Command Bolshoi 7 Match Gauntlet

  

Command Bolshoi vs Kayoko Haruyama, JWP 4/13/2008

This was really great. It was very much a 25 minute epic where they kick out of everything, but for that it was about as good as these kinda matches can get. Early build was great and added to the match. We know Bolshoi is the submission queen, and she absolutely is that here, but Haruyama was able to rip out some awesome surprise Fujiwara armbars and go after the arm. Really enjoyed Haruyama modifying her signature corner fame asser to target Bolshois shoulder. Bolshois comeback was great as she hit a cool odd angle 619 and then a choice huracanrana to the floor that bowled Haruyama into the chairs. Bolshoi then hit one of the craziest flash submissions I’ve ever seen as she busted out this wild flying twisting bodyscissor into calf slicer thing. Haruyamas leg selling was also really great as she was constantly slowed down and it added some drama to her buildig to her big leg drop. Another neat moment Haruyama eating a leg kick but firing back with a spin kick and collapsing.Ending run had a ton of big moves but was peppered with great selling and tons of amazing counters especially from Bolshoi. Haruyama was a great base. The way Bolshoi would bust out flash pins, submissions and ranas was just peak level. They were also hitting really hard, Bolshoi with her palm strikes. Haruyamas lariat fury in the corner before collapsing was also an awesome moment. At one point Haruyama just kicked Bolshoi straight in the face. Just a ton of really intricate awesome stuff here, a lot of flash but also great substance, a rare combo when it comes to these kinda big matches in the late 2000s. But fuck are these two great.

Command Bolshoi vs. Nanae Takahashi, JWP 6/13/2010

Command Bolshoi has a great fucking match against somebody, are you really surprised?! Lots of really masterful wrestling from Bolshoi in this, holy shit she was just great from the late 2000s onward. The early chain wrestling reminded me a bit of Billy Robinson carrying Jumbo, Bolshoi would do all these cool touches even when doing basic holds against the taller, stronger Nanae, while Nanae was quite good here cinching in side headlocks and cravate holds. Nanae is slightly generic but she can totally drop bombs and clobber someone, very late 2000s-early 2010s flavoured bomb dropping like a twisted fisherman suplex into an ace crusher because why not. Her selling of the bad leg that Bolshoi kept chipping away at also gave the match some great hope spots. Really hot crowd for this that badly wanted to see their cult hero defeat the former AJW star, which combined with Bolshois Honda/Fujiwaraish counters and submissions makes for a really great big match. There was one moment where they did a Benoit/Angle sequence with crossfaces and ankle locks which is not my favourite thing in wrestling but Bolshoi was able to salvage even that by trying to lock in a nifty leg scissor move. Finishing run was 2.9 ville but the good kind thanks to Bolshois reversals and the big vs. little psychology remaining in tact.

Command Bolshoi vs. Kayoko Haruyama, JWP 7/11/2015

Alright, these two have had a few really great matches against each other. But, in 2015? Haruyama is on the verge of retiring and looks over the hill, while Bolshoi looks ridiculously yoked here, just totally shredded. No way it’s as good as their earlier matches, right..? But fuck it this is another great fucking match. It was a more deliberate and storytelling encounter than their other matches but for that it was great. Early goings Bolshoi was really good as an annoying bug outwrestling Haruyama, hanging on to submissions and staying out of reach of Haruyamas power. Top rope uranage was completely unexpected and immediately increased the tension after just a few minutes. The match seemed to be a piece of cake for Bolshoi, but Haruyama would show some hard and fight her way back into the match in compelling fashion. Haruyama has clearly slowed down, but she was still bringing it hard, clobbering Bolshoi and mule kicking her really hard. Her basing for Bolshois complicated highspots was also really great. I also dug her use of snapping Bolshoi down when she was draped on the ropes. Bolshoi also hits about the greatest jumping knees ever in this. It’s a great match, not just ‘for what it is’ but straight up great pro wrestling and these two rule.

Command Bolshoi vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki, JWP 7/31/2016

Great 10 minute match. It’s Bolshoi vs Kuragaki, so you know it’s gonna rule, but this was also a pretty smart match. Kuragaki is so fucking cool. Opening matwork felt very much like maestros stuff. I love how Bolshoi sells her wrists after Kuragaki throws her across the ring. There is passion in that kind of attention to detail. The match was pretty much their usual thing with Bolshois technique vs. Kuragakis power, but it was very well put together and as always they do some awesome stuff with Kuragaki being really great lifting Bolshoi from all kinds of positions and dropping her to the mat with some big bombs and suplexes. She even busts out a moonsault. I really hope her knees are fine now.

Command Bolshoi vs. Hikari Fukuoka, JWP 9/20/1997

Bolshois most famous 90s match. I hadn’t seen this one in forever so I decided to give it another look. Early goings of this were just brimming with intensity. Fukuoka seemed to be trying to punch through Bolshoi with her forearms, even with a move like her handspring elbow she just crashed into her. Bolshoi took a beating but wouldn’t back down and fight back with tenacity. Bolshoi didn’t do any of her signature submissions here, it was a bomb throwing war, but pretty smartly done as they put a ton of effort to create some meaningful struggle for control and unpredictable moments. Fukuoka looks great here, just absolutely nailing everything she did, even her dropkicks look like she’s just crushing Bolshoi. After she basically ran through Bolshoi early on, seeing her selling the damage and looking pushed to the limit towards the end made the match feel pretty epic. Of course you also have the famous spot where Bolshoi takes her mask off. There is some legwork that is done with intensity but ultimately is just filler, and there’s one kind of ugly no-sell, but other than that it’s an all-around great match.

Command Bolshoi vs. Toshie Uematsu, JWP 6/15/2006

Two wrestlers who can bring some serious goodness, bringing some serious goodness. While this was somewhat light-hearted the jokes were all done well, and they both do some ridiculously great pin-point accurate wrestling that it ends up being a really good undercard bout. Uematsu is great – her dropkicks are like something out of an unhinged Casas/Santo exchange, and she has no problem leaning into comical angles. Bolshoi decides to work like Volk Han for a bit, they do a thing where they both resist arm drags and it’s kinda comical but also cool, a ton of really good sprint action down the stretch with some sweet reversals and cool bits of creativity, especially from Uematsu. Yeah I love them both.

Command Bolshoi vs. Manami Katsu, JWP 6/26/2016

Katsu was one of the last wrestler to debut in JWP. She is kind of like a worse version of Haruyama here, she did some good stuff attacking Bolshois back but also seemed a bit sloppy here or there and it seems she doesn’t sell very well. Still Bolshoi is really enjoyable to watch, even when she’s dominating on the mat early on she makes you feel that Katsu is bigger and stronger and thus caution is required, and she’s always really fun to just tear into someones arm with submissions and hitting palm strikes. Enjoyable Bolshoi performance as always even against someone who is rather mid.

More No Ring Dragon Gate

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cactus Jack vs Arachnaman, WCW 1991(?)

