More from Cosmo Soldiers YouTube channel

     Cosmo Soldier & Tadahiro Fujisaki vs. Takeshi Sato & Yuji Kito, WYF 1998/3/15

Wrestle Yume Factory is one of my favourite promotions ever. WYF undercard matches like this are like pro wrestling in a lawless wasteland. There is a hearty dose of BattlARTS/WARish violence, general anarchy and an infusion of raw spirit that you don’t find like this often. It’s chaotic and glorious. This goes 15 minutes so they have some time. The first half of this was a lot of tight headlocks and groundwork, guys trying to ground each other but explosions did happen. Takeshi Sato who is IWA Japan scum is the first to really start the shenanigans as he lays with kicks hard as a brick into people. He goes for something like a dropkick or a high knee that lands awkwardly and his first instinct is to kick the other guy really hard again. Pro wrestling is a struggle against yourself as much as your opponent. Cosmo Soldier is likely here to just kick someone in the ear to get out of a hold, or dropkick them flush in the face. His dropkicks looked amazing and he is spirited trying to grapple it out with a kickpadded adversary. There’s hardly any rope running here and it makes the whole thing resemble a more serious wrestling match in the vein of BattlARTS. What these guys lack in polish they make up tenfold for by sheer willingness to bring the fight. Takeshi Sato continued to be a fiend here, randomly hitting one of the hardest enzuigiris I’ve ever seen to Fujisakis skull. Later Cosmos leg randomly gives out on him (element of chaos) and Sato would swiftly punish him by just landing this immensely beautiful and cruel high kick to his head. Fujisaki was pretty surely and great here too, working really solid early on, cinching headlocks, grabbing half crabs and leaning back hard, later uncorking his trademark hard headbutts, uncontained open hand strikes and lariating Sato straight in the face for all his sins. His turnbuckle headbutt spot looks so brutal, literally every member in the front row had their mouths open from amazement with how he drove into his skull into another persons face. Cosmo also had one of his finer days besides his leg giving out. I loved how he just absolutely spiked Sato with a uranage. Sato, of course, rolled out the ring to clutch his aching neck, and Soldier immediately followed up with a big dive. Nice and spontaneous, everyone here was living in the moment. Kito was sticking to fairly basic stuff at this point and he’s solid, his big spot was a double knee drop off the top that looked pretty hurty, and took a back-hitting headbutt from Fujisaki and got spiked on his neck by his big suplexes like a champ. Second half of this match is just a frenzy with guys trying to knock the soul out of each other, everything having maximum force and violence. Random spin kick from Takeshi Sato? Yeah, looked like it made the other guy reconsider his life choices immediately after taking it. Soldier going for his big cancun tornado? Yeah, this might as well kill the guy. At one point Fujisaki, when breaking up a submission made sure to really dig his foot into the other guys face before stomping like he was trying to crack a particularily tough walnut. Nothing held back, just for this small gym audience and a lone camera filming this to end up in storage and somehow on YouTube 28 years later. Comparing a match like this to something like Flair/Steamboat would be like comparing Cannibal Corpses A Skull Full of Maggots to the Moonlight Sonata. But sometimes I wanna listen to Cannibal Corpse. I love my Wrestle Yume Factory and this delivered hard.

Kishimen vs. Kuraudo Kondo, KAGEKI 2009/2/15

Who is this mysterious Kishimen? Perhaps Cosmo Soldiers cousin from another dimension. Online sources tell me Kuraudo Kondo is a student of Masashi Aoyagi. That might mean that he took a karate class of Aoyagi once when he was a teenager, or it might be the truth. Kondo looks like a UWF fighter, and he actually fights like a student of Aoyagi, e.g. he kicks a lot and he kicks really really hard. This is also in a kickboxing ring so you know any fall in that ring hurts like hell. Kishimen takes him down to hit a really hard elbow to his face. A not-clean break later Kishimen waffles Kondo some more with open hand hits and then absolutely spikes him with a shootstyle-DDT on his head in that unforgiving kickboxing ring. This causes Kondo to have enough of Kishimen and just starts kicking the absolute shit out of him, absolutely not holding back on any of his kicks, and slamming him right in the middle of that unforgiving ring. Kishimen takes back over with a damn abdominal stretch and it’s all awkward violence from here on. Kondo continues to hold absolutely nothing back on his kicks and I’d like to see more of his short career. Kishimen flies ass-first into Kondos face twice in this match, at first it seemed like an accident, but the second time you fully understand this man was trying to break his opponents face with his ass. Kishimen ends up cranking the nastiest chickenwing crossface I’ve ever seen for the tap. If the previous match was A Skull Full of Maggots then this is like Last Days of Humanity or Rompeprop, or your little brothers band sloppily covering Carcass or Autopsy where the singer loses his voice halfway into the song and just starts screeching… eitherways, still pretty enjoyable violent chaos.

Cosmo Soldier & Raging Bull vs. Tadahiro Fujisaki & Shigeo Kato, WYF 1/23/1998

The WYF streak continues. This starts with all these guys working holds and hitting the mat, and it has the vibe of something like a MUGA match but with that rugged WYF charm. Looking at this match is like looking at a wrestling fractal, you see deeper and deeper flourishes and details even in usually mundane things as all these guys have a unique way of doing things, and sometimes will bust out things that no one else would think of doing such as the slick entry into a stepover armbar Cosmo does here to get out of a sleeper hold. There’s some genuinely slick stuff going on between Fujisaki and Cosmo, but a big part of the fascination is that these guys might just pop each other in the mouth in totally uncalled for ways or suddenly kick someone in the face to get out of a hold. Really exploring how you can break submissions in painful ways, either by driving our own foot in someones face or having your partner come in and dropkick them right in the skull. Kato is all about ratty old school ways to hurt opponents, and doing things like randomly squeezing a cravate really hard. Raging Bull is this odd guy from Texas who somehow ended up getting trained at the WYF dojo, he’s unspectacular in the sense that he will tag in and just hit some elbow drops, but he’s kind of likable as he realizes he needs to make this stuff look urgent, so he doesn’t dull things. As always with these matches the first half is ground-based and solid peppered with guys potatoeing each other in uncalled and unpredictable ways. There are some hard Fujisaki headbutts, but things really start kicking when Cosmo breaks out of a hold by kicking Kato in the head, following with a sick enzuigiri also to the head and then absolutely spiking him with sick uranage before stubbornly trying to snap his arm. Things really get cooking in the last 7 minutes or so with all kinds of awesome scrappy action and details. You get chaotic and wild, such as Cosmo eating some reckless face stomps from Fujisaki only to grab onto his wrist and slingshot him across the ring, really making the absolute most of ‘I need to get this guy to my corner’ in an unconventional way. There are more violent submission breaks, Kato wincing in pain after taking a basic double axe handle to his bad shoulder and deciding to absolutely spike Cosmo with some mean piledrivers. The finishing run ends up being Cosmo vs. Fujisaki and it’s pretty much 3 minutes of gold. Loved how Fujisaki would stop a charging Soldier by just grabbing on to his face then headbutting him right between the eyes, then almost knock his head off with one of the hardest lariats I’ve ever seen. There’s also this amazing moment where Cosmo tried to reverse into a Fujiwara armbar, Fujisaki would stomp on his ankle really hard and Kato came in at the same time just obliterating him with superkick to the face, then Fujisaki would dump him with these awesome Otsuka-esque deadlift suplexes. Just a multitude of awesome things happening at once, and it made for a really exciting finishing run built on the solid build up of this match. Also gotta love Cosmo for being able to pull off something genuinely impressive like a big leaping rana or cool jumping kick despite all his flaws. He ended up pulling off something chaotic for the finish too and that rules. Another chapter in the book called Why Wrestle Yume Factory Was Awesome And I might Name My Three Children Cosmo Soldier, Tadahiro Fujisaki and Raging Bull

