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 

Matches from Itigaya Ice Box

 Shuichiro Katsumura vs Shota, Ganbare 2018/10/26

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

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

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

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

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

More Joshi

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

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

GAMI vs Kumiko Maekawa, AtoZ 5/4/2004

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

Kana vs Tsubasa Kuragaki, JWP 3/31/2013

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

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.

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.

Assorted Student Matches

Atsumi Manami & KISHIDA vs. Suikappu Kenchiro & Sasaki Complete Jr, CWP 12/10/2017

This is from CWP which means Come On Wrestling Party. I assume this is like a student wrestling fed so some things were a bit clunky, but you also get lots of fun unique things. The ruleset for this was interesting as the first 4 minutes was all grappling rule, then I believe 4 minutes of KO only and finally a regular pro wrestling match. The grappling and striking was really fun in an UWFish way, the pin combos and narrow nearfalls were really cool. As soon as striking became legal all 4 guys began waffling the hell out of each other with thudding kicks and knees, really way more heated and mean spirited than you expect a match between amateurs to get. Credible shoot-style spinebuster was easily the highlight.The finish was also damn great with the pin combos vs. Shoot submissions approach. Really really nice stuff, better and more inspired than what most pro leagues put on these days.

Kusuri Matsumura vs. Hinjaku Ningen Casshern, AZW 7/10/2022

 

Not exactly sure how to translate these names (Poor Human Casshern?). Another surprisingly great match from two “amateurs”, why can’t Japanese pro leagues put on matches this spirited in 2022?! This was like the best grand structure Japan singles I’ve seen in 2022 so far, iron out some of the exeuction problems Casshern has and you’d have one of the more outstanding singles of the decade. Starts solid enough with some nice smooth chain wrestling, but after a couple minutes this turns into smash mouth wrestling. Matsumura is a really great bruiser lighting up his skinny opponent with blistering chops. Matsumuras jumping boots were absolutely awesome and there are a ton of well respected pro wrestlers who don’t have any offense that good. Cassherns execution was a bit soft, the guy is built like a noodle, but I really appreciated his gameplan of attacking Matsumuras arm and going for jumping knees. It builds to this really fantastic tricked out finishing run that has maybe the best build to an octopus hold I’ve ever seen in a match, with a bunch of really choice counterwork around the move. Matsumura narrowly evading defeat and just blasting his opponent with gritty suplexes felt like something out of an epic NOAH match starring maybe Honda. Excellet stuff that puts many pro leagues to shame.

Added to the 2022 MOTY List.

Yasushi Sato vs. Dekai Ichimotsu, ? 12/15/2013

I don‘t know if Yasushi Sato was ever a student wrestler, and at this point in 2013 he‘s of course had several hundred pro matches already, but his opponent I am pretty sure is another hobbyist. Ichimotsu has a black t shirt training pants and wrestling shoes get up which is like the least intrigueing look you can possibly bring into a match, but he was really good and this was pretty much indistinguishable from a pro match. Of course Yasushi Sato is a really fucking great wrestler so he can have a damn great match with pretty much anyone, but Ichimotsu never looked lost and he brought quite a bit to the table. Ichimotsu had some impressive counters from underneath and he was vicious going for Satos arm, he also busted out a Nakaya Nielsen tier double stomp. He also had a nice variety of ways to attack the arm and his laser focus added a nice structure to the match. Like any Sato match the match had a bunch of really sweet matwork, awesome cradle and suplex spots, nifty counters and good psychology. Excellent match overall that anyone who‘s into technical unqiue matches should check out.

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #6

Command Bolshoi vs. Kayoko Haruyama, JWP 10/10/2010

Epic match that was just an amazing struggle from the first lockup. First half was built around Bolshoi controling Haruyama using her slickness and amazing submisisons and inventiveness, and Bolshoi looked like the slickest of all time here. Haruyama also had a great performance always barraging Bolshoi with her hard hitting and quick hands, while selling really well for Bolshois submission attacks. Haruyama slowly gaining control was done really well and the second half with Haruyama trying to put the nail in the coffin was just out of this world. Bolshoi has so many different ways to slip out of her opponents moves and lock in a crazy submission or pin that she can credibly roll out even against a beastly opponent, and they all look fantastic here. Build to the finish was amazing as well. Best non-FUTEN singles to happen in Japan in 2010?

