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.

Ice Ribbon ADVERSITY NINE 6/25/2011

 

Adversity Nine Match: Emi Sakura vs Hikaru Shida vs Chii Tomiya vs Tsukushi vs Kurumi vs Mochi Miyagi vs Mary Naito vs Maki Narumiya vs Dorami Nagano

This match had an insane stipulation. It was a gauntlet of double round robin singles matches with a 1 minute time limit, with everybody facing everybody for 1 minute each, two times. So that means what you get here is 72 consecutive singles matches in a bit over an hour. That is the kind of insane thing that I absolutely have to check out, and it was absolutely worth it because this ruled and absolutely worked in every way.

A big part of why the match works so well is the set hierarchy and entry order. The wrestlers are ordered from strongest (Sakura) to weakest (Nagano). The clue is that everybody faces each other twice. So, Nagano has to start facing the strongest wrestlers, but after surviving that, the following round the weakest wrestlers are added back to the end of the gauntlet. That means even the high ranked wrestlers would get in trouble, because after facing 8 opponents in a row not getting beaten by the weakest wrestler in the group would be challenging even for them. After going through so many opponents it becomes challenging to not get tapped by even a basic Boston Crab, and that is really compelling.

Another reason for why this match works so well is that everybody here had a character and they were all working their own separate stories. The main goal was clear – for the weaker wrestlers, survive the gauntlet taking as few Ls as possible, and then try to beat the stronger wrestlers later when they have to face you at the end of the gauntlet. For the stronger wrestlers, pick up as many Ws as possible and then try not to lose to weak ass Maki Narumiya or Dorami Nagano. Before watching this I was not familiar with the 2011 Ice Ribbon roster at all. I know Emi Sakura, I vaguely know about Shida and Tsukushi, I didn’t really know anyone else, but watching the match I got really into almost everybody here. You had someone like Shida, who is a badass who can tap out everybody and drop bombs, and then you had the likes of Maki Narumiya with nothing except a good overhand chop and a torture rack. Watching someone like Narumiya fight really hard and try to get a W despite her limitations was really cool. Everybody here brought something unique to the table, and because of the 1 minute format everyone could just get in, try to win, and get out before getting exposed. There was also plenty of stylistic variety - you had the surely badass Shida with her straight forward armbars and knee strikes, the slick technician Chii, the explosive rookie Tsukushi, the more surely power moves of Kurumi or Miyagi, the basic rookie moves of Dorami Nagano etc. I’m not sure if I would want to watch someone like Mochi Miyagi or Dorami Nagano in a normal match but in this setting they were really cool because they played part in a bigger story and freshened things up. The only wrestler who looked downright shitty was Mary Naito, even that can be kind of forgiven because she was never in the ring very long and in some case just got in to lose in 10 seconds.

Because of the 1 minute format, flash pins and submissions became important, which is always nice because it means you get more than just bomb dropping. Ice Ribbon is kind of flash pin central, and there were some really cool ones. Hikaru Shida was by far the biggest badass in the match, she was acing this thing tapping everybody out with cool out of nowhere armbars. I was also surprised by Chii Tomiya, who looked like a really slick wrestler with cool flash pins and a variety of ways to finish her opponents. Emi Sakura is of course the big boss and she played that role to perfection, and when it was time to go hard she did go hard. The first few gauntlets here were compelling due to the story being told with a few great moments and payoffs, but the last couple rounds when it was Tomiya, Shida and Sakura going through the gauntlet were some of the finest wrestling I’ve ever seen. The ‘any move can finish’ factor really made this edge of your seat stuff and there were some awesome counters and upsets, without going overboard. Watching the top ranked wrestlers try to survive the weakest opponents was fascinating. Tsukushi was really young here, and while her execution wasn’t perfect she’s a cool wildcard with her slick flash pins and high energy, also kicked Sakura flash in the face at one point. After the gauntlet is done the two wrestlers with the best score face off for another round to settle it and it’s a really cool ‘throw the kitchen sink and try to win’ scrap. Really one of the most unique matches I’ve ever seen, it was shockingly well put together, told a great story with wide cast of characters and delivered some awesome wrestling while the match time flew by. It’s the kind of insane thing that I would like to see tried again, although I think it can only really work in joshi. Emi Sakura, you are a whacky genius.

