punch combo and doing other odd stuff like busting out the Gibson leglock. You can tell he was stoked to be in a long match with a bunch of capable opponents and show off what he can do. It was one of those matches that show off what you can do even while wrestling a rather conservative wrestling style in front of a small audience. Must-watch if you are a fan of Crusher Takahashi, a really solid wrestlers-wrestler type match for everyone else too.

More Joshi

 Mariko Yoshida vs Momoe Nakanishi, AtoZ 11/9/2003

Cool match. I’m surprised it’s not that well known since Nakanishi is generally well liked by joshi fans and Yoshida is well liked by, well, how can anyone not like Yoshida. This was Nakanishis go go style vs Yoshida booting her in the face and punching her and tying her up in submissions. It makes for a cool match because all Nakanishi knows is to go hard and she just keeps flying into the spiders web. Eventually she figures it out by going for chairs and trashing her opponent. Yoshida was really good as always, doing a good job using Nakanishi as a punching bag as well as not letting her get her spots in and giving her just the right hope spots. You know it’s good when there is actual build to Momoes spots. At 13 minute it was just right, too. Very good sprint.

GAMI vs Kumiko Maekawa, AtoZ 5/4/2004

I just love this match up. Maekawa is one of the most high end pro wrestlers you’ve ever seen, she just has some of the most ridiculously sharp kick based offense and does 30 minute matches in her sleep. And GAMI is, well, GAMI. This is just a super fun match built around GAMI annoying Maekawa in her unique ways, tying her up in holds, spraying mist in her face etc. There is one moment where GAMI fakes an injury and they treat it super serious and pause the match just for GAMI to get up and clock Maekawa with a paper fan that Maekawa of course treats like the joke it is. GAMI then uses Maekawas rage to mist her in the face with out even blinking. Maekawa spending the rest of the match with that pissed off look in her green face was gold. GAMIs few big spots (rolling kick landing in Maekawas face, big palm strike) were also spectacular. Now don’t get me wrong if this was 1998 shooter GAMI it would have been next level, but for this kind of neat character clash it was really cool. GAMI~!

Kana vs Tsubasa Kuragaki, JWP 3/31/2013

Very cool match up, I’m surprised this eluded me because both these two are among my favourites. Kana has a reputation for being a bit of a crowbar but there was little striking from her early on and instead she focussed on catching Kuragaki in submissions. Kana using Fujiwara-ish counters to contain the beastly Kuragaki was great. Kuragaki had some nice moments of her own using her power, including hitting an absolutely awesome out of nowhere deadlift suplexes. Second half has more stiff including a few gnarly backfists from Kana and Kuragaki busting out her trademark big offense. I liked that they didn’t overdo it considering this was a midcard match even though they were going well over 10 minutes. They could’ve just gone braindead and hit their spots but instead they told a story and delivered some cool wrestling.

Assorted NEO

 

Kyoko Inoue vs Shinobu Kandori, NEO 4/3/2003

Kyoko was pretty much a clown at this point, but Kandori is so dangerous that she gets a serious match out of her. It's too bad there's not much Kandori footage from this time period because she was still an absolute beast through and through. Initially Kyoko wasn't being serious, so Kandori quickly starts beating her around the ring with awesome headbutts, stomps and palm strikes. Inoue gets serious  and starts giving it back to Kandori with cool out of nowhere crowbar lariats. All of Kandoris submissions still feel dangerous and they are extremely well timed. There was this amazing bit where Inoue tried to put an armbar on Kandori and Kandori reversed out of it, then gave Inoue this scolding bitchslap to teach her a lesson. Inoues reckless powerbombs also work for this kind of match. They worked this in a dingy little club and it's a testament to Kandori that she was able to make this feel like a big fight.

Mima Shimoda vs Azumi Hyuga, NEO 4/9/2003

Shimoda was drifting into irrelevancy at this point, but she could still go when she wanted to, and she was willing it here. Obviously credit goes to Hyuga too who was really pushing her opponent, but Shimoda made the match by adding a healthy dose of violence and pissed-offness to it. Hyuga did her usual stuff, but they made it insanely scrappy with tons of nasty face stomps and kicks. Even the usual stretching portion looked brutal and hate filled as they both tried to bend each other in half. Shimodas offense is great, her axe kicks land flush in Hyugas face and the rolling kicks were amazing. I also loved her just hurling a chair at Hyugas head in frustration. That chair/brawling stuff can often come across as rote in late period LCO matches but here it felt like Shimoda meant it. Hyugas jumping knees were plenty brutal as always and thanks to her the pace never slowed down. Loved her stomping on Shimodas face. It's weird how Hyugas act is kind of predictable but she keeps having great matches. Real sleeper match considering it's dark period joshi, but the sheer hatred makes this.