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

Matches from Itigaya Ice Box

 Shuichiro Katsumura vs Shota, Ganbare 2018/10/26

Very nice technical match taking place on a tiny mat in that same space where Emi Sakura runs her shows. The story is pretty simple, Katsumura is the shooty grappler and Shota is the oldschool grappler, so Katsumura will force Shota to break with dangerous submissions, and Shota would short arm scissor the fuck out of Katsumura. Shota actually has lots of compelling Short Arm Scissor work, and there were some great slick reversals including an absolutely spectacular armbar counter from underneath from a test of strength/bridge spot. I loved how Shota got pissed and made it a point to force Katsumura to use the out of bounds to escape from the short arm scissor. Pretty nice crafty pro wrestling.

Fumihito Kihara vs Yumehito Imanari, Ganbare 2013/5/10

Before this match, I wasn’t familiar with Fumihito Kihara. Apparently he has been AJPWs ring announcer for ‘several years’. His history of matches that he had according to Cagematch is thinly spread out and confusing, only making a handful of appearances in companies as different as K-Dojo or the reborn PWC throughout the years. He walks out here tanned as hell and wearing some neon orange trunks. He does not look like someone who only wrestles sparringly, he looks like someone who has been grinding himself to dust in the pro wrestling business for decades. Looking quite literally as tough as a human brick. And he wrestles kind of like a WAR guy! Immediately they go for an uncooperative vibe, blocking some strikes and then Kihara goes to choke Imanari and kick him in the face. Kihara cinches basic holds with the intent to tap Imanari out, really torturing him and giving him a hiding. The actual match is not quite as great as those first couple minutes promised, but its fun. Uncooperative, stiff, different. Eventually Imanari starts firing back with some kicks of his own and running into Kihara with repeated Shining Wizards, and the finish is great. I think Kihara vs Keita Yano would’ve been an awesome matchup.

Mai Ichii vs Miki Ishii, Ice Ribbon 2/22/2008

Brutal stiff fight where they both didn’t hold back on any strike and fought really hard, which is kind of the best kind of no-ring wrestling there is. Way better and more passionate than a lot of matches in big arenas. Ichii is a legit MMA fighter with some wins and she’s a monster with the kicks, kind of the last breath of the Toshiyo Yamada/Kumiko Maekawa type fighters. She’s a gem and clearly someone I need to look up more because everytime I see her she brings the fight. Ishii is 2 days away from retirement and she really uses that momentum to go as intense as she can. Ishii doesn’t have the martial-artist moves like Ichii, but her basic dropkicks, kicks and forearms landed insanely hard and you have to love that. She also had some really cool leg submissions, and is tough enough to take some absolutely insane kicks from Ichii. Here jumping move of the wall was also impressive. There was a short joke where Ishiis tag team partner(?) came in to help but it lasted only about to 30 seconds and it lead to Ichii thrust kicking them hard. Great 10 minute fight.

FU*CK Cool Pro Wrestling 1/2/2008

 Hideki Shioda & Lingerie Muto vs. Chief Shinigami & Konaka

This Chief Shinigami is NOT the Shinigami from Wrestle Yume Factory. This guy is some tubby pasty dude doing some kind of native american gimmick. It’s horribly poor taste, so just right for FIGHTING ULTIMATE CRAZY KINGS. Konaka is wearing a striped sweater and dungarees along with his usual facepaint. I think it may be a reference to a horror movie or something but its a very cool look. Chief Shinigami is a menace too immediately thwarting all attempts at wrestling by hitting guys with foreign objects. After like 30 seconds of in ring action they start brawling in the street. Really taking their time to explore this quiet Japanese neighbourhood to the fullest. Konaka almost gets thrown into a ravine. Sawa hits a Mutoh style elbow on the concrete. Konaka at one point vomits some green slime on the street. Then they find some dog poop in the street and try to shove someones face in it. They find what looks like a shrine with a Torii. They pray at the shrine. Then they brawl at the shrine. After deserating a holy site they move on to fighting on a playground. There’s piledrivers and backdrop suplexes and shining wizards on the sand. A slide is used. They move further on to brawling in the middle of a busy street with cars going by. Some ladies are waiting with their bikes, and Sawa goes and snatches a bike riding it away. Imagine just waiting for the bus or something and then a cross dressing wrestler with a bald cap shows up, takes your bike and rides it away. After getting off he kicks at one of the ladies too. The match ends when Sawa puts a figure 4 on Konaka (again, on the concrete) and Konaka reverses it. A fitting crafty technical ending to this fine opening match.

Shoichi Uchida & Takaku Fuke vs. Hideaki Sumi & Mexican 69

Mexican 69 is a fat guy in a mask. He’s a typical FU*CK style wrestler, meaning he tries to wrestle but the outcome just comes out as bizarre. It’s really its own genre of surreality. Sumi is great, he is a crazy karateka who wrestles like a modern day Masashi Aoyagi, and he does have some actually nice shooty exchanges with Fuke here. Uchida is also a good wrestler but saddled working opposite Mexican 69. At one point some women in the crowd  broke into a weird choir-like singing, so I guess they were in on it too. Then the wrestlers go for a stroll in the street again with Sumi and Fuke trading chest kicks and locking in shoot holds in the neighbourhood. At one point Uchida rides past them on a scooter, having Mexican69 on his back. I would take major TV stations hostage and broadcast this stuff to the masses if I could. The fight moves in front of the Torii shrine from the previous match, but Sumi and 69 will have none of it and they quietly walk back to the ring. There is probably some subtext there about the fans excitedly following the wrestlers outside and then having to walk awkwardly all the way back next to the elderly Pancrase legend Takaku Fuke. The match ends rather unceremoniously as Uchida tries and fails to wrestle Mexican 69.

Killer Master vs. Magnitude Kishiwada

Killer Master for some reason is dressed looking a lot like Badboy Hido. This match goes as such: Master touches Kishiwada, and immediately is thrown outside and eating stiff chairshots. Kishiwada then walks Master outside to the street, to the site of the Torii. There he chops Master some, puts on an abdominal stretch, throws him into a wire fence, and then walks him back to the ring. Wrestlers are like kittens – when you grab their scruff they are just paralyzed and have to go along with whatever you want to do. Anytime Master tries anything he gets waffled by Kishiwada in a way that indicates Kishiwada has little regard for his opponent. Back in the ring Master is eating more stiff offense from Kishiwada. Kishiwada puts a Figure 4 on Killer Master and Master gets a megapop from the 12 or so people watching when he actually reverses it. Master gets a brief comeback but quickly he gets blasted by a nasty lariat to his face, and then goes down to a basic back senton.

Hideki Shioda & Killer Master & Takaku Fuke vs. JAIL & Konaka &Magnitude Kishiwada

Kishiwada works the mic some, which I guess prompts this match. Konaka is still in the sweater and dungarees. They brawl briefly to start, before the Konaka/JAIL/Kishiwada trio quickly start isolating Killer Master. JAIL actually has a cool look wearing a mask and striped convict outfit. He also seems competent. Master actually gets some offense in but he flubs nearly everything he tries. Once again he takes some nasty hits from Kishiwada. And Konaka looks like a mighty competent wrestler too. He locks in a series of cool submissions on Master and a triangle choke gets the tap. Yes, Master lost the match before he could even make a tag. Things work differently in FU*CK.

