A few matches from the Mutoha back catalogue

As always you can get them directly from the source through itako18jp     

Keita Yano vs. Ryoji Nagaya, Mutoha 2/26/2010 - EPIC

This was shortly before Yano transformed into the joker. Hell it may have been his first match in the Cerberus Dojo too, and you can really see him breathing the vibe in as he steps on the mat. He’s wearing this bright grappling suit that he didn’t wear often. He was like a Louis Wain painting, becoming more colourful and strange with his transformations over the years. This match was just classic Keita stuff, really clinical performance taking a guy apart. Opening minutes were quite great as Yano would basically lock in armlocks at will and yank Nagaya around like a demonstration of carny grappling. Really awesome Fuchi/Volk Hanisch performance from Yano displaying his skill and trying to bend Nagayas limbs in hellishly painful looking ways. Nagaya was this pudgy guy who briefly was Mutohas only trainee before he moved on to sleazier things. He was pretty much in for the fight of his life here, as Yano was all over him on the mat. He knew he had to bring the intensity and that he did. At one point they go into this scramble leading into a front headlock battle where they end up tumbling out the door of the venue. They get back into it as they step back on the mat. Nagaya finally gets an advantage when he gets Yano in an indian deathlock and he really tries his hardest to make the most out of that. Both guys end up trying to bend each other to the point of snapping and its awesome. As I said before Yano was just great here, always trying to grab Nagayas head and twist it off, or unscrew his wrist or ankle. Feels really like classic Fujiwara or El Dandy/Javier Llanes stuff as they would even work a basic lockup or wristlock with tremendous intensity. Nagaya is so outmatched on the mat that when he starts hitting Yano it really looks like he’s trying to maul him with his stomps and forearms. He had an awesome crowbarish spin kick and a big flip senton that was Mighty Inoue levels of crushing and completely unexpected. He hits his stuff with such conviction it looks like the realest shit ever. And Yano just kept trying to snap limbs. I also loved him retaliating with probably he hardest kick to someones kidney that I've ever seen. So yeah 20+ minutes of high intensity great matwork and some gritty Kurisu violence, this was a Cerebrus Dojo special and it was awesome.

Kikujiro Umezawa vs. Chojin Yusha G Valion, Mutoha 6/20/2010

Early Mutoha cards are just full of all kinds of obscure indy guys. How often do you see the likes of Chojin Yusha G Valion and Kikujiro Umezawa? So it’s really nice that we just get to see guys like that. This is a kind of awesome match. It’s not very stereotypically Mutoha – there Is not really any mat work or technical wrestling here. But it still feels very much in the vein of Mutoha. They simply did a very simple, straight forward big vs. small type match with total conviction that made it really compelling. Umezawa is a human bowling ball of a man, he has the vibe of an ex-sumo from the days of WAR or IWE. He exudes this sense of glee when he gets to beat on Valion with his open hand chops and headbutts. Neither guy has any offense that you haven’t seen before – Valion just as a really nice dropkick, and Umezawa totally owns every basic thing he does, every slam every shoulderblock just crushing the masked guy. Valion does have a pretty unique way to dropkick Umezawa at the top of his head, but that’s it pretty much. Umezawa hits a spear at one point that’s about the damndest spear you’ve ever seen, totally turning Valion inside out and leaving him a scrambled mess. But it’s such a perfectly well worked and executed match that it ends up being interesting all the way through with not a wasted moment. I think Valion doesn’t even dive off the top rope in this. The finish is just Valion hanging onto a sleeper for dear life and trying to get the tap. It totally fits with the theme of the match and what Mutoha was going for. Nothing flashy just raw pro wrestling executed extremely well.

Chon Shiryu vs. MASAKI, Mutoha 12/29/2013

A totally awesome little match. MASAKI is a sleazy karateka with tattoos who wrestles like a mini Akitoshi Saito, all really hard kicks and neck chops. Chon Shiryu is of course always awesome and they are fighting in Cerberus Dojo to boot. Shiryu is always doing something interesting, even when he’s working basic hold he manages to come across like a kung fu master punishing his opponent, and he makes sure to always add something even to things like resisting a boston crab. MASAKI has a bunch of awesome kick variations and he really lays hard into Shiryus skinny frame. He hit this one kind of floating spin kick that was straight out of Tekken. And we get a bit of kung fu vs karate strikes which is of course cool. The finish is awesome too as Shiryu trips MASAKI then just leaps to the ceiling and hits this sick ass stomp to the back of MASAKIs neck before finishing him off pretty fast. He hit it so out of nowhere it looked totally killer. I love watching Shiryu do his thing, and against an unseen cool wrestler like MASAKI it’s really a pretty sweet discovery.

Lumberjack Match: Iori Sugawara vs. Ho Death Minh, Mutoha 5/14/2022

A total sleazefest. This is a lumberjack match so you have all these crazy characters lurking around the ring. There’s Leatherface, Katsunari Toi, Diablo, freaking Ricky Fuji even… a big part of the fun of this match is just watching all these guys brawling. Most of the fans have their cameras out and this definitely seems like a photographers dream match. But there’s also a surprisingly great wrestling match in here. Sugawara is another sleazy karateka who is really sharp with his kicks. Death Minh is Poison Sawada doing a crazy facepainted evil Vietcong gimmick, for those who don’t know. They cut a great pace and never really slow down, keeping the intensity up working some tight submissions and toe to toe fighting in the ring and always trying to throw the opponent to the outside for the lumberjacks to cause chaos. There’s also some measured and painful looking use of foreign objects. Vasaru Ikeuchi ends up interfering a bit too liberally and it causes an even bigger brawl with everyone jumping each other. By the end it’s almost like a Memphis match with Sugawara unloading a punch combo in the corner on Sawada and destroying him with his kicks, with Sawada trying to work the leg headbutting away at the knee. It’s delightfully old school and really sound. Sawada took a ton of punishment (considering how old and frail he looks) and Sugawara looked badass. Really unique and just amazingly fun.

Takahiro Tababa vs Yuki Takasugi, Mutoha 2017/11/4

This was another unusual match for Mutoha because Tababa just goes after Takasugi with a vengeance and beats the hell out of him with shoot kicks and chairs. Tababas kicks are sick looking and Takasugi is pretty fun here hitting 70s style flip sentons with full bodyweight on Tababa to retaliate. Fun and violent, but pretty short. The finish is really cool though as Takasugi goes for an old school backbreaker hold but Tababa slips to the back and yanks him back for a choke that he locked in so deep Takasugis face turned blue. Cool.