 

Momoe Nakanishi vs Misae Genki, NEO 8/14/2004

Very fun big vs little match. Genki is often sloppy but does a pretty great job here being a lumbering monster swinging at her faster opponent. Nakanishi was such a talented wrestler, she does a great job trying to outmaneuver her bigger opponent and coming from odd and unexpected angles. She was also quite hard hitting when it came to kicking some ass. Dug all her slick pin combos. Also lots of Genki absolutely ragdolling Nakanishi with suplexes and throws. Finishing run was all kinds of tricked out and fun, Nakanishi always makes things a bit more complex than your standard joshi match. Her suplexes on Genki were also amazing.

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.

Early K-Dojo

 

TAKA Michinoku vs Kengo Mashimo, K-Dojo 8/30/2003

TAKA could have easily done a bog standard rookie beatdown and hit his spots, but instead we get a really cool, uncooperative match where Mashimo largely dominates on the ground and through superior striking with TAKA only getting a few hope spots and desperately going for his jumping kicks and the facelock. Mashimo had yet to truly find himself but he was believable as a Mini Hashimoto already. Really good transition here where Mashimo gets his leg stuck in the ropes and TAKA immediately goes for desperate kicks of his own. Both guys popping up with crazy jumping kicks was really good and just what this kind of ground based fight needed to be more exciting. TAKA also didn’t spare his opponent when he had to throw hands. Really unique match that felt likea gruelling battle.

Teppei Ishizaka vs Sambo Oishi, K-Dojo 8/31/2003

Really fucking good rookie match. The intensity of these guys was just jumping off the screen even when they were doing basic stuff like a lock up. Young Oishi was really damn good constantly going for the leg, and having a bunch of neat ways to attack the leg and take Ishizaka down. Teppei looked great, really sold the fuck out of that legwork and his desperation kimuras were awesome. Some really choice counters and transitions, and both guys keep it simple enough so something like a Samoan Drop looks like a bomb dropping. The submission work had the intensity of a high end 90s Otani match. Great shit, I really need to check out more Ishizaka, and Oishi too.

Teppei Ishizaka vs Shiori Asahi, K-Dojo 8/30/2003

JIP match, but it’s really good in the same way as Ishizaka/Oishi. It’s Asahi’s banana split/abdominal stretch vs Ishizakas kimuras. Ishizaka will also do odd stuff like these graceful floating armbars and standing flip sentons, like a 70s Mighty Inoue/Isamu Teranishi tribute and it’s really. Both guys had a bunch of fun ways to get in and out of their signature submissions, and there were some gnarly strike exchanges including a big FUTEN worthy headbutt exchange. Really good shit from two rookies, where did this kind of intensity go?

Tamon Honda Matches

 

GHC Tag Title Match: Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito vs. Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue, NOAH 1/24/2003

Really good match from Honda & Inoue. Akiyama and Saito were pretty much coasting for the first 20 minutes or so. The beginning was fun with Honda and Inoue immediately trying to choke Akiyama out and deal him some damage. We then get a segment where Honda gets his leg worked over which lead to some fantastic selling. Unfortunately Akiyamas selling of the opening beatdown on him was nowhere near as good. Inoue had his working boots on and gave a spirited underdog performance. Saito and Akiyama did nothing special when they were beating on him, but Inoues act kept things interesting. I loved how Akiyama tried to blow off Inoues hits only to get his eyes raked. When Inoues not raking peoples eyes, he has to hit them like a dozen times just to set up a move because he’s so weak, and that rules. The spot where Inoue was able to put Saito in the torture rack for a heated nearfall was really really nice. We also get some cool spots of Honda and Inoue helping each other out, and Honda killing people with Dead Ends. The focus was on Inoue at the end so we didn’t get any cool Honda counters, but his valiant effort was cool and Akiyama and Saito finally came alive to finish him off with some impressive moves. Good stuff which proves guys like Honda and Inoue could bring it even outside of their more heralded matches.

Tamon Honda & Jun Izumida vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Takuma Sano, NOAH 6/8/2003

4 hard dudes in a match. Everyone was cool here, you had Sano obliterating dudes with solebutts and double stomps, plus Ikeda and Honda having some awesome exchanges. Their brief mat exchange where Honda caught Ikeda in some impossible to escape hold was really damn good and damn do I want more of that stuff. Izumida also had his working boots on, being a hard headed bastard dropping people with chokeslams and STOs. I really liked the finish where Izumida was stuck in an achilles hold trying to survive until the time limit only for Sano to turn him around and tap him with a nasty heel hook.