Hideaki Sumi & Mexican 69 vs. Hideki Shioda & Munenori Sawa

Sumi and Sawa speed tagging each other was great, I’d love to see a singles match between them. Then they tagged the other 2 guys in and things got weird again. 69 did that weird comedy move where he super slowly rolled over his opponent. It seems that Shioda wants to try, even hitting some snug strikes and a nice spin kick which exaggerates the subsequent weirdness of the exchanges even more. Sawa and Sumi do another cool 30 second exchange. Then Sawa gets isolated, doesn’t even make the hot tag, just comes back and wins really quickly. The match last like 5 minutes. Baffling.

The Library

Assorted BattlARTS

Munenori Sawa & Yujiro Yamamoto vs Manabu Hara & SEIKEN, BattlARTS 8/21/2011

Really good scrappy match from the last days of BattlARTS. Everyone beat the shit out of each other and never backed down. Sawa cut down the goofiness, but things definitely got more serious when Yamamoto stepped in the ring. He had some intense exchanges with both Hara and SEIKEN. SEIKEN is a pretty fun character to insert into a BattlARTS match, as he doesn’t have much grappling and just tries to KO people with nasty head kicks, it makes for a cool contrast. There wasn’t a ton of grappling but Yamamoto in the brief moments did some really cool stuff. Haras brief hot tag trying to crack Sawas jaw was pretty great, too. Sawa trying to dive at Hara who was outside was pretty crazy and immediately lead to another chaotic, scrappy exchange with SEIKEN. Fun chaotic ending run with lots of stiff blows. I miss BattlARTS.

Yuki Ishikawa & Munenori Sawa vs Super Tiger II & Manabu Hara (BattlArts - 11/16/2008)

The early goings are a bit slow, tho there are a few neat moments. Hara cranks Ishikawas neck with a nasty headlock then hits him with an out of nowhere kick to the face. There's a pretty heated exchange between Sawa and STII with Sawa trying to headbutt him in the guard about 8 minutes in a flick is switched and Hara and Tiger start fucking pulverizing Sawa with brutal kicks. After that it's off to the races as they deliver a brutal beatdown on Sawa. Some breathless exchanges ensue with guys tagging each other full force, headbutts, slaps, kicks to the head. The finishing run is Super Tiger II unloading his spectacular kick arsenal on Ishikawa. STII has some crazy kicks, and he nails them all here. I also really liked the violence of Sawa and Hara trying to prevent each other from making a save. As usual with Ishikawa there are some tremendous submissions. Last 12 minutes of this or so were some of the most brutal and best BattlARTS action of the new millenium for sure.

Ikuto Hidaka vs Yuta Yoshikawa, BattlARTS 12/21/2008

Really good 10 minute match. Hidaka was hellbent on destroying Yoshikawas mid-section here, making this forever one of the greatest matches in the "matches where a guy gets his mid section destroyed" genre. Early goings were no-nonsense as Hidaka was relentless going after Yoshikawa with great looking body shots and knees, it felt like an aggressive U-Style match. When Yoshikawa takes it too the mat it actually feels like he needed to take it to the mat. Yoshikawa is low standing at this point but his brief run off offense is nice, he is able to hit a big suplex that actually feels earned and follows up blasting Hidaka with a kick. Yoshikawa punching away at Hidakas arm/shoulder was a nice touch. Hidaka denying a flying armbar, but eating a punch to the face seconds later was great. Eventually Hidaka took Yoshikawa out destroying his guts with knees and spin kicks that looked brutal. Very nice stuff and cool to see Hidaka doing something different when he could've just hit his usual spots instead.

Keita Yano Documentation #6

Keita Yano vs Roberto Tanaka, Ice Ribbon 3/10/2008 - GREAT

It's very early no-ring Keita. Say what you will about Emi Sakura, but she gave Keita the chance to explore this unique avenue of pro wrestling very early on. Roberto Tanaka apparently would go on to become Ultimate Spider Jr. (I am not sure there is an Ultimate Spider Sr.). Tanaka was a kick padded indy worker here which is just fine. He looked like a competent pro wrestler and had no problem going at it with Keita in a Keita style match. Some nice matwork early on, with Keita who at this point was a BattlARTS guy already dabbling into llaves and WoS type grappling, but also keeping that shootstyle in it. Tanaka gets stretched a lot, but also looked talented. He had a very nice takeover, and I really liked how he countered Keitas bridging chokehold. Tanaka has some hard kicks, really brains Keita in the head at one point, and nice dropkicks, including one where he flies off a chair which is a high spot in this small office space. Last 5 minutes are really awesome with both guys throwing vicious strikes and trying to submit each other. I was impressed they kept a solid pace for 15 minutes, even knowing Keita can be really great without a ring the stuff they did here put most other wrestlers to shame. Great match leaning slightly towards EPIC even which I did not expect coming in but holy fuck the last minutes of strike exchanges were great, Keita was beastly here clocking Tanakas jaw with european uppercuts and at one point just jumping on him and raining punches.

Keita Yano vs Ultimate Spider Jr, Wallabee 12/28/2014 - FUN

Another round of Keita magic in the Cerberus Dojo. His opponent, Ultimate Spider Jr was game to get torn up by Yanos llaves, but did not add much to the match up to that point. Yano domating a guy on the ground is always fun. Spider came a bit into his own a bit when he started fouling Yano and beating on him with pylons. Yano retaliated with a huge tope from the mat into the rows of the crowd. Instead of continueing the match in that spicier direction they settled for regular indy style ending run including Yano going for a tornado DDT off of the strength training equipment. Very fun match but I thought Spider Jr. didn't deliver much special and while Yano was good it did not quite stray into that realm of madness that makes a Cerberus Dojo classic.

Keita Yano Documentation Project

JWP Burning Summer 7/27/2008

Arisa Nakajima vs Pinky Mayuka

Short-ish opening match that had lots of dropkicks and some stretch holds. Shocking, I know! Pinky Mayuka is greenish and doesn’t throw very impressive dropkicks. Not a big surprise she quickly vanished out of the wrestling landscape. Nakajima is vicious and finishes her pretty fast. This very much a match to see and forget quickly.

KAZUKI vs. Hiroyo Muto

Joshi is always associated with super athletic car crash prints, but then you get two stocky workers like this. Muto wasn’t doing comedy at this point and instead worked more like a big bruiser with big chops and KAZUKI was trying to outmaneuver her. There are some fun odd spots, such as a moment where they both kept reversing Russian Leg Sweep attempts. Muto hit a really big cracking shoot headbutt at one point and KAZUKIS rolling takeover into a cool submission for the finish was pretty nice. That’s more than enough to get a match on my good side even though mostly everything else they did wasn’t much to write home about.