Keita Yano Documentation 

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.

Ran YuYu 7 Match Gauntlet

     Ran YuYu vs. Azumi Hyuga, JWP 12/3/2005

These two have fought each other a bunch in the past, in matches where they threw everything imaginable at each other. This was shorter (at 20 minutes), more focused and quite great if I may say so. It was basically an amalgamation of their rivalry but put together very well. Everything here felt like it mattered and they were always doing something cool, even making things like a figure 4 or german suplex that are often just thrown out in joshi matches look like a struggle and putting some fresh spins into everything. There are some great missed moves and reversals and cool touches like Hyuga sidestepping YuYus kitchen sink and making her fall through the ropes that nobody else would really think of working into a match. The body of the match was really good and the finishing run was next level with both of them trying to crack each others heads and YuYu going crazy trying to topple the eternal ace. Hyuga did pretty much her thing, which is not bad as she has such great offense, she did bust out one Honda-ish deadlift german suplex that was really sweet. YuYu showed the fire and charisma and some great strikes as she always does. It goes without saying these two have great offense but their creativity is what really brings it to the next level, just some amazing ideas here without becoming too cute, they would always maintain that gritty vibe. It feels like a bit of a putdown to say a match is ‘just what you expect’ but from these two you expect a great match, and this may have been a bit better because they went above and beyond.

Ran YuYu vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki, JWP 3/22/2010

JWP may actually be my favourite non-shootstyle promotion going in this period, at least when it comes to these kinda big move slinging main events they do them better than everyone else as far as I’m concerned. Kuragaki is a badass wrestler in her own right, and these two could’ve just had a generic match and I would’ve liked it, but they decided to make things a bit more interesting. Basically Ran is a total prick with her kicks and knees that were stinging Kuragaki like needles to the face, while Kuragaki is working like the more valiant clean wrestler, almost a bit like Hash/Tenryu in 1993. Kuragaki is pretty great at that and Ran is a really great prick. I just love her use of the elbows and knees, there was also some cool leg selling from her as Kuragaki is too valiant to outright attack her bandaged leg but she does sell that it’s bothering her in some cool moments. Really good build here the finish was great with both of them going for the KO.

Ran YuYu vs. Azumi Hyuga, JWP 6/16/2002

This was a 2/3 Falls match. Like I said, in 2002 these two had a bunch of matches where they really went all out in ways few other wrestlers have. It was sometimes ill-fated but this one really distillates what these two stood for. This had the special rule that the first fall was 2 count pinfalls, 2^nd was submissions, and 3^rd a regular match. They go way past 30 minute so it’s not for the faint of the heart but there is a ton of damn great wrestling here. 1^st fall was already worked at a sprint pace as they both did a mix of insanely fast pin combos and trying to knock each other out with some really hard strikes. It’s brisk, creative wrestling that few others could pull off. 2^nd fall gets all gritty and dirty as they get on the mat and try to tap each other out. It could feel like a bunch of performative time killing, but these two do so much cool stuff to remind you that they are a class above when it comes to skill. There are cool moments such as Ran looking in a great rolling crucifix hold during a shootstyle exchange and there’s some really good arm and leg submission work. Hyuga hitting a missile dropkick to Rans bad shoulder, or Ran locking in a great rolling cross kneebar, all straight up high end wrestling.Again these two are really creative to make that stuff as interesting as they do here. And they just keep bringing the hard hitting, almost everything these two has insane force, down to their signature knee strikes and elbows but also other things like their dropkicks, slaps and even shoot headbutts. Hyuga even hits a gritty out of nowhere lariat to mix things up. The 3^rd fall retains that vibe nicely though it does go a bit long they never lost me. These two were insanely ambitious but with the kind of talent they had you can’t fault them for flexing their skills like this. Even though it was a long match they always managed to do something interesting so it never feels pointlessly long, just super impressive wrestling.

Ran YuYu vs. Sawako Shimono, Ayumi Kurihara Produce 12/12/2010

We go from Ran going over 30 against arguably the top womans wrestler of the 2000s, to Ran taking on a stocky underdog on the second match of a random produce show. Matches like that can be totally mailed in and by the numbers, but this was insanely entertaining to watch and imaginative. Basically Ran is all ornery and evil, stomping on Shimonos face and not taking her seriously, but Shimono could overpower her with her thrusty offense, even crashing into her with body checks in positions that no other wrestler has taken a body check in. It’s really well done and you can see Ran is a) really nice to sell for Shimono this much and let her get in a lot of offense and not making her look like a total jobber and b) making the effort to make even a throwaway match like this memorable. Rans offense did look great – that low angle sideways jumping knee thing she does is an amazing piece of offense, and all her knees were really knocking the wind out of Shimono. I also appreciate her making the effort to make basic things, like the lift for a firemans carry, or getting out of a pinfall, or any of the basic knees she throws etc, look important.

Ran YuYu vs. Yuka Shiina, NEO 5/3/2002

Shiina is a pretty unique wrestler. She’s not exactly a shootstyle grappler, but she’s quite stubborn in going for submissions, in a way that makes her holds actually feel like a big deal. Of course Ran is no slouch on the mat either so you’ve got a rad match up here. Shiina has some awesome twisting ways to lock in sleepers and armbars, and YuYu is a good overdog here smacking her around and kicking her in the ribs really hard. She does let Shiina look great even in losing, and I love her use of the double armbar.

Ran YuYu vs. Mima Shimoda NEO 5/4/2002

Mima Shimoda rules in this. YuYus arm took a beating from Shiina the night before, so Shimoda goes right at it, and constantly goes back to it, with YuYu looking like she really did not want Shimoda to keep attacking her arm. Shimoda would also look Tenryu-ish kicking and booting Ran in the face with her gravel voice. It’s some really good compelling work that unfortunately isn’t paid off well as Ran seems to not really give a shit about the armwork once it’s done. Her stuff still looks great and she times it very well, still I would’ve liked her to take the ball and roll with Shimoda a bit more. The finish is some bullshit run in so maybe that explains that. Still, it’s nice to see Ran against someone who’s not one of her JWP peers, even if the match ended up being more simplistic.