Cosmo Soldier vs. Koji Niizumi, KAGEKI 7/22/2017

I am always interested in Koji Niizumi. From what I’ve seen, he’s just this crazy hard hitter who makes people cry for their momma. To my surprise though, Cosmo Soldier was the unhinged one here. He was laying into Niizumi full force constantly, smacking him in the face, bending his legs at nasty angles with cool and unusual submissions and landing some of the hardest stomps you’ll ever see. Cosmo Soldier was so hellbent on trying every evil idea he could come up with here it made me long to see Niizumi tee off a bit more, so when he does it’s really satisfying. When it was time to give the beating back Niizumi was hitting Soldier with elbows and lariats that looked like they would take years off someones life. It built to some fine fine moments of really violent and fun pro wrestling. It seems Cosmo had overreached at the end and gassed himself out leaving him open for Niizumi to kill him off with an elbow that looked harder than the one Misawa knocked out Hansen with. A well earned victory in this title match that deserved that name. I really wish I could see more of Niizumi but until then these rare appearances of him are gems.

Ito Dojo - Kaoru Ito Debut 20th Anniversary 10/25/2009

     Ayumi Kurihara vs Ayako Sato

Really fun, scrappy joshi opening match. No choreographed sequences or waiting for the other person to get in position which is always refreshing to see, they both just went for dropkicks and armbars. There was also some matwork that actually felt like two people fighting rather than going through the motions. Sato was really straightforwardly solid with her quick dropkicks, while Kurihara was obviously set to be a big prospect in the joshi scene. There was one really fast sequence of pin attempts that they pull off insanely well. True to joshi form, the finish is Sato kicking out of one Uranage suplex, so Kurihara would hit her with 4 in a row and then force the pin like an olympic match. Miss these kinda joshi undercard matches.

Manami Toyota & Jaguar Yokota vs Aki Kambayashi & Shu Shibutani

Can you believe Jaguar Yokota was 48 years old and a 32 year vet here? She was still moving pretty smooth. Toyota is like in any other match of hers that you’ve seen, just hitting her spots. Front dropkick, armdrag from the ropes, rolling cradle, you know the deal. She could still fly around but it’s less impressive when she’s teaming with Yokota who moves better and can actually work while being much older. Shibutani got popped by an elbow in the mouth early on, causing her to bleed and it made her powering through the rest of the match a bit more interesting. Shu and Aki (who is Miss Mongol of all people) were outmatched early on but they had a few fun ways to get in some offense on the legends, and it made the match more interesting than had it been even steven. Aki looked energetic but then her big spot was a bronco buster. They actually end up losing to one of those double submissions and now that’s damning.

Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs ZAP-I & ZAP-T

The ZAPs feel rather bizarre looking back. My guess is they were an attempt of AJW to recapture the spark of Gokuaku Domei, but obviously that wasn’t going to work. They both seem like they could be folklore creatures, like urban monsters or something. Anyways this was pretty fun and kinda delivered more than you’d expect. Action was solid with lots of brawling and weapon shots but also enough in-ring stuff to not feel lazy. Shimoda still has her working boots on busting some cool axe kicks and a big flip dive that was pretty crazy from someone who was basically semi-retired at this point. I think one of the ZAPs is a Kaoru Ito because she hits a sick double stomp and the other one only hits Blue Thunder Drivers. 

Takako Inoue & Tomoko Mori & Yumiko Hotta vs. Cherry & Hanako Kobayashi & Noriyo Tateno

Craptastic match unfortunately. The previous match actually did well as a brawl, here they tried to have all action but nothing looked good or had gravitas. Mori and Kobayashi tried to have a section in the middle with Kobayashi bleeding but they looked painfully mediocre. Hotta looked pretty immobile and checked out as she tends to do in her late career matches. Not good, not good at all.

 

Aja Kong vs Kaoru Ito, Ito Dojo

Pretty insane, violent and gory match. Pretty much just two tough middle aged ladies out to destroy each other and it was glorious. Ito has such violent offense that fits perfectly in a kind of reckless brawl. Her double stomps – including double stomping Ajas arm – were downright insane. Her bladejob was also amazing as she looked like she got shot in the eye. Kong was freakin gold here – as we all know her. She looked great both beating on a bleeding Ito, shoving her elbow into the cut, hitting her with the point of umbrellas, as well as taking some downright insane punishment from Ito. Her selling was fantastic as she really looked like she was falling apart. It wasn’t exactly Baba vs Destroyer but there was a bit of strategy at play with Ito trying to take out the arm. Loved Aja desperation kneecapping Ito and locking in a submission to regenerate a little. This will probably mainly be appealing to fans of violent bloody matches but for that it was pretty A+.

The Library

Random Joshi

Yoshiko Tamura vs Emi Sakura, NEO 5/5/2009

Nearly perfect 15 minute war, I know both these two can be pretty great when they’re inspired, and they still surprised me with how great they were. A big part of why the match rocks is Emi Sakura, who brings a ton of spunk and clever spots outsmarting Tamura and doing damage to her higher ranked opponent. Tamura cutting off Sakura by viciously strangling her with a cobra clutch was pretty perfect. There isn’t a ton of groundwork but they do a few neat inventive holds that are well worked. Sakura working the back was brisk, pretty violent with Sakura dropping her body weight on Tamuras spine in nasty ways and sold very well by Tamura. Final minutes were really good high end workrate stuff with Sakura desperately trying to pull off a flash pin, some really good dodge and counter move stuff and Tamura just demolishing her with her awesome pummeling elbows, I think her spin kick also gave Sakura a bloody lip. Do yourself a favour and go out of your way to watch this match.