Toshie Uematsu vs. Tojuki Leon

This was more like what you associate with joshi. Car crash style match with a ton of no selling and blown spots. Disappointing since both these two are capable of having great matches with neat moments. There were some neat moments but overall the match never really got anything going due to the constant no selling and sloppy execution halting things. I‘ll admit the recovery of Leons blown dive attempt was remarkable and there were 2-3 nifty moments, especially Uematsus pin attempts and a cool reversal into a back stretch from Leon. But overall this was a mess.

Kaori Yoneyama vs. Command Bolshoi

This was kind of Bolshoi tour de force doing her thing with the cool submissions and neat 619 variations and hard shotais. Yoneyama is someone who can be quite great but also annoying, she was still finding herself at this point and kind of sloppy at times, I was also annoyed by her blatantly no-selling a dropkick to the face. This was solid but felt like it went longer than it needed to.

Ran Yu Yu vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki

Ran Yu Yu no longer had her super high end offense at this point, but damn she was still good. Her timing was still great, and she knew how to make something as basic as an elbow smash look killer. This was just a super cool veteran match up – they took things nice and slow which was a breath of fresh air after the hectic Bolshoi/Yoneyama match. Rans hit all these cool stiff kicks and knee drops to Kuragakis mid section. Kuragakis style mix of power and flying offense is cool as always, and it builds to a really neat end run full of cool lariats, elbows and neat counters from Yu Yu. The timing on everything was incredible. Really really cool stuff, both these two have good enough offense that they could just take turns hitting all their moves and it would be fine but they went out of their way to deliver a more thoughtful match.

Keito vs. Kayoko Haruyama

KEITO is one of those hidden badass wrestlers. Kickpadded and butch as hell, she’s a great 21^st century Toshiyo Yamada. This was quite the badass little war, just two tanks punting the hell out of each other. Keito was demolishing Haruyama with her kicks who fired back with awesome stiff lariats and cool spin kicks of her own. Match was pretty smart outside of the hard hitting too, I liked how Keito sold that she was loopy by a random sleeper attempt from Haruyama, so the followup Dragon Sleeper felt more intense. Keito is lower on the totem pole so early on Haruyama was outgunning her, before Keito was able to kick her in the face and then she just started trying to kick her head off. I also loved her crazy submission hold. Really fun intense stuff that doesn’t go long.

 

The Library

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #23

 MIKAMI & Tanomusaku Toba vs. Daichi Kakimoto & Chou-un Shiryu, DDT 5/23/2007 - FUN

Another JIP match. But we get 5 minutes of total action with Shiryu doing a bunch of awesome stuff and Toba getting ragdolled around. Shiryus whacky kung fu kicks and dives are truly awesome. He also hit this awesome foot stomp off the top of Kakimotos shoulders. Then it was time for Toba to punch Kakimoto in the face and they did some manly exchanges. Can’t ask for much more from a clip like this.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Daichi Kakimoto, DDT 6/3/2007 – FUN

JIP once again. Common, 2007 Samurai TV editors, give me a complete Toba match! This looked insanely good as it was basically all straight punches, crowbar lariats and ragdoll suplexes. You can watch a lot of Toba stuff but he still surprises you with what he busts out, in this case hitting a cool rana. They reference the finish of the above tag, and the finish of this one is insane.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shuji Ishikawa, DDT 2/7/2007 – SKIPPABLE

Well, not all of these can be good. Toba was good as always, punching Shuji in the face, but Shuji was really lame and weak and the match had a shitty run in finish.

Tanomusaku Toba & Munenori Sawa vs. Kota Ibushi & Hoshitango, DDT 8/5/2008 - FUN

Clipped but holy fuck I‘d kill to see this in full. Everyone has boxing gloves and they are beating the shit out of each other. Even Hoshitango is swinging hard and eating huge blows! Toba and Ibushi take turns hitting each other in the face as hard as they can. Then Toba and Ibushi are brawling on the floor. Finally everyone is in the ring and just beating on each other like its real life Super Smash Bros until Toba hits a huge dropkick. God I really hope the uncut version of this is sitting somewhere because this looks like EVERYTHING.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation

Keita Yano Documentation #4

 Keita Yano vs. Katsumi Usuda, BattlARTS 11/16/2008 - EPIC

Really great match which I have no problem calling a BattlARTS classic. Back then a lot of BattlARTS diehards hated Yano for bringing some of his whackier ideas into that promotion, but to me he added a lot to this match. He has hanging really well with Usuda on the mat, producing some really good straight shootstyle exchanges, he was able to credibly to do some damage to Usuda standing and otherwise, and he added plenty of neat touches such as turning a stretch into his cool bridging choke during the last few minutes. When Usuda started blasting him with kicks, he would take Usuda down and immediately try to take the wind out of him with some vicious knees on the ground. Later he‘d cut Usuda off with a flurry of open hands and spinning backhand before nailing Usuda with a nasty dropkick to the head. The one questionable thing he did was the attempted lariat from the ropes, and that led to him getting kicked in the face. Usuda was tremendous here, really punishing Keita with painful holds and some of the most brutal kicks ever caught on film. He did a tremendous job turning Keitas zealousness against him while also selling for him and allowing him just enough offense to not look like a chump. All-time series of brutal kicks leading to one of the sickest match endings of all time was one hell of a way to end this. Incredible match considering Yano was barely in his second year as a wrestler.

Keita Yano vs. Yuki Ishikawa, BattlARTS 3/21/2011 - GREAT

I remember watching this at the time. Yanos Joker makeup was new and we all thought he was losing his mind. Little did we know what was to come. This was about as good as I remember it being, lots of really fun matwork with Yano doing some cool unorthodox chokeholds and both guys ripping each others legs up. Yano did hit some great looking european uppercuts and aside from one slightly awkward lariat he had no goofs. And Ishikawa was Ishikawa. I felt like it didn’t quite push into next level territory but it was a really good match up.

 

Keita Yano vs. Shota, Tenryu Project 8/17/2022 - FUN

Nice match between two guys who totally have an epic in them. This was just a 3rd match on the card so they didn‘t exactly go all out, but it was all in all one of the niftiest matches of the year. They start with a 70s style control segment about hitting armdrags and reversing armdrags before moving on to trickier stuff with Yano working over Shotas leg. Yanos bridging indian deathlock was obviously the highlight, and Shota sold really well. Shota is honestly a pretty underrated indy talent himself, he had some neat transitions and never overreached. Really well done technical match, only criticism is that I wanted more but I always want more wrestling like this.