Ran YuYu & Toshie Uematsu vs. Kaori Yoneyama & Leon, JWP 9/18/2006

I want to focus more on singles matches with these but Rans team with Uematsu was a major part of her career. This is pretty much what you associate with joshi, it’s a totally insane movezfest where they try to cram everything they can think of and more into a span of about 20 minutes and never really slowing down. It wasn’t the most substantial or consequential but when it comes to pure action they pulled off some face melting intensity here. There’s some learned spot across the 2/3 falls format for some semblance of psychology, and I enjoyed the hell out of Ran and Uematsu here as they understood you have to mix in some really hard shots in between the moves to pepper everything up a little. Not that Leon and Yoneyama were bad. Lots of nifty unique move combos that you won’t ever see attempted by saner wrestlers, and the finish is just Ran knocking someone the fuck out with an elbow to the face and I love that.

Tarzan Goto Documentation #16

 Tarzan Goto vs Atsushi Onita, FMW 1/6/1993 - EPIC

BattlARTS level violence contained in a barbedwire ring, with both guys taking dangerous spills into the wire and getting sliced repeatedly. Right at the go they are mauling each other with shoot headbutts. Onita stops Goto with a punch to the face and goes for a sleeper, but gets pushed back into the wire. One lariat later and Onitas arms are cut. That about sums this match up, just two guys wreaking destruction on each other almost without pause. There is some filler figure 4 work which is a minor point deduction, but other than that this is just gritty insanity. Goto is a force of nature here pounding Onita to a bloody pulp, and also not afraid to fly into the wire, and Onitas aura is so insane that he can make almost any kind of beatdown work, let alone the kinda beatdown that Goto puts on him here. The barbedwire actually feels dangerous and people react with horro at the spills which is another plus of these early deathmatches. Another thing is that it’s 93 so they were excuting moves like a bulldog or DDT with maximum snap. Gotos facebuster moves also looked like an execution. At one point Goto goes for a German Suplex and I’m not sure I’ve seen him hit a german suplex in another match but holy fuck his German Suplex was beautiful here. Lots of epic exchanges here and the finish feels about as big as it gets without relying on some ridiculously big bump or anything, just visceral carnage done in a skillful way. You don’t quite get spectacles like this anymore.

Tarzan Goto & Mr. Pogo & Yuta Nakata vs Kintaro Kanemura & Masayoshi Motegi & Yusaku Obata, Super FMW 7/30/2010 - FUN

Raw injection of pro wrestling at it’s seediest. This is in Shin Kiba, it looks like there’s about 30 people intendance. They still go all out, but the emptiness of the building and the lack of crowd enthusiasm adds to the ghoulish atmosphere. We get Goto punching Kanemura in the face and them both hitting each other with shoot headbutts, some brawling that actually feels spirited. Mr. Pogo, around 37 years into his career and 10 years from having a broken neck feels like an ancient ghoul in this match. Oddly enough he takes more offense than I’ve often seen him take, eating one of Motegis nasty shotais. Motegi takes his boot off to beat on Motegi, but ends up still taking a sickle to the face. Nothing like Pogo taking the sickle to hapless fools in a dark nearly empty building. Nakata is a complete sleazeball and I like how Motegi completely no-sold his dive. Obata, being chiseled and young, looks like the one guy here who has a future still, and so Goto carves him up with a broken beer bottle and does some gritty Abby/Sheikh vs Funk Bros arm stabbing. A weird thing happens where it seems Goto and Pogo are gonna fight but they make up and do a double team move that involves Pogo doing a drop down which feels like some wild athleticism from him. Eventually it devolves to Goto vs Obata with Goto making Obata earn some offense. Obata hitting a basic suplex is made to feel like a big deal and he has a cool sliding leg lariat, though he ends up running into Gotos face and getting mauled by more punches and headbutts to the face. Everybody was working oddly hard here, but what you will mainly remember is the creepy vibe.

Tarzan Goto vs Shoji Nakamaki, IWA Japan 8/9/1995 - GREAT

Insane level of aura here. Normally these IWA Japan main event brawls have 6 or so guys in them. Here it’s just the two of them, but boy do they make up for it with action. Right at the go they are at each other with Nakamaki landing some hatefilled chairshots to Goto and Goto kicking him right back in the face. Nakamaki takes an insane bump where he falls through the barbedwire ropes to the floor and the crowd is just melting down at this. Goto proceeds to kick Nakamakis bleeding ass all over the place. You know Goto is great at dishing out punishment, and taking punishment is the one thing Nakamaki is famous for, so you can imagine the kind of asskicking that goes down. Nakamaki is quite great just firing up, hitting a headbutt, and then getting baredwire shoved in his face. Nakamakis only chance here is that the referee, Gypsy Joe is on his side. It doesn’t make a huge difference but it’s fun because clearly Nakamaki needs to hit Goto with just 1 good move and Joe will count the 3. Gotos response to this problem is to just kill Nakamaki dead. The finish in this is just absolutely heinous. It doesn’t even feel like a deathmatch freakshow exhibition spot it’s just a killing. After the match Goto beats the shit out of Joe too, knocking him over with a lariat (can you imagine how hard you have to hit Gypsy Joe that he will actually sell for you?). Joe eats some chair shots and gets shoved into the wire. A big GOTO chant breaks out and he just looks like the coldest dude on earth. This won’t win any workrate awards but it’s just an awesome heat filled spectacle in it’s glorious blood drenched and barbed wire wrapped way.

 

Tarzan Goto Documentation 

Assorted 19 O Clock Girls Pro Wrestling

 Chii Tomiya vs Makoto, Ice Ribbon 12/10/2010

This is from the 19 O’Clock Girls Pro Wrestling era. Basically Ice Ribbon just livestreamed dojo matches every week. This was way way better than you’d expect a match like that to be, as they basically went all out to have a great 10 minute TV match with no audience. Starts out very good with both of them showing some slick mat wrestling. Tomiya has really fast ankle picking takedowns and Makoto also looked good exchanging holds and making fancy escapes. It’s just really solid, targetted wrestling with purpose. I always like when every move has a follow up, i.e. Makoto would target Tomiyas back further after locking in a boston crab. Cool transition where Makoto tries to do further damage to Tomiya outside of the ring, but Tomiya is able to hit a Dudley Dog into a chair. Tomiya then climbs onto a poll and hits a diving stomp to Makotos mid-section. Tomiya proceeded to further attack the mid section, with an angry Makoto in turn attacking her mid-section too in retaliation. Finishing run had some really awesome rewindworthy submissions and pin counters with both of them really sinking deep into Fujiwara armbars. There were cool transitions, unique spins on more standard move, good pace, believable offense from both of them. Great intro to the world of 19 O Clock Girls Pro Wrestling.