 

The Library

Assorted BattlARTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hanako Nakamori Matches

 

Hanako Nakamori vs Arisa Nakajima, JWP 10/26/2014

Hanako Nakamori has been uploading some cool matches to her channel. This was beastly, basically your typical joshi match upgraded with some insane stiffness. Nakamori looked great here punting the fuck out of Nakajima with disgusting kicks over and over. I also really liked her Takeshi Ono-esque submission where she tied up Nakajima really fast. Nakajima annoyed me a bit early on somewhat no-selling Nakamori, but other than that she was fine and fired back against Nakajimas kick onslaught. She put some nice viciousness in her stomps, including a nasty face wash, and had some brutal elbows. At one point she grabbed Nakamoris head and just waffled her with open hand strikes. Highlights include an absolutely disgusting punt kick that cracked Nakajimas nose, a big spot where they both punched each other in the face, Nakajima rattling Nakamori with a big face stomp of her own, an insane spot where Nakamori hits a backwards headbutt to Nakajimas face. I also like that they stayed under 15 minutes really giving you just the right dose. Nakajimas comebacks were actually well timed and believable. I just love a big match with this level of insane strikes.

Hanako Nakamori vs Leon, JWP 10/10/2011

These two had another match in 2011 which was really great, this was a few months later, and also really damn great. This was a hell of a lot more hatefilled, as they start out brawling right away, and they keep working the match with a ton of palpable disdain for each other. Nakamori has transformed into a kick padded slug machine and she was kicking the living hell out of Leon here. I’ve never noticed Leon as a hard hitter before but she came back hard against Nakamoris onslaught, connecting with some pretty violent knees and kicks of her own, really making sure to give her a taste of her own medicine. There was this moment where they both slapped the taste out of each others mouths with Leon almost cracking Nakamoris jaw as she came charging back, and a totally uncalled for headbutt to the back of the head during the finishing stretch. Leon is this really graceful wrestler, who makes cool use of her spear and has a really big dive and cool ways to build to her back submissions. Those were some very cool bits of graceful wrestling in the middle of such a violent slugfest. It reminded me a bit of Otani/Orihara, it’s not often you see this kind of junior wrestling mixed with such hatred and face shattering kicks and stubbornness. After some stubborn back and forth early the second half of the match was just an epic struggle. Joshi often feels like transitions can happen at random, that wasn’t the case here as both of them did a great job fighting back to control and cutting each other off in nasty ways. Nakamoris face kicks were and I dug how she makes use of the Brock Lock. Match got a bit overkillish but then again it was a rematch of a pretty big match earlier that year. Tremendous stuff regardless, I cannot commend these two enough.

Hanako Nakamori & Tomoko Mori vs Leon & Neko Nitta, JWP 3/10/2013

The dynamic between Nakamori and Leon holds up well. These two are just awesome together. I really dig Leon with her quickness, use of the spear and cool submissions, and she is great at getting kicked really hard by Nakamori. The other two wrestlers in the match were cool oddities to check out. Joshi is full of random names that just fly under the radar. I’ve never heard or seen of Tomoko Mori but apparently she has been around since 2001 being trained by Kaoru Ito. She was a pretty solid wrestler and in the second half of the match busted out some cool STOs and a really sweet judo supex. Nitta apparently made her wrestling debut at the age of 32 and she is doing a cat girl gimmick having a tail. The tail being pulled is an amusing heel spot and her spinning tail attack that caught her opponent in the face was pretty nifty. Other than that she moved very well around the ring and didn’t do any comedy aside from comical amounts of nya, I also liked her big spin senton, so I was perfectly fine with this Neko Nitta. This was brisk tag team action and with the combination of the great Nakamori/Leon dynamic and two odd unique fun wrestlers made for a really cool match overall.