Keita Yano Documentation

Dramatic Deep Cuts

 

Kota Ibushi vs. Taro Nohashi, DDT 9/23/2007

NOHASHI SHOWCASE MATCH! Man, I am glad I had a hunch that I should watch this. I had no idea Nohashi was this awesome in 2007. This was the kind of performance that makes you fall in love with wrestling all over again. Nohashi doesn’t care that he’s stocky and doesn’t stand a chance against the better looking, taller, chiseled Ibushi, he was gonna go hard and do a bunch of awesome shit. Nohashi had a bunch of cool ways to attack Ibushis leg, a bunch of awesome old school spots weaved perfectly into a modern day juniors match. It meshes really well with Ibushis athletic style, so you’d have Nohashi do a thrust kick and Ibushi would kip up and right into a tight Octopus Stretch. Ibushis leg selling wasn’t very deep but you can do some spectacular stuff with Ibushi and they did that here but man Nohashi is so much cooler. Nohashi was also taking all of Ibushis stiff shoot kicks like a champ. Loved the Mandara Hineri variations from Nohashi, the crazy floor dropkick, the headbutts etc.. The man was on like no tomorrow that night, total hidden gem performance.

TAKA Michinoku vs. MIKAMI, DDT 5/4/2005

This is MIKAMIs comeback match, which means TAKA is a total piece of shit to him. TAKA won’t bump for a MIKAMI headscissor, he sidesteps a MIKAMI dive, he even blocks MIKAMIs 619 and kicks out of 1 after MIKAMI hits his big senton. So MIKAMI has to bring the fight if he wants to get anything in this match. Taka was really punishing Mikami too with his tight headlocks and headscissor neck crank, and his fancy jump kicks were hitting hard. He also kept MIKAMI scurrying for the ropes with his out of nowhere facelock attempts. The insta-tap finish was great, too. Really gnarly, hard fought, unique match where it felt like TAKA was channeling Fujiwara.

Sanshiro Takagi vs. Masa Takanashi, DDT 7/20/2008

DDT is this weird promotion that puts on a ton of filler and lame jokes but sometimes you get a creative gem. This was a T2P style match that works both as a parody and a serious attempt at the style. Takanishi is really smooth and Takagi is surprisingly adept at this. These two have Skayde-ish transitions down pat and bust out a bunch of cool holds before a smart finish occurs. Fun in the same way like the first time you saw Johnny Saint wrestle.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #21

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Poison Sawada & HARASHIMA, DDT King of DDT 2008 - FUN

 

HARASHIMA was in snakeman facepaint and doing charms here. Sawada and Shima won’t blow you away here but they are a charismatic heel unit  and there are some fun charming spots including MIKAMI getting hypnotized while standing on top of the ladder. SUICIDE BOYZ were about as good as you ever see them here, MIKAMI can make any random move like a springboard back elbow look totally awesome and Toba was kicking and punching people as hard as ever. TOBA even broke out of the snake charms twice and hit one of his stiffest backfists I’ve ever seen. I also appreciate that Sawada looks old and like he doesn’t train anymore but still takes a full force Toba kick to his head. This needed another Toba tag in to push into GREAT territory but for what it is it is an immensely fun little match.

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Cho-un Shiryu & KUDO, DDT 4/1/2009 - GREAT

This was from a weird theme show where they had all the wrestlers dress up as different nationalities. So Toba and MIKAMI represent Thailand with MIKAMI dressed like a thaiboxer and KUDO doing his New Beijing Pro Wrestling Dragon Achoooo gimmick. So this is thai boxing vs. hong kong movie kung fu match we all were looking for all of our lifes and it’s totally awesome. It works because Shiryu and KUDO are really slick and there are still a ton of stiff strikes in the match. I think the joke was that MIKAMI isn’t skilled enough to be a thaiboxer because he was mostly doing body shots early on, but he hit a pretty brutal jumping knee later. Of course Toba rules coming in and punching and kicking people really hard. Also, nice showcase match for Choun Shiryu, who is also awesome. This was only a slightly bigger finish away from an EPIC rating.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 12/29/2006 - GREAT

This was for the Extreme Title and had a rounds ruleset where one round be pro wrestling rules, the next round would be martial arts rule and so on. Pretty smart match that was also brutally stiff. Even during the pro wrestling sections MIKAMI was absolutely leathering Toba with his clotheslines and kicks, for a skinny short guy he can really hit like Tenryu. MIKAMI was really trying to finish the match during the Pro Wrestling Rules section going for flash pins. MIKAMI was more cautious during the Kakutogi sections, trying to contain Toba with takedowns and groundwork. Eventually MIKAMI eats a knee to the face when shooting for a takedown and after that it’s time for Toba to kick his ass. The sections where Toba was blasting MIKAMI with his kicks and fists really felt like a fight to the death as MIKAMI barely survived. There was this great moment where MIKAMI went for a desperate schoolboy but Toba landed on top and rained punches on him from mount, you could just see MIKAMIS body going limp as Toba punched the soul out of him, if it had been martial arts rules it would have been a KO but because it was pro wres rules Toba had to go for a pin. Other neat moments include MIKAMI going for a 619 and getting punched in the face, as well as Toba countering a codebreaker attempt with a nasty elbow. Finish was great too as MIKAMI hit this really uncooperative shoulder dislocating armbreaker move before locking in an Octopus Hold, Mikami knows no martial artist can resist an Octopus Hold. Great match that had top notch selling from Mikami, brutal stiffness and a really well told story.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

GWE Watching: Demus

 

Demus vs. Mascarita Dorada, CMLL 1/11/2008

Freaking spectacular match worked at a feverish pace. Opening matwork was brief but great as it really looked like Dorada had to use technique and quickness to not get squished. Dorada is mostly known for highspots but he is really good working as Marcelo Garcia slipping out from underneath a much bigger opponent. Doradas crazy ringpost bump followed by Demus‘ psycho splash was completely unexpected and great. 2Nd and 3rd fall where just a lunacy show with Demus tossing Dorada around, who took some lunatic bumps, and Demus taking Doradas offense which may be the most complex and spectacular of all time ridiculously well. Highlights include Doradas gigantic dive off the ring post, later a huge diving rana and Demus just smashing his body into the ringpost. Also really loved Doradas submission where he just jumped on Demus back and went for the submission like Chiatzu jumping on Nappa. Also, Mascarita Dorada moonsaulting right into Demus outstretched legs was quite insane, so was his twisting face bump when Demus just launched him. Great big vs. little match, blows away a lot of highly praised matches.

Demus vs. Bam Bam, CMLL 7/27/2008

This was also really good. Really enjoyed the opening fall matwork where Demus did a really nice heel cob, mostly controlling Bam Bam in interesting ways, fish hooking him etc. Bam Bam is not as spectacular as Mascarita Dorada but he still has some quite spectacular offense, lots of difficult jumping ranas off the ropes etc that Demus catches perfectly. Demus busts out some big stuff himself including an awesome fast dive where he whipes out Bam Bam. I also loved his big submission. Demus seemed to have difficulties with his second which kept costing him in the match and his selling of being brought to the edge of defeat was intrigueing. Really really liked the finish too. These two had a lot of matches so I‘ll gladly move on to their hair match.