Nanae Takahashi vs Sayaka Obihiro, Ice Ribbon 12/10/2010

Yeah, another really good 10 minute match. By far the best I’ve seen Obihiro look – not that I’ve seen a ton of Obihiro. From what I know, she’s seemingly a comedy character in recent years, but she was fighting hard here. Starts great with Obihiro stopping Takahashis onslaught by latching onto her leg, leading to some cool stubborn grappling. The match story is simple: Takahashi would blow Obihiro a way, and Obihiro would desperately try to latch onto any kind of advantage. When Obihiro got a basic sleeper she really went for that sleeper like she wanted to choke out Takahashi more than anything else in her life. Takahashi is great here – putting a ton of force into basic moves like a dropkick, shoulder block or back suplex, and punishing Obihiros audacity. Even the blown spots kinda worked for the story of the match, and the Ice Ribbon complicated pin housestyle works pretty well for an underdog story. Yeah, I’m having a lot of fun here.

Chii Tomiya vs Hikari Minami, Ice Ribbon 6/1/2011

This was two talented wrestlers going really really hard and having a match that was just off the wall with unique ideas and some amazing wrestling. I’ve never seen Hikari Minami before, but she looked good – quite athletic in fact. She had no problem doing springboard dives, basing for Tomiya, doing slick counters and engaging in some wild shit outside the ring. I’ve no idea if her falling off the rope to the outside was intentional but they continued so seamlessly in their chaotic rhythm that I want to believe it was. They do some pretty fun stuff outside the ring, going into a full on lucha sequence with leapfrogs and legsweeps on the floor, which is pretty unique and worked really well. Tomiya ends up hitting a tornado DDT into the ring bell and then using the hammer in a unique spot. Tomiya is looking quite great in these old webcam matches, just relentless constantly going for flash pins, cool takedowns and submissions. Minami brings quite a bit to the table too. I love how they put a lot of gruesomeness into things as basic as a crabhold. Finishing run had so many unique and cool counters. Tomiyas Jungle Clutch has to be the greatest flash pin I’ve ever seen and then Minami reverses it and it’s real jaw dropping stuff. So good, I’m so happy this stuff survived the Ustream apocalypse because it’s tremendously fun.

Tsukushi vs Emi Sakura, Ice Ribbon 4/10/2011

Hey – it’s a no ring match! It seems to be held in an elementar school… maybe an amateur wrestling room, but there’s also a blackboard on the wall. Anyways! This match is great shit! It’s another for the category of ‘how hard can you go when you have no ring’. They do it all here. And the match had a good teacher vs student story, too. You may hate Emi Sakura, but when she wants to go she’s pretty undeniable. This had a ton of good wrestling, cool submission work, and it was almost an entirely serious and hard fought match. They put considerable struggle into things like Tsukushis bow and arrow hold, nifty things like Tsukushi using the Pallo Special to get into a Tiger Suplex, and lots of cool counters and moments and both of them waffling each other pretty hard. The atmosphere with all the schoolkids watching is pretty fun and this is really a breathless match. All serious, with the exception of one moment where Tsukushi lead an army of school children to roll over Emi Sakura, and even that was kind of fitting.

Cosmo Soldiers YouTube Channel Pt. 2

 

Cosmo Soldier & Hakaru vs Oga Nozaki & Hiroshi Toyoda, KAGEKI 7/20/2014

Cosmo Soldiers continues to deliver the gems on his YouTube channel. In this match we get a look at Oga Nozaki and Hiroshi Toyoda! For those who don’t know, they were the #1 and #2 guy of JWA Tokai in the 2010s so it’s awesome to get a look at them. Oh and Hakaru is there too! And wow this is a really good match. Really scrappy with everybody hitting each other insanely hard with open hand strikes and elbows, and breaking into elbows and dropkicks even from basic movements. A number of unpredictable moments here, which made this feel a bit like a WAR tag. Toyoda was this energetic guy with jeans shorts, he mostly stuck to basic elbows and lariats and exploders and he looked good. Nozaki, the JWA Tokai ace for over a decade, had a bit of a mysterious aura with his bowl cut and dark pants. He liked to throw really hard kicks and go for submissions on the ground but also had some explosive agility. His jumping enzuigiri was awesome, and I liked his flair for the handspring elbow. The handspring elbow is a kind of goofy move but he made it cool in this match by hitting it pretty fast without much addo. He had no problem going toe to toe in violent exchanges and at point he almost shattered Cosmos face with a jumping savate kick that was Daisuke Ikeda levels of sick. So yeah I liked Oga Nozaki a lot on this. Cosmo was also in the match a lot and as always he is always balancing between genius and chaos. He does slip up here and there and there were moments where I couldn’t tell if what he was going for came out as intended, but I think it actually added to the match in some ways. And he also had lots of moments of good wrestling. His dives were amazing, and he brought some evil violence to the match with his double stomps, aggressively slapping guys around and his sickening headbutt to Toyoda. Hakaru was the guy I would’ve liked to see more, he was actually a lot of fun immediately trying to snap an arm. He looked scrappy in a cool way. The match is elimination rules so we get an unpredictable finish, and a cool ending run between 2 guys that was really really good. This was a cool look at some really obscure guys and it really delivered a lot to enjoy.

Cosmo Soldier vs El Samurai, KAGEKI 2010/8/1

Wow, El Samurai! A really fun match where the main appeal is to see Soldier throwing everything he’s got at Samurai. Seriously, Samurai gets a lot of bombs dropped on him in this. There is some cool scrappy matwork and then Soldier comes dropkicking Samurai hard in the ribs from odd angles. Samurai punches Soldier in the face because he’s the man and there are some really stiff exchanges with both guys really clapping each other with open hand strikes. And then you have Soldier hitting this NJPW legend with double foot stomps and suplexing him and just coming up with all kinds of things, in his own somewhat clumsy ways. It’s unusual to see. Samurai has never been a guy who hits a ton of offense, and the few things he does he picks pretty well here. It actually builds to a quite big ending where you really wonder if the indy sensation could put the old legend away.