Still Going Through Sportiva

 

Yasushi Sato vs Akito, Sportiva 11/30/2011

This is the earliest Yasushi Sato I’ve found and also his only SPORTIVA appearance so far. Sato used to work for Sportiva a lot and they livestreamed weekly events for free on USTREAM but IBM deleted all the videos when they bought USTREAM, for which IBM are forever my mortal enemies. This seems to have been filmed by a fan using his iPhone, not noticing an offical stream was going on just a few feet to the right, god bless him. The match is pretty damn great too. Yasushi Sato is a spry 45 years young here and he is the Yasushi Sato we all know and love. This was all on the mat and it was so unique and cool, both guys have a clear freestyle wrestling background and it was like watching Tamon Honda vs Tamon Honda. Most pro wrestling matwork is predictable, you have a guy in a headlock and then going through counters that you’ve already seen before, that wasn’t the case here as both guys immediately start scrambling and working calf slicers and leg rides. Sato especially has such unique ways to stretch someone, including some shoulder popping arm stretches, really an expert in entangling his opponent in weird ways. Akito was really good too, he had an absolute killer counter hold to Satos signature leg grapevine, and also dropped the old man with a reckless suplex. Finish was fucking amazing too. Really hope we get more stuff like this somehow because I can’t imagine Sato being anything less than incredible even in his early days.

 

Nori da Funky vs Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 8/1/2018

This was a match where they went all out giving everything they’ve got and it ruled. I enjoy the hell out of NORI~, and Ishida ain’t a bad wrestler at this point. Ishida handled himself well during the 70s grappling exchanges with Nori, and he did a cool job working a sleeper hold, a segment that featured a neat spot where Ishida stood on his head and bounced back as Nori tried to shake him off. He also did a good job taunting Nori and making the match personal by mocking his style, and he bumped like an absolute maniac for Noris power offense, absolutely spiking himself for Noris big boots and slams. Noris was great as ever with his Bret Hart-like straight forward approach. I enjoyed the opening grappling a lot and it lead to cool transition where Nori hit a suplex while exchanging holds, then worked over Ishidas back. Ishida may have done a wee bit too many fancy pants junior moves, but what the hell, this match was about the contrast of Ishidas style to Noris, and Ishida did work some more elaborate exchange than Noris typical opponents would allow. Second half was about Ishida unloading his fancy junior offense with Nori making awesome come backs catching him. Finish was several shades more epic than a match in Sportiva Arena should logically be but what the hell. Ishidas never did anything nonsensical and everything he did looked hurty, and Nori was great as an overwhelmed monster striking back. Great match that reminded me of something like Taue/Marufuji.

Nori da Funky & Hiroaki Ura vs Hiroshi Yamato & Michio Kageyama, Sportiva 8/15/2018

I thought this would be about a big squareoff between Nori and Yamato, but no, instead the focus of the match is wee little rookie Hiroaki Ura! And they did a mighty fine job with this match! Nori mostly plays big brother saving his partner, and Yamato and Kageyama are a really good pair of pricks beating the bricks off of Ura. There ARE some good exchanges between Nori and Yamato, though Uras role takes center stage. Ura looked really good – just the way he had to work to set up something as basic as a body slam added a lot to the match, and you end up respecting him for lasting has long as he did. Kageyama is a pretty good wrestler when he gives a shit, he leathered Ura with some really hard kicks and slaps here, and Yamato understand when he has to lay it in, really blistering Ura with chops. They also decided not to do too much beatdown and stretching and gave us an exciting second half that actually had me rooting for Ura. Very simple but well done match for what they were aiming for.

Hiroaki Ura vs Kouki Iwasaki, Sportiva 9/12/2018

This was by far the best rookie vs. higher ranked guy I’ve seen in a long time. Ura only does very basic stuff, but he gets the absolute most out of it. Most importantly, he understand how to hit his stuff in unpredictable ways. Usually these matches are super formulaic and predictable, but that wasn’t the case here. I give a lot of credit to Iwasaki, who was super giving and also really cranking up the viciousness. Ura drops Iwasaki with a gnarly body slam on the floor right away, and it’s on from the get go. Ura tries working the back but gets shut down hard by a reckless backbreaker from Iwasaki. Iwasakis kicks and knees were on point, and Ura just kept coming back in interesting ways. They got the right combination of crafty and vicious. Really really good match that achieved so much in just 10 minutes.