 

Dynamite Kansai vs Sonoko Kato, Oz Academy 9/11/2016

This is definitely something I should have checked out in 2016, because this was pretty awesome, hard hitting pro wrestling with no padding. It’s one of Kansais last singles matches, but she goes all out here and still has her moments where she looks like a monster and kicks her opponent in the face. Thought Kato was pretty great here, really giving Kansai a working over with badass kicks and staying on her with submissions. What was best about this was that they went out and delivered 20 minutes of straight up non-formulaic pro wrestling. Loved the opening second as Kato kept stubbornly going for a waistlock to hit the German Suplex on Kansai. Build to the big bombs was really good as there was plenty of facekicking and struggle. I loved how even with the bigger moves, a basic kick to the face from Kansai could be a near finish. Great match, made me think I should go back and watch like 200 Sonoko Kato matches.

 

Azumi Hyuga & Command Bolshoi & Ran Yu Yu vs Misae Genki & Yoshiko Tamura & Carlos Amano, JWP 10/13/2002

Insane 45 minute iron woman match with everyone going insanely hard right from the start and never really letting up, just busting out one great exchange after another. The stiffness her was outstanding, they all decided to put some extra oomph and hatred into every blow, things like a headstomp or dropkick were really cracking people her. They mostly stuck to your classic match ups of Hyuga/Tamura, Genki/Ran and Bolshoi/Amano, although they cycle through here and there so you get a little bit of everything. Hyuga is a reliable tireless dynamo as always and her jumping knees and face kicks were sick, Tamura hits some of the hardest elbows as always and it seems she had gotten the hang out of how to work a more meaningful pace. Yu Yu vs Genki is always reliable and gritty, just two tanks with awesome offense barraging each other. Bolshoi/Amano is an all time great match up and they were going hard as fuck here. Tons of slick grappling, at one point they both were in a leg ride and twisting each others legs up in ridiculous ways. Their later exchange in the match was completely awesome with amazing submission counters, Amano hitting a Honda-style deadlift German with Bolshoi desperately trying to resist, incredible stuff. For a long match I think they did a great job mixing up the offense without repeating their moves too often, everything still felt meaningful, and because of the rules and the length of the match you buy something random like a dragon sleeper counter 40 minutes in as a potential finish. For that they did a great job, and like I said holy fuck did they go all out guns blazing in this, just ridiculous wrestling. Crazy this was done for 200 fans and a shitty one camera production. The business may have been nosediving but these women were still pushing the envelope when it comes to in-ring action. Great shit, really a bit of a hidden all timer in the rubble.

GENTARO Matches

 

GENTARO vs El Samurai, FREEDOMS 9/27/2009

Very nice little gem. They easily could’ve coasted and done the bare minimum and it would have been a good match, but instead they wrestle this like it’s a tribute to Samurai vs Otani from 1996. GENTARO was certainly riding high in the late 2000s cementing himself as workhorse doing technical epics left and right, and late career Samurai is extremely game. Lots of pretty great targeted limb work, the opening segment is basically 5 minutes of Samurai stubbornly going after Gentaros arm/shoulder with nasty kimuras and stomps, then Gentaro goes for the leg. It leads to some great subtly building selling. I love that Samurai still throws really good punches and stomps – his punches to GENTAROs nose were woe-inducing, and despite having slowed down he still looks like he’s no pushover for his younger opponent. This is very much wrestlers wrestler stuff but it’s exactly what you’d hope for if you know what these two are capable of.

GENTARO vs PSYCHO, YMZ 7/21/2014

With PSYCHO being announced for the next Mutoha show, I had to check this out. The first half of the match was kind of slow and dragged down by lazy heel tactics, but it actually gets good when they start doing what I like best, hitting the mat and trying to tap each other out and hitting some awesome reversals. We all know GENTARO is the king of making minimalistic mat stuff look awesome and he does lean into that here, but PSYCHO also has lots of really cool stuff in his sleeve. His cross arm/leglocks were pretty cool and he also had a nasty looking shin choke thing. They both get really into fighting over a Sharpshooter and it was probably some of the greatest Sharpshooter work I’ve honestly seen ever, with both guys busting out some really great reversals that I’ve not seen before, even for such a classic hold.

Osamu Nishimura vs. GENTARO, VKF 11/16/2015

Very nice match because they didn‘t go the predictable routine. Instead of tons of holds, they worked this as Nishimura the maestro teaching GENTARO a lesson. Nishimura would outgrapple him, and when GENTARO tried to go for punches Nishimura would absolutely rattle him with sick uppercuts. There was one really cool reversal from Nish where he twisted his way out of a bow and arrow and locked in a tight legbar on GENTARO. Very smartly worked match with a lot of selling where every move meant something. Very old school, probably the last great Nishimura match with GENTARO being a great dance partner and knowing his role perfectly.

Early Mutoha

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Hiroshi Watanabe vs Kazuhiro Tamura, Mutoha 6/20/2010

Upon watching this the first time I thought this might be one of the 10 greatest wresting matches I’ve ever seen. Maybe even top 5. I may be overrating it slightly, but it’s a really damn great match.

Obviously, there was a big hype around last years GENTARO/Arai match. I think this bout here gives that match a run for it’s money. Don’t get me wrong, GENTARO/Arai is a completely unique beast. In that match, they did things in a completely different way and succeeded. This bout between Watanabe and Tamura here is much more conventional and energetic with lots of high-impact offense throughout, but aiming for similar grand scale. It probably has much more mainstream appeal than the more esoteric Arai/GENTARO. As such, I would like as many wrestling fans as possible to check this out.

The main reason why the match works so well is the contrast of Kazuhiro Tamura to Hiroshi Watanabe. Kazuhiro Tamura is shooter-type wrestler, with punishing kicks and a style of matwork that means he will go for the kill right from the get go. Hiroshi Watanabe with his shaven head, black trunks and boots and deceptive physique is as close to the picture of a classic no frills technician as you can get. Stylistically the match they go for is reminiscent of an 80s New Japan vs UWF wrestler vs shooter match. And because of the 2/3 falls match format, as well as the unrelenting nature of both wrestlers, this becomes an epic struggle.