Cosmo Soldier & Super Taira vs Koji Niizumi & Kitai Kubo, KAGEKI 2011/2/27

 

Awesome battle, the kind that will erase all negative memories from your head and make you remember why you love wrestling again. Niizumi and Kubo are two really obscure wrestlers. From what I can tell they have been KAGEKI mainstays so it’s really hard to find any video of them if you don’t live in Japan. Judging from this match they are an absolute monster team. Niizumi is just a beast, he wrestles like a WAR guy from the 90s who will hit psychotically hard with his elbows and kicks. His jumping knees look like they could kill a person, and I also really liked his one jumping kick. This also takes place in a boxing ring so you know when something like a german suplex or northern lights bomb is hit it’s even harder than in a regular wrestling ring. Everybody was hitting insanely hard in this, with the masked guys coming flying with dropkicks to the face. Taira is also great here, he doesn’t look like the type but he can really dish out and take some crazy strikes, including those awesome jumping kicks. I am mostly used to seeing Taira as grappler but he looked like a total asskicker going toe to toe against someone like Niizumi. Cosmo also brought the violence and a few unique and violent spots, he was pretty straightforward here. Kubo wasn’t tagged in as much as Niizumi but he also looked really fun, he seemed a bit like a sleazy Hiro Saito type with his mullet and pants, he did one hell of a job helping out his buddy though and coming at people with rastand brutal lariats. This match is just a blast, just 4 really cool wrestlers going hard and raining hell on each other for 20 minutes, and awesome to check out, made me want to see more of Kubo and Niizumi because they were killers here. So Cosmo if you are reading this, thank you so much, it’s amazing to see this stuff even 14 years later.

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.

K-WEST 10/29/2010

 Rare show from a mini promotion that was vaguely associated with K-Dojo! They have some cool dudes like Tadanobu Fujisawa and Masao Ando.

Takuya Iijima vs. Daisuke Masaoka

Solid undercard match. Iijima is a very fun big boy who throws cool kicks and knee drops that land with full bodyweight. He also had a cool Hashimoto-esque leg sweep that was unexpected. Masaoka does the bare minimum here working Iijimas leg and winning with a basic leglock in somewhat lazy fashion. Wouldn‘t mind to see more of Iijima.

SATOSHI vs. Southern Cross

Two interesting looking guys. Cross has a stark light blue outfit and mask, while SATOSHI looks like a dorky version of TAKA Michinoku. They tried to have a mat based contest. It was pretty basic but alright. SATOSHI had two nice suplexes at the end. Not much else to write home about.

 

Tadanobu Fujisawa & Dyna Mido vs. Masao Ando & Yuji Yoshida

Damn, I wasn‘t ready to see Masao Ando super buff and chiselled here. I thought that guy always had the tubby physique but he looked like a specimen here. His wrestling was very good, too. Early goings here were really good, reminded me a bit of a 90s NJPW Jr match. Mostly basic ground based stuff executed in really tight and interesting ways. Everybody was working super stiff, too, especially Andos kick that almost seemed to burst a guys chest. Fujisawa was also very good here as he knows how to be a violent prick. Dyna Mido was good early but kind of flubbed his brief run of offense during the second half. Unfortunately they don‘t deliver the Ando vs Fujisawa showdown that was the most promising match up in here. Nice stuff otherwise, love getting to check out guys like Ando and Fujisawa.

The Library

Aggressive Pro 3/25/2010

 Konaka vs. Naoshi Sano

This was a 1 match show that drew a whopping attendance of 0 fans. Ricky Fuji is there! This want a bit over 20 minutes and aside from the general bizareness of it, it was a serious match. Easily the most serious wrestling I've seen Sano do, and he looked good. Why doesn't Sano do more serious wrestling? He drops Konaka with some gnarly backdrops and stretches him with a nasty abdominal hold like Sano is Jumbo now. Sano hits lots of nice punches to the mid section. Konaka mostly takes a beating. At one point he hits a nice Terry Funk style punch combo, at another he goes for a diving chop and breaks his hand on Sanos hard head. Baffling. No yoga spots for some reason. Pretty cool to watch, although it's more of a "What the hell" type of match than actively great. They make a big deal out of Sano winning this belt with Ricky Fuji giving his blessings, although I'm not sure he ever even defended that belt again. A truely remarkable moment in history.

The Library

More Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

 

Diablo vs. Hideaki Sumi, Riki Office 9/26/2010

This was really fucking cool, a karateka vs. a vicious brawler in a chain match. Sumis kicks and punches were great and Diablo was kicking ass here, bloodying his opponent, throwing punches, using chairs and the chain etc. I would have liked to see Sumi kick a bit more ass but for a kind of fast, brief asskicking resulting in blood and mist this was really cool.

 

 

Mentai Kid & Billy Ken Kid vs. Genkai & Ryuta Chikuzen (Kyushu Pro 4/16/2018)

Pretty great match which oddly enough was largely built around the two highflyers doing lots of nasty bodypart work and stiff blows to the grizzled heavyweights. Opening sections were very nice, they kept things simple but worked a scale higher than basic. Match gets really great once BKK hits a double stomp to Chikuzen. They follow up with both Kids unleashing some brutal work on Chikuzens mid section. The whole section was really great and full of nasty stomps, spin kicks, punch combos and excellent cut offs. It’s weird to see a guy like Billy Ken Kid work really stiff and just tag people hard and drop hefty looking bombs but here we are. GENKAI was pretty great in the match too, he largely cut out the WWE spots and was just kicking dudes really hard and hurling them around with hard suplexes. Chikuzen had a Taue-ish vibe, gangly lumbering dude with odd athleticism who will hurl himself at you. GENKAI ended up working overtime to carry his damaged partner through the match and did an amazing job. I dug all the build to the big moves, and that they largely avoided overkill since basic moves like a fallaway slam or hip drop were hitting in brutal fashion. Awesome big match with tremendous heat.