Assorted JWP

 

Kaori Yoneyama vs. Masa Takanashi, JWP/Yoneyama Produce 12/13/2011

This was excellent, basically a 30 minute epic that had everything and told a great story. The match works because the size difference between Takanashi and Yoneyama isn’t huge, and Yoneyama can be really vicious. They start with 10 minutes of opening grappling before they morph into a story about Yoneyama having to work hard to overcome Takanashi. Takanashi is a really good grappler and they go through some nice smooth armrolls and fast switches. At one point Yoneyama had enough and started raining some really vicious looking ground and pound, but Takanashi took her down again with a crafty drop toe hold. Takanashi starts gaining control and working the arm with Yoneyama making some really great comebacks. It was awesome to see Takanashi going along with Yoneyamas high speed athletic joshi stuff, and Yoneyama in turn having no problem meshing with Takanashis tricky technical style. Lots of cool pin attempts, and eventually Yoneyama deals some damage to Takanashis arm to even things out. The arm work doesn’t take center stage but whenver they go back to it it’s really good and it makes sense because it sets up Takanashis Yoshi-Tonic finisher. The big strike exchange with Takanashi connecting a sick headbutt before Yoneyama hit some brutal knees to his head was by far the highlight of the match. Yoneyama trying to catch up to Takanashi was really fascinating as they spent the second half to Yoneyama finally getting that big pinfall. Really tremendous match, it had the kind of relentless pace and big moves you expect from a big match but with an engrossing story cool technical stuff and some brutal strikes. One of the best matches of the year, maybe even of the decade.

Leon vs. Hanako Nakamori, JWP 6/12/2011

This was also really excellent and kind of felt like a major hidden gem. I mean joshi was flying off the cliff at this point, and this match was not just good for that period, you could have had this take place in the 90s and it would be a top match, I mean these two easily run circles around something like Otani vs. Ultimo. Just a really good longform juniors match. For a 2010s match the action was refreshingly no frills, from the opening groundwork which was smooth and tight, to the choice of offense that both had. Nakamori was really good here as the aggressive younger wrestler trying to push her more experienced opponent, her offense was mostly basic dropkicks and such but she would really amp up the aggression at key points, really waffling her opponent with nasty palms face stomps and scrapes. Leon is a pretty cool wrestler, who does some flying but mostly hits cool slams and makes really good use of the spear, and fires back against Nakamoris aggression nicely. There is some backwork which is integrated into the match in really organic ways and Nakamori sold the fuck out of it, which sets her above your typical Manami Toyota/Azumi Hyuga types. Match had great pace and ebb and flow to it, a few neat spot and felt like an intense struggle as they kept increasing the viciousness throwing harder and harder kicks and elbows. Dug all the build to Leons big spots and the way Nakamori kept surviving and countering her, especially the reversals of the spear. I had no real opinion of either of these two workers going into this but they just had an amazing match.

Kana vs. Hanako Nakamori, JWP 10/14/2013


It's clown shootstyle, baby. Nakamori has kickpads here and she's basically all kicks. Opening exchange felt like one of those Kansai/Yamada exchanges from the golden age, both them just absolutey whiping each other out and trying to kick heads off. There is a somewhat lackluster crowd brawling section somewhat upgraded by the general high level of violence in their kicks and stomp, before we move the match back on track with Kana doing a fun performance being the superior grappler and constantly reversin Nakamori in slick ways. Last couple minutes were excellent and reminescent of Futen - I didn't get the sense Nakamori was a generic kicker here, she had some greatly timed and accentuated moments such as clocking Kana with a hard open hand, clocking here with a nasty back headbutt or breaking out a huge Destiny Hammer. Kana is really good doing these quasi-BattlARTS matches, it's too bad she ended up retiring to WWE. Really good stiff match that should have been on my radar in 2013.