The second reason why the match works is that they do not hold back. Often in a long match, especially a 2/3 falls match that is going to be strategic, wrestlers will noticably hold back and resort to obvious time killing. That is not the case here, as right away Tamura is kicking away at Watanabe and going for dangerous submissions like straight armbars on the ground that can believably decide a fall even after just 5 minutes. In contrast Watanabe is very much an old school type catch wrestler here, not afraid to snatch a kimura lock, and coming up with lots of neat counters. Watanabe sticking to his guns and focussing on trying to catch this modern day shooter with this 50s/60s style holds and flying kneedrops was really great. With Tamuras explosiveness it makes a really great aggressor vs counter-wrestler matchup. And because of the 2/3 falls rule, a finish can plausibly occur at any time, which makes this edge of your seat stuff throughout.

There are some moments where they kind of take breathers – Tamura tries locking Watanabe out of the arena for a countout victory, but Watanabe re-enters through the other side in a fun graceful moment that kind of caps off the first ark of the match. There are great moments strewn throughout the match. Tamuras punishing kicks and relentless submission attempts keep the intensity high. There is a moment where he keeps kicking away at Watanabes leg that looked absolutely painful, and another kick to Watanabes sternum outside the ring that looked and sounded so bad I’m sure it would go viral if it happened in a 2024 AEW ring. Later Watanabe fires back with no hands headbutts and an absolutely nasty enzuigiri. He also hit pretty much the greatest flying neckbreaker drop ever at one point. The biggest moment of the match though is the kick that Watanabe gets blasted with in the jaw towards the end. It looked to have knocked his soul out of him, and then Tamura blasted him with another and fell him in one of the most epic near KO’s that Ive ever seen in a wrestling match. The fact this went down in a small martial arts gym in front of roughly 50 people is nothing short of mindblowing.

Tamuras explosiveness is great. When Watanabe finally gets a fall over him, Tamuras reaction is to just run it him and go for another big dropkick. His energy looked to be boundless, and it was meeting Watanabes boundless tenacity. They go incredible hard in the last 10 minutes, without coming across as trying too hard, mixing up some amazing submission and pin attempts and counters aswell as callbacks to previous falls. It was a very good crescendo for match with this kind of grand scope. While most of the match is energetic, they don’t throw out too much too early, so even smaller moves like Tamuras 2^nd rope headbutt or Watanabes Cobra Twist felt epic when they happened so close to the time limit.

After the match, Watanabe is in the ring, and he can hold a speech without using a microphone because the arena is so small. I hope Watanabe got some credit for this match. The bout was truly magnificient and fascinating. It felt like an epic struggle, and it was interesting throughout. At no point did it feel self indulgent or forced. By the end I was kind of rooting for both guys. It almost makes me wish there were more matches that go 60 minutes, as so many interesting facets of their game developed throughout the fight, but then again most wrestler are nowhere near as good as these two.

An outstanding achievement.

 

Hiroshi Watanabe & Kousei Maeda vs. Hideya Iso & Shigeo Kato (Mumejuku 12/20/2009)

Another genuine gem. This went 60 minutes and was more MUGA than MUGA. Watching this, I didn’t know it would be a draw, and I couldn’t tell that it was going to be a draw. They were using a lot of basic holds, but doing them in a way that they could plausibly set up a finish. I kept thinking “yeah, this is gonna lead to the finish… no wait”. That, to me, is how a draw should feel. Watanabe once again looked pretty great throughout this. Really dug the section where Kato twisted up his legs while he kept coming up with counters. I also really liked how Kato at one point refused to enter the ring, as if he was disappointed with Hideya Isos performance, so Iso went back to twist up his opponents with some cool amateur moves. Another great moment was an almost completely spent looking Iso locking in a Romero Special out of nowhere to a nice ovation from the crowd. I haven’t seen this Maeda before, but he looked solid, and he produced another highlight when he took offense to Kato slapping him and kicked the shit out of Kato. Kato after eating headbutts on the ground doing a Flair flop was another neat moment. The match was full of cool moments like throughout that made little things feel more meaningful and kept me engaged in the match. Figure 4 work in the last 10 or so minutes was epic and felt like a Destroyer match. Parts of this were slightly long and I will admit that this probably could’ve been clipped down to a better 45 or 30 minute match, but still. The fact they did this for an audience of like 40 people and it came out so well is insane.

Mutoha worth seeing

 Yasushi Sato vs Taro Yamada, Mutoha 4/21/2018

It’s another amazing match between two of the best Japanese workers of the 21^st century. I say that without hesitation at this point, both these guys just keep proving themselves. This had the rule that there would be no rope breaks which is an interesting touch, especially since they were wrestling in a tiny ring in some little cafe. They ended up not using the rule as much as I expected but there were some interesting moments throughout where they used the ropes to entangle each other, and one particularily gnarly moment where Yamada tried to stretch Yatos ankle in the corner only for some gritty leg stomping to ensue. If you are familiar with these two you will not be shocked to hear that them match had a ton of really good matwork. In this match Yamada was a force, tying up Sato with his crazy llaves. Notice that there was pretty much no capture and release stuff from Yamada. He really is one of the best guys doing this style, ever. In the end Sato resorted to try and catch Yamada with his leg grapevine moves. He really is Honda-ish the way he does that stuff, attaching himself to his opponent and angling his leg to either drive him into the mat really hard or hit a swift take down and turn it into a crazy submission. Even if Yamada would block the Russian Legsweep, Sato might shift the momentum and roll him into a different move. It’s such an interesting game Yasushi Sato plays. However the breaking point in the match was when Yamada decided to clock Sato with a gritty headbutt. That turned the match from an intense chess match into an intense bar fight as Sato decided to bitchslap Yamada and they traded sickening headbutts like a FUTEN match. I loved the increased sense of violence as Sato would lock in a leg grapevine and then start elbowing Yamadas kidneys to set up another leg grapevine move, and another Russian Legsweep attempt that lead to more sick headbutts. He also had some great suplexes, there is no way a 52 year old man should be able to have this much energy but here we are. Yamada also had this amazing leg submission to counter Satos continued legsweep attack and I loved his continued attempts to snap Satos leg in unconventional ways. This was really really nice wrestling for the first 15 minutes or so – these guys are a trip to watch when they just grapple and hit the mat then in the last 3^rd or so they really kicked it up a notch. Sick violence, some brilliant submissions and counters and nifty strategic aspects at work it’s just a great match. Mutoha keeps delivering the gems.