 

Hiroaki Taniguchi vs. Katsumi Oribe, Move-On Pro Wrestling 7/13/2022

 Very cool match which felt a bit like a modern day WAR heavyweight clash. It was a bit slower and not quite as gritty but both guys made full use of the empty arena here leathering the hell out of each other with grimy strikes and slams. Oribe is great, he's a karateka and he throws really beautiful kicks just trying to cave his opponents chest in. Taniguchi is a bit of a slow bloated guy but his slams and lariats were really violent, he also had this really great big splash targetting Oribes back. Some more tricked out sequences than you'd expect, I liked how they didn't just go braindead with endless shoulderblocks and no selling like Japanese heavyweight wrestling often does. I normally dislike the superkick to kneeling opponent but Oribe was hitting them more like thrust kicks and almost taking Taniguchis head off. Good shit.

GWE Watching: Koichiro Kimura

 

Koichiro Kimura vs. Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei, FUTEN 9/26/2010

A shootstyle handicap match which ends up being really compelling. Normally handicap matches would be unfair but Kimura is such a monster that it easily becomes believable. Kimura rip your arms and legs off and potatoe you really hard, plus his lethargic selling actually makes him look unstoppable. This had a lot of Brahmans getting stretched and mauled, until they were able to play the numbers game, spit some water and hit some cool double teams. Brahmans were kicking really damn hard too, almost like it’s FUTEN or something. I really liked how Kimura got water in his face but went straight back to mauling a Brahman. By the end he was getting swarmed and trying to get just one of these pesky Brahmans off long enough to put the other in a submission, until he succeeded with a Volk Han-ish leglock. Pretty unique stuff.

Koichiro Kimura vs. Makoto Hashi, FUTEN 7/25/2010

This was basically the two FUTEN monsters facing off so it was a compelling match up. You have to keep in mind that almost every FUTEN guy is some kind of indy wrestler doing shootstyle matches, so Koichiro Kimuras no frills RINGS grappler act feels different. As such the early goings of this was mostly grappling with Hashi not being able to do much against the superior grappler. This sets up the really intense second half of the match. Hashi moves in to go for headbutts so pissed off Kimura laid in some FUTEN level brutal stomps in the corner to him. After that it was Hashi as underdog vs. a tough shooter. Hashi grabbing a desperate Goriman suplex was really great. The second half had some really brutal hard hitting, Hashi using his brute force and some excellent submission counters from Kimura. 

 

 Koichiro Kimura vs. Kazuki Okubo, FUTEN 6/27/2010

Koichiro Kimura vs. Kazuki Okubo, FUTEN 10/24/2010

Two matches worth watching. The 10/24 is slightly better I thought, due to a more frantic Okubo performance but they didn't give each other much, the first match also had a cool surprise Okubo flying armbar and suplex. Both are pretty much the same layout, Kimura is an unstoppable monster who wastes his opponent with these brutal ground knees and stomps and some leg crushing cross heelhooks and legbars, and Okubo is really spunky laying it into him. I was surprised Kimura gave Okubo a lot of offense in these while maintaining his monster aura, and Okubo was so stiff that Kimura shrugging off the barrages of kicks was impressive. Not top tier FUTEN stuff but I found it to be a pretty enjoyable match up both times.

More Dramatic Fantasia Outtakes

 MIKAMI vs. HARASHIMA, 11/27/2007

It’s the two top juniors in DDT in a big title match. If you know and like these two you will like this a lot, if you don’t know these you will be positively surprised. While the match was a bit spotty here and there, both guys can bust out unpredictable highspots. Like MIKAMI can always hit an odd 619 or springboard move from any angle, and HARASHIMA can just kick you in the head. Ladder stuff didn’t detract from the match and lead to a few big crazy bumps and moments. I was also surprised they didn’t go into finisher overkill, instead focussing on MIKAMI avoiding the Somato like death. Also got a kick out of HARASHIMA going ‘fuck you’ to the ladder.

HARASHIMA vs. Kota Ibushi, DDT 12/30/2007

This won a “match fans want to see the most” contest. With that kind of set up you can expect them to bring the goods, and they did. If you like 2010s HARASHIMA you will like 2000s HARASHIMA because he’s nearly the same wrestler. He was smart enough to work some basic exchanges with Ibushi early on, making the highspots they did look bigger. He also worked Ibushis arm, so even though Ibushi didn’t sell anything it wasn’t super exposed and Ibushi could still hit all his highspots. Both guys did some amazingly spectacular counters and sequences like you expect from an Ibushi match. The match had handsprings, reverse ranas and all that, it was like 2022 match except this was actually good because they had good pacing and structure. Also both guys weren’t afraid to hit each other hard. Recommended if you just want to see a cool MOVEZ match/spotfest and don’t expect a deep story.

 

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Shuji Ishikawa, DDT 2/24/2011

Shuji is way bigger and a damn old crowbar. Kikuchi was on the way out, but he could still take a murder asskicking. Goodness gracious. Ishikawa just brutalizes him with his big knees and headbutts and Kikuchi bleeds hardway and hits a really pretty suplex on the bigger guy and it’s just really gutsy and gritty. Wish they had aired the whole thing because those 6 minutes were pretty insane.

Shuji Ishikawa vs. Kengo Mashimo, DDT 10/3/2010

God I am MAD they only showed 5 minutes of this because this looked like an epic, FUTEN-esque battle. Both guys bleed hardway and they beat the shit out of each other. Brutal kicks and knees left and right. Check it out for some old-fashioned violence.

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #23

 Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 4/17/2001 - FUN

Their shortest encounter as it‘s JIP so it‘s just 4 minutes. Hijikata took most of what was shown so we get to see Onos really good selling and bumping, he‘s really good taking hits and just barely keeping himself up while getting into position for the next move. Hijikatas kicks and hold were good and Ono beat him easily but decisively so it was a good win.

 

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Osamu Tachihikari, BattlARTS 11/26/2000 – GREAT

How great was Ono in 2000? Great enough to get a honest to god great match out of Tachihikari, who may be among the most useless guys in the history of Japanese wrestling. Think of what an achievement that is. But Ono is totally awesome here as he beats the shit out of that big sad goof and sets himself up for Tachihikaris offense in awesome ways. Working some great counters, challing him to a sumo faceoff only to slip right into an awesome Octopus Hold, hitting a slick dive, big damn punch combos, all while he was selling and eating the fuck out of Tachihikaris clumsy offense. Coming up glassy eyed after getting suplexed, turning into a noodle for Osamus clumsy lariat, the crowd go from laughing at Tachihikari to being on fire for the nearfalls that they were working. Tachihikari does one cool thing in this match and that is palming Ono in the face pretty hard. Still, if Ono could have a match this good with Tachihikari, there’s truely no limit to what the man could do.