Ryuji Walter Matches

 

Ryuji Walter vs. Manabu Hara, Ryuji Walter Produce 8/23/2015

This was Ryuji Walters retirement match. Most retirement matches are easy going, let the guy get his spots in and end the match, but not this. This was a freaking war from the first second as they just go at each other for 7 minutes, both guys throwing shooty strikes and nuking each other with spine compressing suplexes and powerbombs. There was some great shoot-flavoured Lawler/Mantell exchanges with both guys trading on their knees, Walter eating an insane punt kick to his face etc. Really great going out on your sword-type match. You’d wish Walter had done more pro wrestling. Current pro wrestling sure could use more straight no frills asskicking matches like this.

Ryuji Walter vs. George Terzis, Ryuji Walter Produce 2/5/2011

 

Cool match which felt like a modern PWFG match. Terzis is the dominating foreigner who Walter has to overcome. Terzis hits lots of cool slams and ground and pound to control Walter, who comes back with surprise punches and slams. Terzis hits a nice shootstyle powerslam among other things and generally looked pretty good here until Walter is able to hit a Crucifix Bomb and punch him into oblivion. Nice stiff, I hope the rest of this event also shows up at some point, Mr. Walter if you are reading this, you are cool and it would be nice to see more Tempest Dragon videos!

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.

Keita Yano Documentation #4

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Keita Yano Documentation

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.

Enter the Riki Sensyu Office

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

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

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

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

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

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

BattlARTS vs. Team DERA 2/20/2011

 Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Takashi Miyamoto

Takashi Miyamoto is a skinny guy who wears blue/white martial arts pants right out of the 90s, so he‘s immediately overy with me. Yamamoto at this point was the king at getting really good undercard matches out of not so good wrestlers. This is another example. Here he‘s really working dominant grappler, blocking Miyamotos kicks, taking him down and stepping on his face. Miyamoto gets pissed off and nails him with some stiff kick combos so Yamamoto in turn fires back slapping the taste out of his mouth and more nasty face stepping. Miyamoto continues to get on my good side hitting a neat STO. Easily could‘ve been a whatever match, but we got some nice scrappiness and interpromotional hatred.

Bison TAGAI vs. Shun Kasagi

Kasagi has a T-Shirt and baggy trunks like late 90s Mitsunobu Kikuzawa. He also has a kickpad on one foot and no kickpad on the other~! Tagai controls this on the ground to start and it‘s just fine. After some shootstyle matwork Tagai puts a pro wrestling headlock on Kasagi so he can do something too. Kasagi hits some actually nice kicks. Tagai then hits some shitty looking missed clotheslines and other shitty looking offense. I thought it was gonna end there, but Kasagi comes back and hits a really shitty looking dive and a befuddling botched nothing and this is going way too long now. I forgot how bad TAGAI was.

Keita Yano vs. Konaka=PALE ONE

Keita Yano had become the joker, he was still a BattlARTS guy, but his heart was with doing weird collages of technical wrestling at old school shtick at this point. These two nerds do some WoS tribute matwork full of Johnny Saint spots. They would become better matworkers later on, but were clearly just making baby steps here. I liked Konakas modified Figure 4 but he didn‘t do anything outstanding otherwise. At one point they exchange Abby style throat chops with high pitched yelling. Yano wins with a nice knee trembler where he pulls his kneepad down before hitting it. Fun match for what it was.

Alexander Otsuka & Kenji Takeshima vs. Kengo Takai & TAKASHI

TAKASHI has a fun 90s getup with distinctive colour scheme. This was a fun indy tag. Takai is cool as old guy trying to defend his territory. Nothing outstanding, but he had a cool seciton rolling with Takeshima, and was fired up. Otsuka slammed guys hard and everyone else was throwing potatoe shots. TAKASHI mostly got stretched but when he got to he fired back with stiff elbows and kicks. He got to have a cool moment dropkicking Otsuka in the back of the head when he went to suplex Takai, which set up Takai hitting a gnarly reverse brainbuster on Takeshima for the win. Perfectly enjoyable action.