Demus vs. Bam Bam, CMLL 8/24/2008

As far as bloodless hair vs. Hair matches go, this was quite good. I wanted a bit more violence, there was some biting and floor brawling but I wanted more, that‘s 2000s CMLL for you I guess. Aside from that, they worked a breathless pace trying to wipe each other out with huge dives and bombs. Some nice submission nearfalls between the fury. The ending was really memorable as Demus hit this sick running powerbomb to the ramp on Bam Bam. Modern wrestling has conditioned me to expect Bam Bam to make a comeback rally, but Demus just finished him off right there and pinned him. Cold way to take someones hair.

Demus vs. Shockercito, CMLL 6/2/2009

Another hair vs. Hair match. Spectacular start to this as Shockercito hits a crazy spinning headscissor to Demus on the ramp and then nails him with an epic, horizontal landing tope. Shockercito has some quite spectacular moves, but Demus quickly goes to town on him slamming him with his power offense. Demus hits a huuuuge powerbomb off the top and I really liked how Shockercito actually sold that, having a hard time fighting back into the match and looking like he had his bell rung. The match also had a big more violence with both guys punching each other angrily here and there, so I guess I liked it more than Demus/Bam Bam. Shockercito took the win hanging onto the ropes which I thought was a bit strange but other than that this was really good.

Demus & Pierrothito & Pequeno Warrior vs. Shockercito & Mascarita Dorada & Pequeno Olimpico, CMLL 6/12/2009

After Shockercito took his hair in sneaky fashion I wanted to Demus to beat the shit out of him, but I guess that happened in another match. This was just about 10 minutes so you can imagine how short each fall was, but it was a quite fun, complex sprint with an unpredictable layout. Everyone looked amazing and was in and out of the ring really fast so I can‘t really make a huge cases for Demus based on this, but he did look really good when he was in. This match also had one of the best triple team moves I‘ve ever seen as Pierrothito & Warrior bounced Dorada ribs first into Demus outstretched legs. Add a share of spectacular technico highspots into this and you have a quality TV match.

Demus & Pequeno Halloween & Mr. Aguilita vs. Tzuki & Ultimo Dragoncito & Pequeno Olimpico, CMLL 4/1/2007

Earliest Demus match I could find in the matchfinder. Of course, he pretty much looks like a complete wrestler already. This was a short albeit super fun unpredictable trios. Really liked how the technicos kept denying the rudo beatdown and outwrestling the rudos in fun ways. Demus was paired with Tzuki and a really good dance partner. As usual Demus catches his opponents offense flawlessly inbetween crushing them with big slams etc. How he can slam a guy as small as Tzuki so hard with out killing him is beyond me but its extremely entertaining. Excellent finish between Demus and Ultimo Dragoncito. It‘s crazy how much work and passion these guys would put into matches that would end up being rather short and insignificant.

Keita Yano Documentation Project #2

Keita Yano vs. Yujiro Yamamoto, BattlARTS 6/1/2008 - GREAT

This was Yamamotos debut. You can be really good at shootstyle right out of the gate, and Yamamoto is really good. This was a mix of slick matwork and both guys waffling each other with uncalled for hits which is kind of the best kind of Young Lions match. Really enjoyed Yanos lithe grappling style as opposed to his later work where he‘s a bit slower. The fun starts when Yamamoto absolutely rattles Yano with a slap in the corner and Yano tries cracking his jaw with knees and a huge european uppercut. Yano busted out a cool Tequila Sunrise into a rad bridging double armlock for a cool nearfall where it looked like Yamamoto almost got his shoulder popped. Actual finish was nasty too. Good shit that was tougher and more intense than a lot of veteran matches.

 

Keita Yano vs. Great Zako, Unemployment Pro 10/21/2018 - EPIC

This takes place in Survival Tobitas Unemployment Pro, which is wrestling shows run on a thin puzzle mat in a storage unit, or someones apartment, or… I have no idea. Yano is doing the „Masked Holiday“ gimmick which is him in a Super Muneco mask and a Doink singlet, which is like a wrestler you‘d see having a match in one of the rooms of the Overlook Hotel. This match was raw pro wrestling insanity, like if you crossed Atlantis/Villano III with the chair wrestling scene from Gummo. Zako is a skinny self-described backyarder in a shirt, and the opening is just Yano torturing him with unorthodox llaves. Zako ends up going face first into the concrete wall and comes up bleeding so Yano works over his cut with punches and nasty foot rakes.Yano keeps putting on llaves like the reverse gory special which is so surreal until Zako who is hopelessly outmatched is able to low blow him. Zako proceeds to rip his mask and bloody him and bring in a bunch of weapons like metal plates and a rope. The strangulation neckbreaker with the rope was really sick. It builds to this absolutely insane ending run where both guys end up shoot punching each other and leaving their blood all over this little cell. Zako was pretty good, he hit this crazy off the wall spinning senton, and his crushed throat selling after Yano uppercutted him in the throat was convincing. The shoot suplex on the ultra thin mat was downright sick, too. Whole match had pretty much everything, gore, mask ripping, submission work, and both guys looked like they were fighting to the death. Pro wrestling in it‘s rawest form.

Keita Yano Documentation Project

Enter the Riki Sensyu Office

 Riki Senshu vs. Osamu Kido, Riki Office 2/11/2007

Choshu imitaro Riki Senshu is questionable, but him booking himself against puro legends provides entertainment. Kido is really old here but quite the maestro, he has some really fun and spry armwork and a cool reversal of Senshus Fake Scorpion Deathlock. Senshu clocks him with a pretty hard lariat but falls to the Kido clutch. I think this went 7 minutes or so but it was a cool match for Old Man Kido.

Riki Senshu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Yuki Ishikawa, Riki Office 9/25/2011

Another entertaining Senshu match. Fujiwara and Fujinami were definitely collecting paychecks here, but their sections are still fun. And Senshu came across like an eccentric guy who was far weaker than Choshu but using his style effectively. He also took a beating from Fujiwara. Ishikawa had some decent sections against him but the match was a bit too short to make room for another transcendent Ishikawa performance. Still fun to see.

Riki Senshu vs. Kenji Fukimoto, Riki Office 1/14/2008

These two are Kurisu trainees and they produce a really great, serious sleaze brawl with old school psychology, the first real gem of this last footage motherload. Opening was a lot of fun with Senshu smacking sleazeball Fukimoto around and hitting cool  neck chops, establishing him as the more dominant force. As soon as they spilt to the floor they went to town with absolutely hideous chairshots on each other. Fukimoto was able to brutalize  and bloody Senshu but because of Senshus bomb dropping style Fukimoto quickly became the underdog. I have to say Senshu looked great here, his mixture of head trauma and slowly bleeding out selling kept things interesting and made him look vulnerable, and his out of nowhere backdrops and lariats ruled. It builds to a hard fought bomb dropping war with some neat learned psychology that was done right and leads to an absolutely crazy bump that was sold perfectly and added to the match. Also have to say Senshus slow, half dead kickout was one of the best I've ever seen. I really have to give these two a ton of credit here, for two indy sleazeballs they really went all out to create their masterpiece here, it easily could have been a cringy mark show but it ended up violent and engrossing, they nailed it.