 

Takeshi Ono & Ryuichi Sekine vs. Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei, FUTEN 6/27/2010 - GREAT

Great undercard action, this kind of thing made FUTEN so good. Everyone just goes hard, all killer no filler, each exchange had a cool touch. Brahmans were pretty great undercard wrestlers at this point, they had no problem doing cool matwork, hitting hard an busting out unpredictable things. Sekine stuck to his underdog role and kept things nice and basic, with a good sense of aggression. ONO was of course the king of this match. He just goes for the kill all of the time, like as soon as an opponent was slightly prone he would go for a headkick. He was at his best here whenever he tagged in to punch people in the face, knee them in the head or lock in slick Octopus Holds. Still the match was quite heavy on the Brahmans and Sekine, which is not a bad thing, it just stood slightly in the way of another truly epic Ono performance, although this was just a mid card match. But for that it was excellent and would pretty much rock MOTY lists now.

Takeshi Ono Master List

FUTEN undercard matches

 Shoichi Uchida vs. Mitsuya Nagai, FUTEN 4/24/2010

That moment you watch a random FUTEN undercard match and it’s better than pretty much anything you’ve watched from recent times. Hellish match where Nagai was trying to blast Uchida to smithereens with his kicks. Uchida was gutsy really gutsy here, I really liked how he kept shooting for desperate takedowns which Nagai kept stuffing, really nice example of big vs. little psychology in a shootstyle match. Nagais submissions were ultra nasty and Fuchi-ish. Uchidas one bit of offense was really cool, Nagai goes for another big kick but got his foot caught in the ropes allowing Uchida to hit a suplex and then immediately trying for a choke on Nagai. Nagai then proceeded to try to rip Uchida in half some more. And one points both guys traded absolutely sickening headbutts. Gnarly stuff, wish we still had this.

Manabu Hara vs. Brahman Kei, FUTEN 10/24/2010

 

Nifty undercard match. Kei can’t stand up to Hara but he uses some heel tactics to even things out. Basically anytime Hara was able to stand up and go on offense, he was crushing Kei with brutal kicks and lariats. Kei threw some hard kicks of his own and there were a couple neat transitions. His desperate armbar counter was really good and the finish was neat. Amazing how much you can do in a 6 minute match without coming across as forcing it.

Tamon Honda vs. Brahman Shu, FUTEN 10/24/2010

Really fun match built around Shu mostly kicking Honda in the leg really really hard. It’s odd that Honda is this well respected veteran but Shu really kicks the crap out of him, FUTEN factor I guess. Shu having to build up a simple suplex because Honda is such a beast was cool and his kicks and slaps were landing really hard. Honda had almost no offense in the match except his Dead End and Olympic Hell but he’s awesome regardless.

Taro Nohashi vs. Yoshinari Narita, FUTEN 12/19/2010

Quick FUTEN opening matches where two guys just blast each other may be among my favourite things in wrestling, and this one was totally awesome. Narita is a BattlARTS guy and he has gloves and kickpads and Nohashi has his hands an a really hard head and they lay hellish beatings on each other for 6 minutes. NARITA tagging Nohashi with fast punches and bloodying his mouth was great. Intially Nohashi tried to grapple with NARITA but by the end he tried to just knock him out with crazy headbutts to the head and face. You don’t see a monk vs. an MMA fighter everyday but this was tremendous.

E-Cosmos: Kansai vs. Style-E 2/21/2010

Yosuke Takii & Kabuki Kid vs. Yutaka & Dyna-Mido

Fun indy opener. Takii is always cool to see and he really palmed and kicked the hell out of Dyna-Mido. Dyna was fun as a plucky young guy with a simple moveset, and Yutaka had a cool hot tag busting out a big headscissor and nasty face dropkick. Kabuki Kid wasn’t much at all but didn’t drag things down. This was short enough and had a good pace to leave you with just enough before you got tired.

Yuki Tanaka vs. Kyosuke Sasaki

Sasaki was doing a face painted gimmick with one glove on his hand and part of a heel faction. A cool match in theory as both these guys have kickpads and aren’t afraid to hit hard, but it was pretty short and to add to that the match had a run in, even though Tanaka quickly unmasked the guy and threw him out. It felt like wasted potential.

Masato Shibata vs. Shigehiro Irie

Young Irie is so low on the totem pole he gets almost squashed Shibata. This had some good chunky boys forearming each other hard and crashing into each other with their blubber stuff and Shibata has some nice gnarly offense, stiff Vader Hammers and huge suplex that Irie bumps big for, but I wanted a bit more. As a 6 minute big boy sprint it was pretty good though.

Kazuhiro Tamura & Masashi Takeda vs. Masanori Ishikura & Takaku Fuke

This was more like it. A slick shooty indy tag with plenty of fun smooth mat scrambles. It’s too bad we don’t see Ishikura much because the guy is really good and can hang with a pair of Tamura trainees on the mat no problem. I’m usually down on Fuke but he had his working boots on and let his opponents look really good. Takeda looked really good here, it’s regrettable he didn’t do clean wrestling more often because his knee strikes and suplexes are fantastic. The ending with Ishikura and Tamura wailing away at each other with Ishikura clocking Tamura with nasty headbutts was hard as all hell. Really enjoyable fast paced match, absolutely worth watching.

Tadanobu Fujisawa & Shoichi Uchida vs. Choun Shiryu & Ken Ohka

This had a lot of zany heel stuff and run ins from heel faction on Shiryu/Ohkas side. It was effective but it prevented much wrestling from happening. Heel antics aside Shiryu was awesome here as usual and probably salvaged the match with his brilliant kicks. The guy is just too cool flying into the scene to Kung Fu kick people in the face and hit odd 619s. His brief exchange with Uchida was really cool and I bet a 7 minute match between the two would be absolutely dynamite. Uchida brings some cool touches, I really liked his Oklahoma Stampede where he cleared the other guy off the apron, his big emerald fusion and dropkick to the back of the head etc. I was hoping to see Fujisawa kick some ass but he barely got to do anything although he did hit his awesome looking knee at one point. Ohka was pretty much a big nothing aside from his kooky getup. It was still a good match with Uchida and Shiryu being absolutely worth seeing.