Munenori Sawa vs. Shigehiro Irie

They decided to let the young guys have the main event, and they made the most of it and beat the shit out of each other. Actually Sawa would retire that year while Irie would go on to own the decade on the Japanese indies. This was Iries humble beginnings, as Sawa stomps and slaps the hell out of him. Almost all Irie has is being really tough and trying to hammer Sawas face in with brutal elbows. Sawa had some goofy tendencies around this time, but he cut it out and to be fair had one of his best performances ever. He was running the show here, and did it well by grounding Irie with some good matwrestling and most importantly trying to beat the soul of him. The one sided nature of the match totally worked and it built to some supremely violent strike exchanges and bomb throwing in the last few minutes with Irie trying to gut it out. I also really appreciate Sawa did not go for his Mutoh tribute signature moves and instead just turned Iries lights out with punches. Good shit and felt like one of the better indy mains of 2011.

 

The Library

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #15

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shinya Aoki, DDT 1/3/2019 - GREAT

This was a boxing gloves match where Aoki would use some grappling and ground and pound. This was kind of like Rocky, Toba is broken down and slower, can he contain the new hotness? You don‘t really need to put over what a monster Aoki is, but I‘m happy they gave him a serious match like this. Toba was confident early on, but Aoki gained confidence and finally just blew him away. Few great spots, such as Toba diving for a punch on the ground only for Aoki to lock in a submission at lightning speed. Aokis ground and pound looked just brutal and I was surprised to see Toba get up from that (although barely). Close to a squash but genuinely dramatic.

Tanomusaku Toba & Hayato Sakurai & HARASHIMA vs. Masa Takanashi & Yukio Naya & Mizuki Watase, DDT 2/5/2020 - FUN

Sakurai is one hell of a team mate. And Toba wore this cool gi get up. Charming match due to those factors. Naya is this big kickpadded crowbar and had the most interesting exchanges out of everyone on his team. Toba wasn‘t involved in the match much sadly, only throwing some strikes early on before eating a beating and tagging out, but Sakurai did lots of fun shit like locking in cool flying legbars and hitting judo throws. Watase was non descript but didn‘t drag things down. Fun for the novelty of seeing Sakurai and Toba in his gi.

Tanomusaku Toba & Hikaru Sato & Rion Mizuki vs. Tsunehito Naito & Akito & Kazuki Hirata, DDT 3/27/2011 - GREAT

Tsunehito Naito~! In 2011 I had no idea who Naito was so I probably would have skipped this match, but now I know what‘s up, and got excited seeing Naito in this. Naito was 40 here and hadn‘t had a match in 10 years, but he was still bringing it. Bullying Mizuki and having quality exchanges with Toba and Sato. I know this is the Toba documentaiton, but grumpy old Naito stole the show in this grappling and throwing the shit out of everyone. The uncooperative bit where he refused to let Sato throw him out the ring ruled. I also loved him locking in the Dragon Sleeper on the floor. Toba got to have a nice finish turning Hiratas lights out. Everything else was fine. They really should bring back Naito in 2021.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

 

Yasushi Sato vs. Hiroshi Watanabe, Mumejuku 4/17/2019

Any new Mumejuku upload is truely a gem. It looked like there were 7 people in the audience but these guys with over 100 years combined age gave it their all. This was worked in 5 minute rounds, and, apparently 2 count rules, because why the hell not. Another really good MUGA-like match. Loved the pop they get when Sato broke Watanabes perfect bridge. Sato is starting to really look like Japans best kept secret in these matches. The is so fun busting out inventive holds, and he continues to be the king of the russian leg sweep. Loved all the old man suplexes, the lock ups, the constant struggle over a basic side suplex, Watanabe flying outside after blocking a grapevine move followed by Sato hitting a damn plancha. The burst of energy in the last round, all the pin attempts being really well done and actually mattering due to the 2 count rules… I loved Watanabes Robinson backbreakers, and the eventual back drops. Him reversing Satos finisher looked so damn awesome, I have no idea how Watanabe, a 48 year old indy worker can make me give a shit about a cool reversal more than all the wrestlers half his age having reversalfests, but he just does it. I loved this.