Assorted ZERO1

 

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu, ZERO1 2/29/2004

I had no idea this match happened. I can kind of see why it was largely forgotten – these two are broken down, and they do a short match, without an overly dramatic ending, at a time when most tape nerds where hungering for NOAHesque epics. But fuck, the match between these two was still happening. The first 6 or 7 minutes of this is guys stubbornly trying to crack eachother, really trading brutal kicks and chops where the other looks like he really doesn‘t want to get kicked and chopped. There‘s not even a back bump but it‘s really compelling. Hashimotos shoulder selling ruled and Choshu has some nice kicks to the shoulder. Hashimoto clutching his shoulder after the Scorpion lock was a nice touch. These two are really the kings of these kind of ultra-simplistic, nasty, uncooperative strikes exchanges. Eventually, after the opening established that both guys are broken down and hurting, Choshu gets Hashimoto up for a superplex. And Hashimoto takes that superplex in really brutal fashion, really barely getting over, landing on his shoulders. It feels like a big spot, and then Choshu hits another, even crazier superplex where he nearly spikes Hashimoto. Really probably the most „Damn he killed him“ a superplex has ever felt in a match. Eventually it gets to the usual Choshu stubbornly trying to take Hashimotos head off with lariats while Hash refuses to go down. Choshu sold the finish in a weird way, which is probably the reason this doesn‘t get talked about match. But damn I was amazed by these two guys just cracking each other.

7 vs. 4 Elimination Match: Shinya Hashimoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki & Shinsuke Z Yamagasa & Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi & Osamu Namiguchi vs. Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Uwano & Ichiro Yaguchi, Z1 12/14/2003

Extremely fun elimination match which was just a wild spectacle. Everyone jumping in and getting eliminated real fast, seconds get involved, all building to the epic Hashimoto vs. Choshu faceoff. Every single exchanges was on the money, you had the black trunks guys throwing beautiful suplexes and dropkicks, Yokoi punching people in the face, Takaiwa crowbarring people, etc. Ishii got to look tough as he does. Last Hashimoto/Choshu showdown was short but super intense, both guys just wasting each other with brutal punches and kicks. That low kick Hashimoto threw to take out Choshu has to be among those great subtle things that end up looking awesome that Hashimoto just has a thing for.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Takao Ohmori vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Z1 2/17/2008

About the rawest 90 seconds in pro wrestling you will ever see. It‘s Z1 vs. NJPW, Nakanishi and Hirasawa rush their opponents to start. We get Yumeji trying to stand up to Nakanishi who‘s just a big old tank. Fugo tries to scramble his brains with those crazy jumping headbutts he does and Nakanishi punches him in the throat then just turns his lights out with one of the crazier lariats I‘ve ever seen. Harrowing.

The Call of the Underground #3

 

Fugofugo Yumeji & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kenji Takeshima & Johta, EXIT 1/1/2015

Wow, Takayama enters the underground! This was raw, unfiltered brutality. I‘m pretty sure the only plan they had going into this match was that they were gonna beat the fuck out of each other for 15 or so minutes and call it that a day. And that they did. Takayama wasn‘t in the match much, but Fugo absolutely held up his end. He just had one brutal exchange after another and his chemistry with JOHTA was Ikeda/Ishikawa esque. You can tell these two loved killing eachother. Johta blasted Fugo in the face with some crazy enzuigiris and Fugo, as usual, unloaded his headbutts. There was a fun moment where Johta went to headbutt Fugo only for Fugos hard skull to fire back on him. Takeshima was also in this match and mostly ate punishment aside from trying to grapple here and there. And he just got slaughtered by Takayama for the finish, just ending a bloody mess. That said Fugo is looking awesome in these EXIT brawls.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Sanshu Tsubakichi vs. Munenori Sawa & Keita Yano, EXIT 8/24/2008 

More Fugo mixing it up with BattlARTS youngboys. The confines of the EXIT chain ring really force Yano and Sawa to cut out their bullshit and they just have a short violent match. Lots of neat mat brawling sections here, Fugo and Sawa are especially intense opposite each other, forearm across the face, throat chokes etc. Fugo and Sawa beating on each other is great. Once again, Sawa learns to respect the dome. The finish is great as Fugo has an armlock cinched in and Sawa tries to break it up but can't because Fugos skull is indestructible. Another really good little match.

Fugofugo Yumeji vs. Nyudo, ?/? EXIT

About 90s seconds of both guys trading ear drum shattering slaps. Yumeji hits the big headbutt and it's over. Some kind of point has to be made about Fugo turning up simplicity and violence to the maximum with his project.

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #2

 Command Bolshoi vs. Kaori Yoneyama, JWP 2/11/2008

Another excellent late 2000s Bolshoi singles. Yoneyama had yet to find her personality (give her a year or so to max out her afro), but she could go hard at it with a tough veteran. Early going was really good with slick mat movements and neat standing exchanges. Bolshoi countering the Muta look into a freaky sambo choke was such a master grappler moment, and I love her mixing up the Tiger Feint Kick by turning it into a foot stomp, she‘s just the queen of cool offense. Second half was the kind of rush of big suplexes and fast movements you expect from joshi, but it had the Bolshoi touch of added swank technical moves and neat counters, plus some well timed open hand blows. Yoneyama freaking out and just demolishing Bolshoi with brutal elbows and knees was completely unexpected and awesome, and the build to the eventual ending was great with both girls busting out some crazy top rope move reversals. I‘m pretty desensitized to pretty reversals but Bolshoi turning Yoneyamas avalanche Shiranui into a huge Uranage had me freaking out. Yoneyama was a little sloppy here or there and I can‘t really see her having a match this good against anyone else, similiar to the Nakajima match. Was Bolshoi actually Top 5 in the world in 2008?

Command Bolshoi vs. Kagetsu, JWP 1/29/2017

I‘ve quite enjoyed Kagetsu here and there and she has a fanbase with the joshi crowd, so this is a hot matchup that eluded me. To be honest Kagetsu annoyed me early on, she kept going for those weak chops in the ropes, and her spear and handspring elbow looked laughably weak. That said Bolshoi had her working boots on and pretty much carried the first half of this with some great groundwork. Her sprawling armlock and ultraslick leglock were just incredible, such a great grappler. Second half was really good with Kagetsu pulling herself together and busting out some cool flying armbars of her own before a great ending sequence. They weren‘t exactly going for EPIC here, but it ended up being a solid workday.