Command Bolshoi & Rabbit Miu vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kaoyko Haruyama, JWP 3/4/2012

Pretty fun tag built around Bolshoi tagging with a much lower ranked partner to take on a couple powerhouses. I‘ve never seen Miu before, but she was fun slipping underneath for weird pins and taking beatings. And Bolshoi is a great Misawa dragging her through the match. As always, Bolshois chemistry with Kuragaki is all time level. The Atlantida squence early on where Kuragaki kept pulling her up was incredible. I‘ve no idea how these two aren‘t dropped more commonly among the best pairings in pro wrestling history, because they always do outstanding stuff.

Command Bolshoi vs. Arisa Nakajima, JWP 7/28/2013

Best post-comeback Nakajima match I‘ve seen by far. Well, they had a few matches that I haven't seen, so one of them may have been better. That doesn‘t say a ton because Nakajimas a pretty terrible worker at that point, but Bolshoi brings the absolute best out of her. The match was a slow building epic that stayed in the ring, and Bolshoi was working underdog and timing her comebacks against Nakajimas constant barrage of offense hiding Nakajimas lack of selling, so that fixes a lot of the usual problems. Opening matwork was good hybrid grappling and they mix in some impressive sequences. Bolshoi was a master grappler as usual, I really dug her little tricks such as changing an armbar into a shoulder lock, it adds some nice nuance to big move ladden match. Nakajimas offense was fine here, I liked her crowbar knees, other than that she just did dropkicks and suplexes. There was some Angle/Benoit ish exchanges and no selling in the match which left me with a slightly bad feeling in my stomach and Nakajimas winning move felt random. It‘s good to know Bolshoi could do this kind of high endurance workrate match no problem but choose to be a smarter worker most of the time. Good stuff that is worth watching overall and blows a lot of RoH matches in the same vein away.

Keita Yano Documentation Project #1

Keita Yano vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi, BattlARTS 1/17/2010 - FUN

This was one of those B-Rules matches which means all grappling. Yano wasn't on the same level as a pure grappler as 10 years later but it was a fun 5 minutes. There's a cool spot where Yano chokes out Tsubakichi over the rope and some gritty submissions especially enjoyed the weird leg hook Yano busted out. Perfectly fun stuff

Keita Yano vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi, WALLABEE 4/28/2013 - FUN

3 years later, BattlARTS is gone, Yano is the Joker and he shows up in a Bruce Lee suit. It's a WALLABEE world now. This wasn't a ton different from the 2010 match, almost all grappling although it had some gritty kicks and kidney punches. Good in the same way with a neat Fujiwara-esque finish although didn't quite push in the weird and wonderful of truely great Yano matches.

Keita Yano vs. 326, WALLABE 11/30/2014 - EPIC

Now this is stuff that is making Yano a legend. 326 (Mitsuru) is this short, old, bald sleazey looking karateka. Normally grappler vs. striker would have the striker be the dominant one, but Yano is a menacing force in black metal facepaint here. He punts the poor guy all over the dojo, really hitting him with sick reckless kicks and punches. An awkward swinging lariat sends Mitsuru tumbling and coming up bloody. That seems to have woke him up as he plants a nasty spin kick in Yanos face. Now both these guys are bleeding and at each others throats trading sick headbutts. When Yano started raining punches from mount it looked like he wanted to kill the guy. Also loved him hurling 326 by the scruff and the big belly to belly suplex. Short, intense, violent, pure sleaze gold. Also really dug the post match.

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #5

 

Command Bolshoi vs. Kaori Yoneyama, JWP 3/12/2006

 

Another pretty high end workrate match. Opening had some really fun, fast lucharesu exchanges and Bolshoi constantly getting the better of Yoneyama on the mat. These two bust out slick counters and exchanges like it‘s nothing. There wasn‘t some kind of epic story but the action was fast and good and everything makes sense. Yoneyama matches up really well with Bolshoi, she bases extremely well for Bolshois more complicated moves, and her high spots look hurty. Once again, Yoneyama flipping out and beating the soul out of Bolshoi with a brutal barrage of elbows, double axe handles and knees was the highlight of the match. They spent good amount of time building to Yoneyamas Code Red and it was the most I‘ve cared about a Code Red in a match in a while. And Bolshoi was great as usual with her submissions and open hand attacks which she times great.