Yasushi Sato vs Hiroshi Watanabe, Mutoha 9/22/2015

Terrific maestros match. Mutoha at it’s best. Both these two are amazing grapplers, but they also did an incredible job working with the Rounds stipulation. Tons of great matwork, with both guys really cinching their holds in such a way that you expect an arm or leg to snap if the guy in the hold made the wrong movement. There was this one bit where they did a shootstyle leglock exchange that slowly turned into a Figure 4 that was absolutely masterful. As always I really enjoyed Satos unique style of tying his opponent up in unique ways and hitting cool Russian Leg Sweeps and suplexes out of nowhere. Watanabes flexibility and old school moves were great as usual. The guy may be the best on earth at doing that kind of throwback style in a post-Osamu Nishimura world. I thought Watanabe might be outclassed by Satos more impactful style at first, but he made a good comeback by grabbing Sato and shooting  him up hard for an awesome out of nowhere backbreaker. Each round was great and the finale with Watanabe desperately trying to resist another deadly Russian Legsweep was pro wrestling at it’s finest. Really great match, probably the best of the year to be honest, both guys showed tremendous skill and crafted a really compelling, unique match.

Hiroshi Watanabe vs Hideo Toda, Mutoha/Mumeijuku 7/12/2009

Very interesting style clash. Hideo Toda is a CAPTURE-trained shooter and he doesn't try to wrestle Watanabes style at all, he will go for the kill with brutal kicks and suplexes. Just getting to see a fighter as obscure as Hideo Toda in itself is amazing. Toda also has quite the size advantage. Watanabe combating him is really interesting to watch and Watanabe does a stellar job trying to solve the problem before Toda turns his lights out. It remdinded me of similiar Osamu Nishimura vs shooter matches. Toda was vicious and most importantly he did not hold back at all, Watanabe had some brilliant counters, totally staying true to his 70s technician act. Really good bout that was a bit different from the usual more technical Mutoha stuff.

Speed of Sounds Produce 10/18/2009

Taro Nohashi vs Yuki Sato

This was a no-ring show in a cool disco-like environment. Not having a ring often brings the best out of talented wrestlers because they are forced to break out of their formula, and it makes things just feel a bit more reckless. And these two are pretty talented. They do a nice job working a basic indy undercard match with some good matwork, plausible no-ring lucharesu exchanges and Nohashi doing an 80s NWA studio match style working over Satos arm. Because there's only a tin mat even basic moves like a body slam or drop toe hold look devastating. Sato having to improvize in order to do high flying is a lot of fun and them clocking each other with stiffffff headbutts is what you sickos want out of a match like this. Nohashi at one point hit a jumping kick that was pretty amazing. This was exactly what you want your odd no ring indy show opening match to be.

Koryuki vs CHANGO vs Jumping Kid Okimoto

This was not what you want to see. Koryuki is some character who can't wrestle because of his super elaborate mask, then his elaborate mask gets partially removed but he still can't wrestle. The comedy was ass and the attempts at wrestling were lazy and uninspired. You want no second of this.

Gota Ihashi & HARASHIMA vs Masato Inaba & Toru Owashi

Standard light hearted DDT undercard tag that wasn't any good, really. For a no ring match to be good you need to bring some good matwork and/or striking and maybe a willingness to be insane and nobody here was delivering that. Gota Ihashi was the one guy who seemed to care a little and laid it, and he's supposed to be a joke.

Takuya Sugawara vs Kinya Oyanagi

 Kinya Oyanagi was a mighty decent wrestler and him being in a singles match is always a reason to check out a show. Sugawara was a pretty decent wrestler too, which along with guys like Nohashi and Minamino being there makes me wonder if the later Toryumon generations were actually better. This match was lots of groundwork, nice mix of basic stuff and the cool shit that Oyanagi does, so exactly what you want. Some swank counters and Sugawara while clearly less skillful had a few neat moves of his own, and stuck to a gameplan of attacking Oyanagis legs which lead to Oyanagi in counter attacking his arm and neat moments insure, such as Sugawara taking a painful looking kick to the shoulder while trying to lock in a figure 4. Aside from the matwork Oyanagi busted out this awesome jumping enzuigiri to a seated Sugawara. Smart match and a testament to how good wrestling can be without ropes and buckles.

Kota Ibushi & Hercules Senga & Tsutomu Oosugi vs Shu Sato & Kei Sato & Ken 45

Brahman Brothers are a really good pair of rudos in this environment. They will kick people in the face, act unhinged and stooge very well. That along with the Speed of Sounds smooth lucharesu stuff makes this a really fun match. Add in Ibushi and his tendency to lunatic stuff when placed in unusal environment and you get something good. Busting out a kendostick was unexpected and all the double team moves looked great and coupled with the brawling made the match feel more chaotic. And Ibushi bouncing around and doing crazy stuff was off the charts. This was the kinda shit you could put on a mixtape to showcase how cool pro wrestling can be, just a lot of cool shit per minute, very clear face and heel roles and with a unique twist to it. They really should have kept running shows in that disco.

The Library

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

Assorted Mr. Gannosuke Produce

 

GENTARO vs. Kazuhiro Tamura, Mr. Gannosuke Produce 3/31/2011

Really good match which felt like a cross of an 80s New Japan shooter vs. Wrestler match and a modern indy match in the best ways. Gentaro punking out the shooter with a hard judo slam and tight gator roll to start was great. I am used to Tamura being kind of pedestrian, so him being really aggressive and chipping away at Gentaros legs with stiff kicks was a pleasant surprise. Gentaro continued to be the king of the mat by making the usual leglocks compelling with his counters. Gentaros leg selling was excellent and the build to the Sharpshooter had a number of sweet moments. Also loved Gentaros desperation frankensteiner which was set up very well. Tamuras stuff looked good and he constantly went for the leg. Fantastic stuff and Gentaro continues to prove how good he is.

Choun Shiryu vs. Masashi Takeda, Mr. Gannosuke Produce 9/5/2009

This was a No Rules match where both guys end up bleeding. Takeda being a death match guy brings a barbedwire bat and a bag of trash, and Shiryu being a Chinese martial artist brings a staff, frying pan and jug of beer. Shiryus Hong Kong movie strikes are so much fun and his spots are brilliant, and Takeda cutting him with a scissor made this feel like a slightly more psycho martial arts movie. Shiryu isn‘t afraid to spin kick you in the face or 619 you from odd angles. Also the frying pan shots may have looked more painful than the barbedwire bat, and Shiryu took some really nasty bumps. Really really fun match largely thanks to Shiryu.