 

Command Bolshoi & Azumi Hyuga vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki & ECO, JWP 2/4/2007 (Body Slam Only)

This is a Body Slam Only match which means you can only pin your opponent after hitting a body slam. I am a sucker for weird rulesets and this came out really great. The body slam thing really adds a ton to all the exchanges, as everyone is now building to a bodyslam, and everyone has their own unique ways to get out of attempted bodyslams. Size difference is also at play, as Kuragaki can bodyslam people at will, but everyone struggles to body slam her. Of course these are also 4 workers who can just go hard at each other and produce some great exchanges. ECO (masked kickpadded lady wrestler) was cool, Hyuga was going hard, and Bolshoi and Kuragaki were such stars here. Kuragaki is pretty much Bolshois greatest dance partner, these two always do some mind blowing shit, and Kuragaki looks great in her own right here. Loved the big bodyslam teases. Pretty great match for what I assume was a funny idea for a dojo match.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #14

 Tanomusaku Toba vs. Masashi Takeda, Hard Hit 7/20/2008 - FUN

Deathmatch boy Takeda wasn't half bad at shootstyle at this point. Fun grappler vs. striker match. Takeda hits some explosive takedowns and suplexes and Toba hits some brutal counterpunches. It seemed to be hitting at something bigger, but it as a fun little match. Especially dug that sick deadlift suplex Takeda hit on Toba.

Tanomusaku Toba & Seiya Morohashi vs. Tomohiko Hashimoto & Nobutaka Moribe, DDT 3/27/2005 - SKIPPABLE

Seems the quality of DDT was nosediving by this time. I didn't really care for 3/4 of the guys here. Hashimoto is a guy who has worked FUTEN so he can hit and get hit and had one or two fun exchanges, but doesn't really do anything outstanding. Toba was Toba, he had a few fun moments where punched and kicked guys hard and also ate the fuck out of a Moribe Complete Shot at one point, he also played a pretty decent Ricky Morton to a boring control segment from Hashimoto and Moribe. That sad it wasn't anything that would justify enduring the mediocre guys in this.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Keisuke Ishii, DDT 5/23/2010 - FUN

This was Toba punishing a rookie, which he does pretty well. Mostly Toba punching and kicking young Ishii really hard, while Ishii makes some scrappy young boy comebacks. Toba actually puts Ishiis boy offense over as dangerous and there was quite a high level of violence, for example Toba kicking Ishii in the face to escape a half crab. Fun 5 minutes.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION

A Treasure Trove of Command Bolshoi

 

Command Bolshoi & Yumi Ohka vs. Kaori Yoneyama & Megumi Yabushita, JWP 8/24/2008

Command Bolshoi is dropping unseen matches on us on her YouTube channel, which is something more Japanese indy wrestler who have been working most of the 2000s without making tape should do. Bolshoi and Yabushita just rule the show here. Yabushita is really underrated and may be close to Yoshida levels when it comes to forcing opponents to the mat and pulling them into submissions. She is just grabbing crazy armbars left and right and her flying armbar may be the best in history. Most wrestlers doing flying armbars still look like they are doing a spot, she looks like she is actively pulling and spinning wrestlers around and its great. The section where she and Bolshoi tried tapping each other out was awesome. Bolshoi has a few crazy submissions of her own, including one where she does this flying bodyscissor and slides into a rolling calf slicer, its flashy but it makes so much sense. I love any match where two master grapplers are in the focus, but Yoneyama and Ohka were pretty fun here too. Ohka is a different kind of wrestler, tall girl who will boot you in the face, and Yoneyama is such an energetic wrestler and honestly the modern day Kyoko Inoue. The finishing run is Yoneyama trying to put Bolshoi out after she got softened up by Yabushitas armbars and its really good edge of your seat stuff. Those kinda reversal ladden junior ending stretchs can get hokey but that wasn‘t the case here, Yoneyama went for the kill, and Bolshoi was worn down but clearly still able to catch her in a tricky move. The finish was totally awesome with some great partner spots (especially loved Yabushita pushing Yoneyama out of the way while connecting a shotai to Bolshois face) leading up to Yoneyama landing this nasty solebutt to Bolshois face before going for her finisher only for Bolshoi to slip out and lock in a crazy Volk Han submission for the tap. No filler, no overkill, everyone sticks to what they do well, and a bunch of unique wrestlers get showcased, this is everything you want from a joshi match.

Command Bolshoi vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki, JWP 8/2/2009

Kuragaki is one of those insanely talented wrestlers who just ended up not quite having the career they should‘ve had due to the industry tanking in the 2000s. So a match like this ending up on my internet is very pleasant. This is the kinda stuff that really bums you when it doesn‘t make tape so bless Bolshoi for granting us the watch. And well this was really really good too. These are two wrestlers who can do a ton of cool shit, and they do a ton of cool shit, and really work together in almost a Rey/Psicosis fashion. Kuragaki is just great basing for Bolshois crazy lucha moves, there was Mysterio Rana into a rolling legbar which just looked insane, 10/10 in execution really. Kuragakis power offense mixed with swank backbreaker holds and hard lariats, as well as the bits of athleticism she sprinkles in all make for a really compelling match. And Bolshoi is a great Rey. Her flash submissions rule as usual, and she also laid in really hard with the kicks to Kuragakis leg and back area, way harder than you expect from a match that would go unseen for over 10 years. It builds to this really sweet finishing stretch with Kuragaki selling the leg while trying to take Bolshoi out with lariats and powermoves. Really liked the spot where they tease Kuragaki reversing Bolshois leglock into a Scorpion Hold but then it just doesn‘t happen. The spot where she lifts Bolshoi from her leglock into this gigantic suplex was also out of this world, and the sequence of nearfalls as the time limit ran out was excellent stuff. I absolutely lost it for Bolshois kido clutch. Just a super well executed match, which had enough cool shit in it that 3 wrestlers could steal all the stuff in it and each one would be considered really fresh and unique in 2021.

Command Bolshoi vs. Arisa Nakajima, JWP 3/16/2008

Bolshoi gets up and carries young Nakajima to her career match, and this is just another gem right here. I liked Nakajima a lot better here than later in her career, but she is very much a hyperactive young girl wrestler here and Bolshoi is running the show carrying that hyperactive wrestler to something really good. Bolshoi is unusually overdog here, really working in a very Regal-esque manner controlling Nakajima through armholds, and countering Nakajimas hyperactivity with some great Fujiwara-esque counters and as usual ripping out awesome holds left and right. So yeah, picture a more lithe, clown-like Regal working like Fujiwara in a military getup and you have Bolshoi in this. That is an awesome way to work a match. And Nakajima is totally fine here doing a good job selling that armwork, hitting her suplexes and showing good aggression. Really liked the struggle over the german suplex outside the ring, as well as Nakajima taking a splash into Bolshois outstretched legs. And all that makes a really good match.

Command Bolshoi vs. Tiger Honey, (2 Count Match) JWP 8/12/2005

This is something you normally only see as clips on Occupation of the Indies. Tiger Honey is apparently Azumi Hyuga, and she is kind of more effective doing a masked technician gimmick than as herself. She has a really pretty Tiger Suplex. This was mostly a slick technical exhibition and really fun. Hyuga integrates the Tiger spots really well into a joshi pace match and Bolshoi is just a spectacle doing wonky pin combos and submissions and generally just being her fabulous lucharesu sambo clown technician self.