GENTARO vs. Spark Aoki, Secret Base 1/10/2011

Never seen Spark Aoki before, but based on the „sleazy shooter who looks to go for fancy high kicks“ act he did here, he‘s cool. This was a really fun 11 minute BattlARTS style match. A style of match that this Secret Base crowd apparently did not buy their ticket for, because they sat in silence as these two slapped the shit out of eachother. GENTARO looked like he lost his calling as a BattlARTS guy here as he looked great throwing big suplexes, busting out carny stretches and smacking the shit out of his opponent. Aoki never stood chance, but he blasted GENTARO in the face with some unexpectedly stiff kicks of his own before GENTARO shut him down hard with a series of backdrops and lariats that would've done Choshu proud. Fun times.

GENKAI & ASOSAN vs. Eisa-8 & Shisa-o (Kyushu Pro 1/21/2016)

It‘s Kyushu Pro vs. Okinawa Pro. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Eisa-8 here, for a skinny indy guy that I‘ve never heard of. All of his exchanges were very good, he worked his opponents with a certain sense of respect, avoiding tit-for-tap type exchanges, mounted some neat comebacks and hit a big dive. And GENKAI and ASOSAN basically work this like an indy Steiner brothers suplexing him hard and landing nasty kicks and punches. Shisa-o is GAINA and solid as a beefy fatboy with a nice elbow drop. It was a bit of a baffling choice to work this with the Okinawa Pro guy as FIP in front of a Kyushu Pro crowd but the match was good.

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #10

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #9

 

Takeshi Ono & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Kengo Mashimo & Junji Tanaka (BattlARTS 11/5/2011) - GREAT

Futen crew gets together on the last BattlARTS card. Hijikata and Tanaka were solid in this, working pretty stiff, but not really BattlARTS style. Ono was on another level, however. All of his strikes were ultra vicious and when he was working over Tanakas arm he was trying to crush him. Really good if you want an 11 minute highlight reel of what makes Ono so great. The ending run is him trying to maul Tanaka with punches and kicks while Tanaka is able to make a few well timed comebacks until Ono catches him. Onos punches are so great, most wrestlers when throwing hands will throw some weak hands before a big shot, Ono however is constantly pressuring him tagging Junjis jaw and kidneys. Even when he’s working over Junjis body it looks like he’s perforating him. I’m a fan of Junji but the greatness of those exchanges is a pure testament to Ono.

Takeshi Ono vs. Masaru Toi, Rainbow, Promotion 3/21/2002 - GREAT

 Even though this went only about 7 minutes, I fought this was pretty much the perfect shooter vs. old deathmatch guy match. TakeshiOno, in what is apparently his only match that year, looked great blasting Toi with kicks and punches. Even when Toi grabbed his barbedwire bat, Ono still took him down easily. Toi going for the chairs was great. He looked to crush Onos ribcage with a stiff solebutt and then a massive kneedrop. Ono constantly refusing to let Toi get in his offense easily kept the match unpredictable. Really good little clash.

 SASUKE & Chabinger & Sasuke Performa 346 vs. Sasuke The Great & Masked Tiger & NANIWA (M.Pro  2/3/2002) - GREAT

A bunch of ninjas and sleazy masked dudes fly around in Korakuen Hall! By no means is this a great match, but it is a great bizarre indy spectacle. They bring out a bunch of ladders for this so you know what that means. Match includes: lots of preposterous Sasuke highspots (including the apron tope) and ladder-related awrygoings! Chabinger abusing everyone with his weird wooden mini table! Great Sasuke disappearing and reappearing, changing between his Great Sasuke/Sasuke the Great personae! Takeshi Ono in a mask hitting dudes with high kicks! Orihara looking good! NANIWA doesn't know how to do the Naniwa Elbow! Great Sasuke hitting some REALLY stiff kicks! Sanhshiro Takagi in a mask handing out stunners! After the match everyone sits down and they have a beer. Osamu Tachihikari comes out too. Rating: watch if you can laugh at Sasuke getting a ladder flung at his head.