The Library

Keita Yano Documentation #3

 

Keita Yano vs. Fugofugo Yumeji, EXIT 11/28/2010 - EPIC

This went 30 minutes, which makes it probably the most ambitious basement shootstyle match to happen on a paper tin mat (that we‘ve seen yet). First 15 or so minutes were all grappling and it was a mixture of shootstyle and more orthodox pro wrestling style holds. Yano already looked really good, the man was born to hit the mat hard even if it‘s a childrens play mat. Fugo is immovable but he had some impressive escapes and I loved whenever he would grab a headlock or facelock he would really wrench Yano. Yano reversing from below by putting a Hondaesque chokehold on Fugo, bridging over and then doing a bunch of 70s arm work was my favourite moment. When they stood up, the match was smarter than I expected. Fugo started mauling Yano as soon as he threw strikes, so Yano mostly avoided direct strike exchanges, instead trying to work Fugos back, hitting surprise dropkicks etc. They spend a good deal of time building to a Scorpion Deathlock which resulted in some nasty stretches. Yano almost knocking himself out when he tried to headbutt Fugo was fun. Fugos insanely stiff headbutt in the last few minutes also looked more violent than the headbutt that nearly killed Shibata. Yano looked done, bleeding and getting the taste slapped out of his mouth. Finish could have been more epic but it was good enough. This was some weird mix of a cerebral 70s match and shootstyle violence and it worked really well considering the length.

 

Keita Yano vs. Manabu Hara, BattlARTS 2/25/2007 - GREAT

 Looks like its Yanos debut match!! No Yanoisms, this is just a gnarly shootstyle bout with both guys really cracking each other with hits. I expected Yano to get trashed, but he held up pretty well, taking chunks out of Hara and stuffing his takedowns. Well, until Hara started trashing him anyways. Hara was kicking Yano like a dog and stepping on his neck like the mean bastard he is. Ending run was pretty great with Yano surviving more punishment than you expect and taking some chunks out of Hara with some great looking European Uppercuts and his neat bridging choke. There aren't many better ways to debut.

Keita Yano Documentation Project

A brief Yosuke Takii career overview

 

Yosuke Takii vs. Yusaku Obata, ?? 9/26/2010

As far as indy matches between two chiselled boy band looking pretty boys go, this was about as good as you can ask for. Non-stop action, with both guys trying to take chunks out of each other with some really stiff hits and hitting bonkers dives. Obata is pretty underrated and it‘s a bit sad his career just fizzled away, the guy could really bring the heat. He looked great tearing up Takiis leg, and really clocking him in the face with his jumping kicks. Takii was basically a more jacked version of Ibushi, he had no problem hitting some crazy highspots and trying to kick Obatas skull in. They don‘t overdo the highspots, they keep laying into each other hard and it‘s just a really good match.

Yosuke Takii vs. El Samurai, ?? 5/5/2010

Really cool late career Samurai performance. Word on Samurai is that he barely had good matches in the 2000s, but this was a nice journeyman brawling performance. He beat the heck out of Takii with some great looking punches, dumping chairs on him and just generally kicking his ass. He knew to keep things moving too and Takii kept coming back, so it wasn‘t a dry one sided beat down, either. Takii was kicking him really hard, too and even stole Samurais Fire Powerbomb as a neat fuck you. Some bigger bombs and a way bigger finish than you expect from a rookie/veteran match. Dig it!

Yosuke Takii vs. Hiroaki Taniguchi, Pro Wrestling Shi-En 8/22/2021

 This is 2021, so there‘s no crowd heat, and the match is a bit slower paced. That said this was really solid and Taniguchi was pretty good here too. Takii still has a bowlcut and mullet which is I guess the pro wrestling equivalent to a boyband haircut. Takii may be even more jacked than in 2010, I‘m surprised no bigger indy promotion has picked him up, but Japanese wrestling is weird like that. Takii still lays really hard kicks into Taniguchi and tore up his shoulder briefly before we got Taniguchi destroying him. Taniguchi is a really solid power guy and I liked how he seemingly didn‘t care to work a body part, initially he attacked Takiis legs to get the upper hand but then he just kept dropping and crushing him. Takii has some neat offense and can take a big beating. The big powerslam actually ending the match was a nice surprise. Cool stuff that would rock a Velocity episode.

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.

Assorted Kuishinbo Kamen

 

Kuishinbo Kamen vs. MIKAMI, Osaka Pro/Kuishinbo Kamen Produce 12/15/2010

It‘s a serious Kamen match baby! They basically wrestle a straight juniors match until Mikami pisses Kamen off by going for the mask. That causes Kamen to snap and beat the shit out of Mikami with fucking insane dropkicks and open hand slaps. Awesome. This resembled the better WAR junior matches as in it had scrappy violence, cool flying and one absolutely insane huge highspot that I am not going to spoil. But it‘s safe to say that Mikami is an absolute lunatic. Finishing run was a bit more standard stuff but there were some nasty face kicks and face stomps and Kamens fire was great. I thought the constant rollups were cool as both guys are the type to win a match with a tricky roll up, so the ending didn‘t feel like bullshit. This was a gem.

Kuishinbo Kamen & Black Buffalo vs. Masahiko Kochi & Magnitude Kishiwada, 7/30/2010

Another violent match with no jokes at all! The passion and fire these guys put on for a crowd of like 200 people puts all current wrestling to shame. This was less about Kamen the asskicker and more about Kamen the sympathetic taking a beating. Kochi and Kishiwada sure were out to kill the clown here. Plenty of stiff blows and chair shots. I have no idea how old Kochi lucked into this match but he looked good dishing out kicks and taking some stiff headbutts from Kamen. Buffalo is a great secondary guy who can tag in and hit mean lariats and leg drops. And Kishiwada is a damn great monster shrugging people off and killing them with his lariats and bomb-ladden moveset. Kamen going for Kishiwadas mask and then hitting his super stiff looking corner dropkick was great. The finishing stretch was surprisingly elaborate and had a few convincing nearfalls without going overboard, always staying true to the Kamen underdog story. No downtime or filler, just a great heated match.