Tamon Honda vs. Naomichi Marufuji, NOAH 6/11/2004

Marufuji was doing a semi comedic act and scuzzy heel tactics here. It was kind of mid but also made me think that he would have made an effective Anjoh-like heel if he had embraced the bailing and cheap tactics more. There was also a brief distraction where Danshoku Dino came out and got chopped by Kobashi. Kobashi gave him about the most hateful glare I’ve ever seen Kobashi give anyone. All that aside, every single thing Honda did here was awesome. It’s not hard to do a bunch of awesome things in a short match but Honda is special. Just the way he cradled Marufujis boot when Maru tried to kick him was outstanding and something only someone with the head of Honda could do. Another highlight was Honda ragdolling Marufuji when he tried going for the legs. Beautiful beautiful finish. That’s about all there is to say.

The World of World Japan

 

Masahiko Kochi vs. Takashi Uwano, WJ 7/20/2003

This was a black trunks rookie match and a really nice one. I think Kochi has been wrestling since 1994 and Uwano since 1998, so both of them having to be black trunks rookies in WJ is kind of funny, but these two could put on one hell of a match. Really nice arm control stuff early on before they settle into punishing each other. Kochi was awesome here, absolutely lighting up Uwano with stiff kicks, he had this huge spinning wheel kick that felt bigger and cooler than probably anything else on this card. I also loved his big bulldog. Uwano had some great big lanky guy STOs and I loved the build towards the German Suplex and half crab in the last couple minutes. Matches like this really remind you how important slower more measured matches are, really makes you appreciate each basic move and the sense of both guys beating the shit out of each other was there without turning into some kind of exhibition.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Takashi Uwano, WJ 3/1/2003

 

Basic opening match upgraded with insane stiffness, both these guys were just swinging hard at each other. You know Ishii can bring it in a stiff fest, but Uwano looked really good kneeing him in the face and stomping on his head. Uwanos big STO and German Suplex were great once again. Absolutely sick punch-out finish with both guys bleeding hardway from the blows. Sometimes, you want to watch something like this. Hey, why didn't they make Ishii wear black trunks?

Yoji Anjoh vs. Tomohiro Ishii, WJ 3/15/2003

Two guys with odd charisma who are great at wailing on guys, wailing on each other hard. This was a great 8 minutes. Anjoh has a shaven head and goatee here and looks kind of schlubby, but man he could just destroy a guy. A lot of wrestlers struggle to have 2 or 3 good looking hits but Anjoh just does so much different stuff, knees to the face, elbows, punches, fist drops, from so many different angles and it all looks like he’s destroying Ishii. Ishii is of course really game to get hit, bump big and potatoe Anjoh with strikes of his own including flush punching him in the face. The finish was a flash but it looked fucking brutal. I can get that ending may have come quickly, but why have I not heard about this matchup before? Super warm recommendation for this one.

Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Yoji Anjoh, WJ 3/1/2003

Cool match between two old guys who still had a lot in the tank in 2003. Anjohs punches and strikes just look awesome and Yatsu is so fun and spry here, really explosive throws and dropkicks and not afraid to hit Anjoh in the face.. There is some cool arm attack stuff by Anjoh and I loved the finish. I wish some promotion had done more with these two than just give them undercard stuff because their stuff still looked better than almost everyone elses.

Assorted 2003 AJPW

 Yuki Ishikawa & Tomoaki Honma vs. Ryuji Hijikata & Shigeo Okumura, AJPW 2/16/2003

This has to be one of the most criminal examples of clipping I‘ve ever seen of a Japanese match. We get 10 minutes of a 20 minute draw, but what we get is completely awesome. Ishikawa vs. Hijikata was as brutal as you expect, but the Okumura/Honma WAR sections completely blew me away. I should probably check out more Okumura from this time period as he looked awesome mauling Honma with WAR-like slaps and elbows. Okumura was in crush mode and it ruled. Honma kicking him in the back of the neck was the kind of unprofessional violence you want from a random Japanese undercard tag. Where‘s the rest of this, GAORA TV?

 

 Rikiya Fudo & Hideki Hosaka vs. Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi, AJPW 7/19/2003

This is one for the enjoyers of FUDO. Sato and Yokoi have absolutely no heat with the AJPW crowd at this point, but they can throw some fun punches and head kicks, and Fudo is great mauling them. He is way less fat in 2003 than 2022 but he still looks convincing crushing much bigger guys. He was a lot faster too so his lariats and jumping kicks really hit the shooters like a train, just trying to take peoples heads off. Hosaka is average but he doesn't suck and you have to admire how he tried to polish his look for his big AJPW run with some really nice tights, a cool belt and slicked back black hair.

Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi vs. Tomoaki Honma & Kazushi Miyamoto, AJPW 7/19/2003

Tumeric Storm, what a team! Coming into this the ring is already covered in Honmas blood from the previous match, and immediately Honma gets busted again and bleeds like crazy. Talk about loving the taste of your own blood. Yokoi and Sato finally get over with the AJPW fans by being nasty pricks kicking and punching a bloody Honma in the face, and Honma is a really great underdog. Especially loved all the bits where Sato kicked Honma in the skull really hard. Miyamoto is perfectly good as an athletic guy who tags in quick to hit some snappy offense and Honmas underdog performance is impeccable as always.

Nobutaka Araya vs. Arashi, AJPW 7/13/2003

How do you get a good match out of Arashi in 2003? By making it really short, really bloody, and chock full of violent strikes of course! Araya rules so hard here, busting a toolbox over Arashis head and then bleeding like crazy and eating really vicious strikes. Those jaw punches were awesome and sick. Arashi is pretty good as a phlegmatic Tenryu here destroying Araya with brutal punches and face kicks. He even surprised me by almost crushing Arayas face with a crazy fat guy dropkick. If you want to watch two fat ex sumos bleed and destroy each other for 5 minutes check this out.

George King, BattlARTS wrestler

 

George King vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima, BattlARTS 11/13/2002

To be honest with you, I was kind of expecting George King to be an awkward stiff, but he looked pretty good here. Obviously a bit green-ish here and there, but he wasn‘t lost on the mat, he opened with a nice big dropkick popping the crowd, he was willing to hit and get hit, and his suplexes were insane. Kurashima is a really fun bulky shooter and the match was some good big boy shootstyle action. Kurashima looked good trying to contain King with fast takedowns, he also had a crafty legbar reversal, some cool headbutts to the eye and a nice german suplex of his own. Elbow in the face was obviously the highlight and Kurashima also had a really nice german spiking King. This gets the full approval point.

George King & TAKA Michinoku vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Nobuyuki Kurashima, BattlARTS 4/13/2003

This was a BattlARTS tag alright. Give George King a ton of credit here, he knew you have to hit hard and bring it in this kind of match. TAKA was really fun and scrappy, and Ishikawa looked like such a master tearing him apart on the mat. The King/Ishikawa exchanges were a ton of fun as King can do some more complex stuff than you expect, there was this spot where Ishikawa went for a front choke, King lifted him into a powerbomb attempt only for Ishikawa to reverse into a rana, which was seriously dope. Kings WCW US Power offense, with his big dropkick, spinebuster and huge Germans is also really cool and a breath of fresh air in this environment. Once again I will say I don‘t understand why Kurashima did never amount to much in his career, the boy could go on the mat, throw some big damn suplexes and did I mention he was built like an absolute unit? The finish was TAKA vs. Yuki and while it was brief it was really good, with TAKA whipping out his cool head kicks and knee strikes and taking crazy bumps for Ishikawas suplexes. BattlARTS is just so great a random main event like this can be really good and different. So George if you are reading this and happen to have more of this stuff lying around it is much appreciated.

WMF Marvelous Days 7th 12/27/2003

 GENTARO & Yuko Miyamoto vs. Junji Tanaka & Mineo Fujita

Junior opening match! This was JIP and I really would‘ve liked the whole thing. Junji is such a fun technician to throw into a match worked at a fast pace, really mixes it up nicely with all these athletic juniors. GENTARO is just super sharp, and he will also turn around and throw nice punches. Miyamoto was in young lion trunks here and already looking really polished and athletic. He hit a springboard diving headbutt with crazy distance and later almost killed Fujita with a brutal lariat. Fujita also looked good busting out cool flying armbars and triangle chokes. Everything looked good and they never lost a step, this gets the full indy point for these kind of fun little matches.

Yoji Anjoh & Koichiro Kimura & Ricky Fuji vs. Mr. Gannosuke & Chocoball Mukai & GOEMON

What a match up. Pretty fun stuff for the WAR 6 man-like randomness of it all. Anjoh was fun mugging and throwing punches, Kimura was stiff, Fuji and GOEMON did some cool ratboy exchanges together (did either of them ever face Yoshinari Ogawa?), and Mukai was cool trying to stand up to the shooters and putting his weird finishing hold on people. Gannosuke was basically Choshu here, just hard lariats and sharpshooters and it was cool. I was hoping for a Gannosuke vs. Anjoh faceoff but the Anjoh/Mukai finish was also pretty nice. Everything you can ask for from a random undercard 6 man.