GENTARO vs. DAISUKE, Mr. Gannosuke Produce 12/9/2010

Complete GENTARO show. Daisuke is perfectly average, but Gentaro does just one neat thing after another in this. His matwork was like Dick Murdoch with a touch of Fujiwara. That may sound weird but it was really good. He then proceeded to take DAISUKEs arm apart and bust out some nifty counters. DAISUKE isn‘t great but he has solid offense and sells the arm work very well. Recommended watching just for all the cool shit GENTARO was doing.

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.

GWE Watching: Tamon Honda

 Tamon Honda vs. Daisuke Ikeda, NOAH 3/29/2001

Their KBS hall match is more famous and probably better, but this match was beastly in it's own right. There wasn't much matwork, but Ikeda was landing FUTEN level kicks to Hondas face and Honda hit all these beastly throws and counters. Both guys selling was just great, Ikeda would make a random leglock or Honda falling on top of him look deadly, and Honda sold a chokehold as if he was poisoned. Ikeda limping while getting up after a leglock and then rushing over to kick Hondas big head like a football was awe inspiring. I also loved Hondas reversal of the Russian Legsweep and Ikeda hitting the move later in the match was amazing due to the timing and buildup. The crowd for this was at the beginning so quiet you could hear a pin drop but the match won them over and they were popping big at the end so you know it ruled. Also, NAGAI KILLER and some brutal high kicks for the finish.

Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue vs. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito, NOAH 9/2/2001

Honda is set to face Akiyama for the title, so the purpose of this match was to make him look like a beast. And well, that they do. Honda does some fun grappling with Akiyama, then catches him in a nasty guillotine. Akiyama seems to make a comeback but then Honda just snatches him and dumps him hard with the Dead End. Saito tags in and Honda chokes him out in 20 seconds. Badass show, which is made more badass by how useless Inoue was in the match. Afterwards Inoue raises Hondas hand like „that‘s my boy!“. Great shit, short, neat, told its story perfectly.

Yoshinari Ogawa & Tamon Honda vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura, NOAH 8/24/2002

Really fun story driven tag. Rare instance of a match where not much special happens early on and it adds to it. Ogawa as this unimpressive champion who keeps ratting his way to victory was just great. All his interactions with Takayama were awe inspiring. Ogawa would rake Sugiuras eye and then taunt Takayama („Clean Fight!!“) only to back off, then try to rush Takayama with punches when he tagged in. Then, he would get isolated and tortured by Takayama and Sugiura. Takayama tagging in Sugiura and then sprinting across the ring to have a go at Ogawa was another really amusing moment. Also, all the olympic grappling exchanges involving Honda where great and the finish between him and Sugiura was awesome.

Tamon Honda & Takeshi Morishima vs. KENTA & Akihiko Ito, NOAH 8/23/2009

Really good undercard tag which was a reminder that NOAH was a pretty fun promotion once upon a time. All of Hondas exchanges were so cool here, he rarely works like a beast but he was a slovenly monster here, really establishing that it‘s hard to get him off his feet. His unorthodox grappling exchanges with young Ito were really cool and his brief sections with KENTA really hinted against a great singles match between them. He Dead Ends KENTA hard, and the bit where he snatches Ito and almost strangles him was grizzly. Morishima is really effective in his role of fat dude who tries to ring peoples bell and crushes them with his fatness. Ito is also a really spry fun guy with really good execution, too bad he retired but I guess he dodged a bullet by dropping out of this promotion. Also KENTA bodyslamming fat Morishima onto Honda was such a fun little spot, totally makes a match like this stand out.

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #4

 Command Bolshoi & Megumi Yabushita vs. KAZUKI & Sachie Abe, JWP 1/11/2009

Pretty much a monster showing from Bolshoi and Yabushita, who spent pretty much the whole match armbaring their opponents left and right. Abe and Kazuki couldn‘t get in any offense unless they used double teams. That dynamic made this match really entertaining. I always love Yabushita as her „throw and armbar“ style pretty much sends opponents into survival mode right from the start. Bolshoi was just ridiculous here. Abe looked like a decent worker doing Jaguar Yokota moves. KAZUKI was a bit indyriffic here or there, but I liked how she tried to counter Yabushita with judo moves of her own and I loved her tomoe nage into a pin. Really good little match due to how they worked the dynamic.

Command Bolshoi vs. Konami, Pure-J 8/11/2017

Really cool Velocity shootstyle match which should have been on my radar in 2017. Konami is one of the few promising modern day joshi workers. The wrestling in this was like a cross between BattlARTS and ARSION. All slick legbars and the occasional high kick from Konami. It‘s probably no coincidence Konami has one of her best showings I‘ve seen against Bolshoi. The calf slicer sequence in this was incredible. It was just a 7 minute match, but backed with cool matwork and peppered with a few great sequences. Reminded me of those 7 minute Ishikawa/Otsuka matches which is high high praise.

Command Bolshoi vs. KAZUKI, JWP 10/13/2013

Another really good match. I wasn‘t sure about KAZUKI before, but she was convincing here. This was almost all on the mat and just a duel of arm- and leglocks. KAZUKI busted out another cool tomoe nage into an armbar, and her selling after she got caught in Bolshois leg stretches was great. Basically Bolshoi doing a Virus style mat contest, and it was cool as hell.

Command Bolshoi vs. Hanako Nakamori, PURE-J 1/14/2018

Another excellent match, which felt like one of the best joshi matches in years. I haven‘t seen Nakamori before, but she was this big lady who liked to throw stiff kicks, and she was pretty good. As usual with Bolshoi matches there was some great, tricked out matwork, with Nakamori also bringing stuff to the table such as locking in a cool Takogatame. There was an absolutely sick Volk Han-like sleeper from Bolshoi that left Nakamoris face turning blue. The later goings of the match were exciting with Nakamori landing some FUTEN level kicks in Bolshois face, and Bolshoi firing back with her trademark shotais. The most impressive thing was how well the match flowed, there were sections were one of them was focussing on attacking an arm or a leg but it never went long and never felt like filler, and all the transitions fell into place naturally. Just a tremendous pace for a 20 minute match without feeling go-go.

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.