 

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

2002 MOTY PROJECT MASTER LIST

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #8

Takeshi Ono vs. Mitsuya Nagai, FUTEN 7/25/2010 - EPIC

One of the greatest FUTEN singles matches, and it's basically all Ono. Nagai hasn't done much since getting squished by Volk Han in RINGS, there is basically one thing he does really well and that is crowbarring people really hard, and this match is built entirely around that. Nagai is just destroying Ono here from the get go with kicks that hit like baseball bats and some insane elbows on the ground. Onos selling was just great here as he really flings his body around to put Nagais kicks over as super dangerous, and looking convincingly punch-drunk/near KO'd. All the while Ono is doing everything he can to fire back, then be overwhelmed again, then try to slip into a submission hold only to get mauled even more. He is also pretty great at slipping out of Nagais throw attempts and it builds to another great finish.  Really ballsy to have a match built around taking brutal shots from a guy who once nearly killed another guy and really tells what a master Ono is to make such a match this compelling.

Takeshi Ono vs. Mitsuya Nagai, Futen 7/18/11 - GREAT

Very deliberate match. Nagai was off here, but Takeshi Ono is the GOAT and makes any match he‘s in must watch. This was mostly about Ono avoiding the thrashing he got from Nagai in their previous singles match while Nagai was trying to get his win back. There was some amazing legwork from Ono, and he is just great both fighting from underneath as well as destroying a guy. Nagai wasn‘t really suited to play his role well here, it just doesn‘t suit him like the out and out steamrolling he gave Ono in 2010 and he seemed to be struggling to hit his signature spots. I wouldn‘t say he outright sucked though, as I enjoyed all the submission work. Still, you want to watch every match Takeshi Ono is in.

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Shoichi Funaki (BattlARTS 5/21/1997) - GREAT

Great 5 minute sprint. Ono was ultra vicious here (really!), and Funaki basically acted like a piece of scum. Great start with Ono hitting a big thai knee, pummeling Funaki and immediately establishing himself as a dangerous no nonsense shooter before Funaki kicks him in the balls. Funaki does some cool leg attack, including some good mat scrumbles. Neat spot where Ono catches another low blow and turns it into an ankle hold. Great finish where Funaki goes for a flying move only for Ono to catch him with a kick and then proceed to just turn his lights out.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

RIP Brodie Lee

 Brodie Lee vs. Greg Excellent (CZW 5/10/2008)

This was a hardcore match between two burly truck driver looking dudes which is kind of the best type of indy hardcore match. Brodie takes a nasty bump on the floor to start but comes back looking like such a violent asskicker, really pasting Excellent with open hand strikes and elbows and driving massive boots in his face. Excellent is a fat guy who is willing to bleed, get head trauma and bump hard into plunder and a really fun match up for Brodie. The finish has Excellent hitting a big piledriver on Cheech only to get a boot loaded with barbedwire in the face from Brodie which is a finish to match.

Brodie Lee vs. Sugar Dunkerton (Chikara 2/19/2011)

Really good match built around two guys wailing on each other, Brodie was born in the wrong timeline, he would’ve been great as a foreigner tearing dudes up on a WAR card. Brodie had injured Sugar on a previous show so Sugar was fired up and showing a real mean streak, and Brodie is great as a sadistic redneck further beating on his taped up ribs and kidneys. Dunkerton does some fun legwork which Brodie sells in a really good way and there are some awesome punch exchanges down the stretch plus a smart finish.

Brodie Lee & Cheech & Cloudy vs. Jimmy Olsen & Dunn & Marcos (CZW 6/14/2008)

Lee, Cheech and Cloudy had formed a team at the time dubbing themselves the Ultraviolence Connection. I enjoy all the little dudes in this match and I would’ve had fun if it was just Cheech & Cloudy vs. Ringcrew Express, but Brodie adds something entirely different. He is so awesome here just walloping the little guys and also stooging for their offense. He was basically a wifebeater wearing Taue in this match, whenever Cheech or Cloudy got in too much trouble, Lee would run in and punch someone in the face or boot someones head off. The finish is doing a chokeslam double team with Cheech before sending Marcos skywards and planting him with a massive powerbomb. Really tells the story of what Brodie Lee brought to the table to this late 2000s indy scene, there were a bunch of little dudes flip flopping around, and then there was Lee dishing out big strikes and bombs.