Command Bolshoi vs. GAMI, JWP 8/18/2013

This would‘ve been a super dream match in 1998, it was a pretty fun veterans contest in 2013. GAMI will bust out the paper fan and hit you upside the head, she‘s a bit slower but still a smart worker as evidenced by her excellently timed eye pokes and boot scrapes, you can kinda see here as a more credible Giant Baba. Bolshoi matches up really well against GAMIs trickery and busts out lots of neat submissions and out of nowhere stiff palm strikes. I really liked the dueling Stretch Plums, and also this was 2 count rules and that can be really fun as almost everything produces a credible nearfall.

BONUS MATCH - 

Command Bolshoi vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto, Ice Ribbon 12/26/2010

Tsukasa ain‘t much special, but she has some neat pin variations and is over with her Ice Ribbon crowd as an underdog. I can‘t imagine wanting to watch Tsukasa against mostly everyone else, but Bolshoi is a master grappler and this is her match. Really resembled a prime Yoshida the way she pulled Fujimoto into one submission after another. Her rolling calf slicer was awesome, and she just sets her stuff up incredibly well. Fujimoto also took some harder than usual open hand strikes from Bolshoi and timed her comebacks well. Quite great 9 minute match and Bolshoi was pretty unreal at this point.

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #6

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Takashi Sasaki (DDT 11/19/2000) - GREAT

Not as good as their match earlier in the year, but there was still plenty of badass violent pro wrestling going on here. Loved the opening with both guys beating the shit out of each other in the corner and Toba throwing some nice combos. There a few more spots here, such as Toba hitting his awesome apron kick and even a frankensteiner, but less Rocky-style exchanges in the finish. Takashi Sasaki once again looks really good, throwing a nice variety of kicks and these two have such excellent timing on their exchanges.

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Kota Ibushi, DDT 2/3/2008 - FUN

Sort of a kickboxing approximation to a Japanese big match. Ibushi was pretty goofy here and there too many back and forth strike exchanges. Even though the match was wrestled in Tobas style, it seemed to be all about Ibushi, which I didn’t like. There was a moment where Ibushi moonsaulted right into Tobas fist which looked really stupid. It still holds up better than your typical Japanese big match full of pointless elbow throwing and restholds, though. Lots of nasty strikes, including a great moment where Toba destroyed Ibushi in the corner. Finish was downright disgusting. Overall, his could’ve been way better.

Tanomusaku Toba & HARASHIMA vs. Takashi Sasaki & Masashi Takeda (HARD HIT 1/25/2009) - EPIC

Great great match. DDT guys have done matches with shootstyle elements in the past, but they went full on BattlARTS style here. It was nice to see the deathmatch boys go back to their roots. Harashima/Takeda grappling throughout was pretty great. It was slick U-Style matwork and a joy to watch. Takeda is actually a Tamura guy and it was nice to see he could still do that. Harashima looked really slick too. Of course, the main attraction was Toba and Sasaki going back to the kind of stuff they were doing a decade earlier. You could tell they were excited to get kill each other again. All their exchanges throughout were pretty great and pretty violent. I like how Sasaki blew a gasket for a moment, throwing Toba outside and prompting another streetfighting section, which earned him a yellow card. The finish was between Toba and Takeda and really good also. Toba was anticipating Takedas attacks (something I’ve noticed is one of his go-to tricks) and destroying him with superior strikes. Tobas spinning back elbow to Takedas throat was sick and probably the highlight of the match. Toba going into desperation mode whenever Takeda went for a suplex or submission also was fantastic. Great stuff, wish they had done this kind of thing more often.

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Hikaru Sato & Akito, DDT 9/29/2013 - GREAT

This was all about Toba vs. Sato. I’ve been pretty critical of Sato, but he was great in this match. Great opening section between him and Toba where he worked over Toba with some disgusting leg kicks. Of course, Toba came back punching his jaw out. I also loved Satos reversal to MIKAMIs 619. This is the first time I’ve seen Akito, and he stinks. However, he never got to drag the match down because Toba and Sato were constantly coming in to crush someone with brutal strikes. The finish was between MIKAMI and Akito and it was short and well executed. Apparently this was the only time Toba and Sato really interacted. Travesty.

 

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