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project #5

 Tarzan Goto & Mikan vs. Musashi Oyama & Lemon, Goto-Ippa 5/10/2009 - GREAT

Goto-Ippa is basically Gotos little wrestling school project. Just tiny shows held so his boys can get some experience and so Goto can carve them up. Musashi Oyama is another unknown sleaze god. He's older than dirt and sports this seedy slicked back long hair look, looking like Gran Hamadas granddad. He's awesome. Mikan and Lemon are two girl wrestlers and they look really untrained. Like "can't take a back bump" level untrained. They don't show up on any other Goto-Ippa cards so I assume they aren't affiliated to Goto. Mikan likes to kick hard so I guess I liked her. Lemon was basically constantly on the verge of killing herself. And this goes 36 MINUTES? What in the hell? It feels amazingly short though and still pushes into borderline GREAT territory, because we are evaluating Tarzan Goto performances, and the man did it all here. He's really old (he retired in the late 80s, for christs sake), but he still comfortably does his thing and never looks out of step or even fatigued. Opening Goto/Oyama sections were pretty great. Goto grappling rules, and Oyama even kicks him in the face pretty hard. Then we get Goto doing about the best job humanly possible to carry Lemon through an FIP section. Really doing the most you can with a girl who can't back bump, only throwing her to the corner and throwing safe but good looking punches and headbutts. When Lemon makes her comeback Goto takes these great bumps for her DDTs. We also get some fun sections with Oyama trying to protect Lemon from evil Goto, and of course Oyama ends up getting carved up. The latter match Goto/Oyama sections are so great as Goto is just brutalizing him with punches, headbutts and lariats as he's bleeding all over the ring in front of probably 30 people. Check this out, fast forward through the girl sections, and enjoy Goto being the man.

Tarzan Goto & Mr. Gannosuke vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Bruiser Okamoto, Big Japan 7/25/1995 - EPIC

This was another one of those stretched out tags from the era where it starts with lots of quality wrestling and then turns into a bloodbath. Goto and Gannosuke are one hell of a unit here. Okamoto is a big, non-descript young guy who works kind of like a shooter, so he‘s a very good dude to slot intot his match. Starts with a great section where he and Gannosuke grapple it out doing kneebars like this is a BattlARTS match, followed by another great section where he tries to grapple Tarzan Goto and Goto just outclassing him. I especially loved how Goto stuffed an Okamoto takedown and just yanked his face with a nasty facelock, it was like something Fujiwara would do. If course this is just a warmup for the inevitable as referee Great Kojika acts shady and this causes Goto and Gannosuke to go to town on Okamoto with chairs and what have. I liked how Nagasaki, when Goto took the match to the floor also started floor brawling and crowbarring Mr. Gannosuke. Nagasaki was in full on pissed off dad mode here and swinging chairs and tables at people. It builds to a great second half with Nagasaki beating the piss out of Mr. Gannosuke while Goto breaks a bottle. The whole matchs was building to a Goto/Nagasaki interaction and when it happens it‘s just Goto coming in to break up a Nagasaki pinfall by cutting his face open. It was such a psycho move and so beautifully well timed. I also liked how Okamoto challenged Gannosuke to another wrestling face off only for Gannosuke to take him down and immediately start clawing at his cut. Beautiful tag psychology crossed with some serious street fighting violence, you can‘t tell me these guys weren‘t masters at this.

Tarzan Goto & Damian 666 vs. Goro Tsurumi & Hisakatsu Oya, FMW 6/19/1994 - FUN

The very definition of a FUN match. Starts out as just an offensive slaughter from Damian, as Goto wails on people with hard lariats and Damian does cool lucha spots and impressions of other wrestlers. You wouldn‘t think these two would work well together but damn they acted like best buddies here. Oya got his ass beaten – taking some tailbone breaking bumps into a table and getting walloped by Goto. Even during the brief section where Damian was in peril Goto came over to kick Oyas ass. Tsurumi looked decent and there was a cool section where he and Goto wailed on each other, I would‘ve liked that to go longer than 20 seconds. Brief but an all around good time.

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Secret Base 10/20/2009

 

Kinya Oyanagi vs. Skayde Jr.

Fun opening match. I‘m guessing this is actually Skaydes kid. He wrestles like the actual Skayde but is way skinnier. Oyanagi has some cool llaves of his own and bases well for Jrs. Stuff. A cool 7 minutes.

Spark Aoki & Go vs. Kazuhiro Tamura & Masashi Takeda

Fun sleazy undercard quasivshootstyle match. Dig Takeda as a deathmatch scarred punk who will kneebar you. Spark Aoki was in the tall awkward kid phase of his career here, and he got the shit slapped out of him. Go didn‘t really impress, but he was smart enough to tag out so Aoki could drop the fall. Not a fan of K. Tamuras thigh slappiness, but his submissions are cool. Overall, a satisfying match due to the abuse of Spark Aoki.

Frank Ohashi & Ferist vs. Kamui & Mineo Fujita

Pretty forgettable indy lucharesu match. These guys aren‘t very athletic, don‘t have much personality and don‘t do anything complex. The match also went far too long at 19 minutes with way too many nearfalls for your midcard match.

Kinya Oyanagi & Satoshi Kajiwara vs. Jun Ogawauchi & Masa Takanashi

Ogawauchi is another ex T2P guy who looked pretty talented but had his career derailed by injury. The opening Oyanagi/Ogawauchi matwork section was really fun. The rest of the match was a let down as Takanashi and Kajiwara had the same syndrome as the guys in the previous match. Once again, there were too many pointless nearfalls. Oyanagi was fun doing his thing though and was the only guy who showed any personality.

Mototsugu Shimizu & Yamada Man Pondo vs. Jun Kasai & Jaki Numazawa

This was your typical plunder brawl made better by the fact that it felt like it was the two deathmatch kingpins invading Secret Base to slaughter their boys. Shimizu & Pondo bleed and showed good fire and Kasai and Numazawa are decent dickhead heels. Finishin run was rather standard but the match felt shorter than the previous one.

Bear Fukuda & Masaki Okimoto vs. CHANGO & Amigo Suzuki vs. Takeshi Minamino & Manjimaru

3 ways are pretty dumb. 3 way tags are even dumber. They realized this too and didn‘t try at all. Apparently Okimoto is RASSE but didn‘t do anything cool.