MIKAMI & ONRYO vs. Asian Cougar & Tomoya Adachi

Spot after spot, but if you want spots, these guys will deliver pretty much the best you can get. Cougar had switched his stuff up a lot since the 90s, and he still had a bunch of crazy moves out of nowhere. Sleaze lucharesu boy Tomoya Adachi is a cool addition too and he looks good, really liked his reverse wheelbarrow hold which lead to Cougar once again flying in with a leg drop. MIKAMIs athleticism is crazy during this time, his dive looked like he just jumped from the ceiling, he also busts out a huge moonsault elbow drop, and a big swanton bomb from the top of a ladder. Ladder stuff was fun as they didn‘t take too long setting everything up and they pulled everything off. Loved all the Onryo character moments during the finishing stretch. This was a lot of fun.

GARUDA vs. Tsubasa

Garuda already had suffered a bad neck injury at this point that would cut off his career, but for a guy with a neck injury, he was pretty good in this. Very solid match. Tsubasa showed a lot of spunk, bitchslapping Garuda, taking him out with a spectacular dive, hitting a flip senton and then kicking Garuda in the face etc. He even targeted Garudas bad neck. Pretty good match although it suffered a bit from too many junior matches on this card.

Dick Togo & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Kazuya Yuasa & Seiji Ikeda

Solid if a bit by the numbers heel performance by Togo & Kuroda, cutting off the two young lions. Ikeda was this pudgy guy that they were trying to turn into something, and he had pretty good fire. Kurodas stuff doesn‘t annoy me as much as usual because he is supposed to be an annoying heel here, and he even sets up stuff for Togo in nice ways here and there. Togo was the best guy in the match getting fire out of these schlubby youngsters and hitting really high end sentons. Given a bit more tenure Togo could‘ve done the impossible and amde Kuroda matches watchable on a regular basis. Young guys were kinda bland so it doesn‘t amount to anything more than a solid formula match.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Mammoth Sasaki

This is what you buy the show for. Tenryu lowers himself to filthy WMF to teach their boy Mammoth a leason. I think I liked this more than Tenryu/Kojima, as from memory this had more awesome Tenryu moments, a bigger asskicking and young Mammoth trying to take down the legend. The opening moments had some fun tubby guys rolling on the mat moment before Sasaki decides to really go for it to which Tenryu responds by simply taking him down and torturing his bad leg a bit. However Sasaki won't let up and soon both guys are throwing punches. Mammoth decides to start the garbage brawling by taking the match to the outside to which Tenryu responds „Sure, you can have it“ and smashes a fucking bottle on his head. Tenryu keeps flinging stuff at Mammoth and really puts a WAR sized assbeating on him just kicking him in the face and pasting him with lariats over and over while Mammoth is selling all big and sympathetic. I wish the 2^nd half were a little less one sided altough Mammoth gets in a good one on Tenryu when he smashes him with the chairs (to a befuddled „He's doing this to ME?“ reaction) and he gets over big just for the amount of punishment he is able to survive before going down. 

The Library

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Chocoball Mukai, Fuyuki Army 12/5/2003

Mukai usually was this scuzzy character, but here he‘s an asskicker wearing MMA gloves and kickpads beating the hell out of Ishikawa. Everyone gets to work stiff when facing Ishikawa I guess. And this is really one hell of a match. Mukai gives his all beating the shit out of Ishikawa, hitting some gnarly punches, joint-popping arm holds and even bloodying Ishikawas mouth. Ishikawa is who you think he is, busting out some neat counters and letting Mukai look way way better than he has any right to. Add Chocoball Mukai to the list of guys to have their career match against Yuki. 

Rikiya Fudo & Raito Shimitsu vs. Tatsuhiko Nakagawa & Akira Jo, ?? 1/11/2020

Glad this kind of modern scum indy match is now seeping onto YouTube so I can watch and cherish it. This is labelled DARK KARATE vs. WRESTLING HEAVYWEIGHTS and that's really all the story you need. Akira Jo is this Ex-IGF guy who kind of turned into an Oriharaite, and Nakagawa looked pretty badass with his gloves and overall just punching and kicking people. Shimitsu is the perennial good little worker of these trash indies with his amateur style and energy, and Fudo is that old CAPTUREhead who comes in to chop hard and drop really violent elbow drops and splashes on people. I think current day Ishii vs. Fudo would be pretty amazing. Great moment where Fudo busts Nakagawa in the face with a chair, Nakagawa comes back bleeding and pulls a belt out to choke Fudo. Then you get Shimitsu unloading his cool suplexes for the finish, Nakagawa spin kicking him in the face etc. Good shit.