THE LIBRARY

Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

GENTARO vs. Takaku Fuke, VKF 3/12/2009

GENTARO was on a roll doing weirdo lengthy Bret Hart infused MUGA matches during this time period. Fuke has looked pretty weak post U-STYLE, but he was good here. This was a smartly laid out 2/3 falls match. The first fall had some cool scrambling with GENTARO grappling the shooter in a very pro style manner but doing everything in a snug fashion before Fuke casually taps him with an achilles hold. That hold has to be the most basic of all but GENTARO does a great job putting it over like death. The rest of the match is built around GENTARO trying to take out Fukes leg – including hitting some great chop blocks and the obligatory Turnbuckle Figure 4 with Fuke trying to grab shootstyle holds which GENTARO sells like death. There is a great build to the figure 4 including Fuke busting out some killer reversals. Last couple minutes were pretty great with Fuke trying to KO him and GENTARO desperately trying to grab the leg. The match reminded me a bit of those recent NJPW big matches built around limb work except this was about 40 minutes shorter so less bloated and neither guy looked silly at any point

Billy Scott vs. Daijiro Matsui (KINGDOM 6/20/1997)

Matsui could have had a pretty decent run as a shootstylist judging on his performance here. This was a total grappling sprint, both guys doing some high end slick mat wrestling getting in and out of holds. There was one moment where Scott landed a punch that bloodied Matsuis eye in nasty fashion, but other than that it was all grappling. Scott hit a pretty great belly to belly at one point. Loved Matsui selling the finish, too.

Masao Orihara vs. Original Tiger Mask (RJPW 9/26/2005)

Pretty great match which has to go down as one of Oriharas finest performances ever. The match went 30 minutes, but it was laid out in such a way that Tiger wasn’t required to do any selling, and Tiger didn’t gas out (or at least not in a way that hurt the match), so it worked. So you have Tiger doing all his cool fatman flying and spin kicks and Orihara making scuzzy comebacks, using chairs and taking a big beating. The last 10 minutes ruled as Orihara got his shoulder demolished with kicks and joint popping armlocks but refused to quit and made all these awesome comebacks while getting further demolished by Tigers kicks. When the time limit runs out it feels like a victory for Orihara for gutting it out and lasting against a technically superior opponent. It was a really cool piece of pro wrestling storytelling that felt closer to a real sport than any workratefest and way better than any braindead nearfallfest that usually caps off long matches like these.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #8

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shinjuku Shark (WEW 5/3/2003) - GREAT

Man, Shark is pure scum. The opening minutes of this were pretty fun as Toba has the superior striking arsenal, so Shark would use pro wrestling moves, such as a dropkick and even a Capture Suplex. The second half was another Rocky style punchout though with some sick punches and counterpunches. Toba looks great dishing it out here including an awesome leaping knee to Sharks face. 7 minutes well invested.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shinjuku Shark, XWF 9/8/2008 - EPIC

This was the best match I’ve seen between the two so far. Shark seemed to be doing better than usual early on, moving through Tobas kick advantage, until Toba started kicking the hell out of his leg. Shark went down and it seemed he was done, but Toba gave him another dickish kick, prompting Shark to dig deep and go all out. Shark ended up catching Tobas kicks and hitting some dragon screws and even a Capture Suplex, which Toba sold great with his usual ragdoll bumping. Finishing run had both guys unloading with punches to the face and several great near Kos. Best boxing gloves only match I’ve seen so far.

Tanomusaku Toba & Yasu Urano vs. Hikaru Sato & Tomomitsu Matsunaga, DDT 2/10/2009 – GREAT

A good example of what makes Toba such a valuable worker. I’m not sure Matsunaga has ever been in an outstanding match, but put him against Toba, and suddenly you get this random fatboy undercarder to do some cool uncooperative wrestling and throwing potatoes. Matsunaga matching up with Urano was ok, but you can tell Toba gets the most out of guys like these. Sato looked about 5000 times better here than during his AJPW run. He was working hard, mixing in cool grappling and meshing well in this pro style environment. His interactions with Toba were great once again. These two guys handily made this match worth watching. Toba was Toba, and again busted out his nasty elbow to the throat at one point.

 

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Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #7

 Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Manabu Hara & Takahiro Oba, FUTEN 4/26/2009 - EPIC

Man, is Team Taco the greatest tag team ever, or what? Is FUTEN the greatest promotion ever? Those 24 shows between Bati-Bati 1 and 26 that we don't have are sorely missed. This is head and shoulders the best thing to come out of Japan - and probably all the world - that year. 28 minutes of pure hybrid shootstyle greatness. The great thing about this post modern shootstyle is that it allows for plenty of character work and psychology while also delivering high end exchanges and insane stiffness in spades. Ikeda and Ono are predictably great here cutting off the ring, isolating guys and beating the tar off of them, but there's also plenty of fairly great wrestling exchanges. Ono is king sized here, both delivering some really slick grappling and punishing guys with precise striking. There is a great section where Ono and Ikeda are stretching the shit out of Haras leg, really Regalesque torture holds that you don't see much in shootstyle, and it really underlines what a pair of pricks they are. Oba & Hara are a revelation here totally holding up their side of the match. Haras athletic moves are a cool change of pace from the hardened tough veteran asskicking that Ikeda and Ono bring to the table, and Oba is on fire in this match as an eccentric tough guy with supreme idiot strength. Several great spots throughout the match, and it keeps building and building to the eventual explosion when Ikeda and Hara really start killing each other. Ikeda is a fucking god here, and Hara holds up in a stretch that is up there with the most insane Ikeda/Ishikawa ending stretches. Bare knuckle boxing exchanges, Ikeda almost crushing Haras face with probably the craziest spin kick caught on film, Hara dropping Ikeda with a completely out of nowhere Tiger Driver 91, both guys were just raining hell on each other and it was truely transcendent. Ikeda is one of the few guys you buy as tough enough to survive this kind of punishment, and Hara is really elevated by making it through this madness even as he gets trapped. Tremendous, tremendous match, pro wrestling at its absolute best.

Takeshi Ono vs. Ikuto Hidaka (BattlARTS 4/15/1997) - FUN

It’s fun to watch Hidaka progress through getting his ass kicked by Takeshi Ono. Hidaka lasted about a minute longer in this than in their last match, but may have taken an even worse beating. Ono was unloading with some sick kicks and headbutts here. Also dug his knees on the ground. When Hidaka briefly got the advantage on the mat, he was met with another kick in the face swiftly. Talk about earning your stripes.

Takeshi Ono & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka & Katsumi Usuda (BattlARTS 5/18/1997) - GREAT

Back then you could throw almost any combination of BattlARTS guys into a tag and you were basicallly guaranteed a great match. This was basically a barrage of great grappling and vicious strikes. Usuda and Ono were just killing people here with their kicks, you don’t see people getting walloped like that anymore. Ono came across as this ultra vicious little bastard. He had some cool power vs. sheer scrappiness exchanges against Otsuka, including Otsuka deadlifting him from a hold into a Takaiwaeske piledriver in a sick moment. Finish was great as Usuda just barely got the drop on Ono and Otsuka ran in to nuke him with suplexes. Ono did this really excellent KO sell as he tried to regain his equilibrium. My only gripe with this is they clipped a 15 minute match down to 9.

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