Command Bolshoi 7 Match Gauntlet

  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's a Rotten World

Ian Rotten vs Cole Radrick, IWA Mid South 11/4/2016

As far as I can remember, Ian Rotten has been fat. Quite tubby in ECW, fat in the early 2000s, and growing ever fatter as the years progressed. Always quite nimble for a fat guy, but by 2016 his years of being Ian Rotten seem to have caught up. He’s way slower than I ever remember him being, and moves like he would struggle to get up if you knocked him on his back. Looking it up, it seems Ian Rotten and IWA Mid South as a whole have been gone from wrestling for a couple years now, which seems nearly impossible to believe considering what a consistent slimey presence Ian has had on the indies for well over 20 years like the mold that seems to be growing on the walls of this dim little dive called an arena that they held this match in. And this match is an excellent representation of what made Ians presence in wrestling so fun and unique, well if you discount all the scummy things he’s done, I think by the time of this match he must have been cancelled a dozen times. Last I remember I think he was manipulating people online into thinking he was some kind of woke darling, with a few people being genuinely shocked when it was revealed in another scandal that he wasn’t at all such a wholesome person. Well, I am not going to judge what he may or may not have done behind the scenes, all I can judge is what went down before the cameras. In this match, a fat, scummy Ian Rotten goes out to stretch and potatoe a young Cole Radrick in so many unique, fun and painful looking ways. This match is a relentless and uncompromising as the female fan who kept yelling ‘Common Cole!’ in the same monotone voice throughout the match no matter what was happening. Really makes me wonder what else Ian has done in these recent years, because there’s no reason he couldn’t do what he does here in half a dozen matches per year or so. The meth BattlARTs holds hold up as well as anything and the nasty palm strikes and headbutts are as sick as ever. I am not super familiar with Cole Radrick, he did slap his knee weirdly one time but aside from that he is perfectly good. Energetic, makes a good effort at getting out of Ians holds, is perfectly willing to get hit with stiff palm strikes and backhands and headbutts and a Lou Thesz elbow to the groin, has a nice shoot punch exchange, and headbutts Ian Rotten way harder than a normal person would headbutt someone who has Hep-C. This is not just a nostalgia trip for the few sickos who liked Ians meth shootstyle matches in 2002, it’s a genuinely great, compelling little match thanks to the serious fight Cole Radrick puts up, and they get a nice, genuine ovation from the small crowd of perhaps 30 people that gathered to watch this spectacle. If there was such a thing as a hall of fame for independent wrestling matches I would frame this and put it in it.

Ian Rotten vs Mitch Ryder, IWA Mid South 2/18/2017

A lot of independent wrestling kind of start to lose its identity, it’s unique flair. Not IWA Mid South though. Still running in some half empty hall on a bare floor, still the same seedy brawls, still Ian waddles out to bleed. I remember people saying he had gotten out of shape in like 2010. There are still obese fans sitting in the front row, one of them with a walking assistance and he wisely pulls his sweater over his ears when lighttubes break near him. This is a street fight so they jump each other. It’s deathmatch stuff with both guys breaking out light tubes but the way they work it is oddly adjacent to the old blue collar Mid South brawls of yore. And both these guys have good looking strikes. Ryder hits a really hard crossface, Ian palm strikes him in the jaw because Ian does things like that. Ian hits a headbutts with light tubes and then flops over to the floor to blade himself. Doesn’t Ian have Hep at this point? Who cares, Mitch Ryder sure doesn’t care. Ian Rotten flips over a trashcan and it’s a shoot trashcan and all kinds of grime and trash seeps out onto the floor, then he grabs a beer bottle from the grime and trash to carve Ryder up. Ian sodomizing a screaming and bleeding Mitch with the broken beer bottle on the floor is some real Americana. Mitch Ryder throws great punches. Ians are not on the same level but still good. They trade punch combos a bit which is good, Ian starts to work on Mitchs bad neck with chairs… Mitch goes to a big stash of deathmatch weapons. The commentators start talking about how he might come up with all manner of modern deathmatch weapons like barbedwire boards and such, but instead he comes up with a fucking old school fireball that burns Ians face. Ian sells the fuck out of it, screaming and crying for water. You don’t usually see big, tough, fat man crying in any media. It’s kind of a taboo, but Ian is not afraid to break taboos. Mitch Ryder punches a camera girl in the face and she bleeds too. Chairs are thrown and this is starting to hint at a Tracy Smothers type riot with Mitch being unhinged and punching everyone in the face, and then Mitch storms off. Thought this was getting really good and then they just ended the match there.

Ian Rotten vs Mitch Ryder, IWA Mid South 3/4/2017

This is the last man standing match that is set up by the fireball angle. It’s a big blowoff brawl, again in the other seedy hall, in the pale green light. Ian Rotten is not a great brawler, at least not at this stage. A lot of slowly walking here and choking the other guy a little, and then slowly walking over there and choking the other guy a little, and occasionally a lazy lowblow and things like that to transition. There are still fun Ian-isms: him punching Ryder in the hamstring, a pretty gruesome double fishhook, a fucking gator roll into a choke on the floor. It’s a slow match but it’s worked well enough that the audience still breaks into “Ian” chants at times. Ryder works hard here with his facial expressions and good punches (I do miss those XCW Mid-West tapes). At one point he gives Ian a suplex on some stairs (with full on Christmas lighting) and because Ian can’t go over fully it kind of turns into a brainbuster. At one point Mitch gets slapped by the girl that he bloodied in the other match. There is some good tooth and nail fighting here, and they leather each other with a belt. It’s like there’s a great match here, but its kind of overdosed on Fentanyl. Eventually Rotten blows a fireball at Ryders face and Ryder sells it like crazy, flopping all the way to the floor and getting the 10 count while a boy with glasses and a pepsi throws popcorn at him, an end befitting to any legendary feud.

GENTARO Matches

 

GENTARO vs El Samurai, FREEDOMS 9/27/2009

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

GENTARO vs PSYCHO, YMZ 7/21/2014

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

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

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

Continueing to watch Mutoha and being amazed

 

Ho Death Min vs. Diablo, 3^rd Brand 3/11/2023

This is from 3^rd Brand which is like a brawling-focussed Mutoha side brand. Decreasing the stunt show aspect of modern hardcore wrestling and increasing scrappiness is a really good aesthetic and they pulled off what they aimed at beautfully. Right at the go the match feels unhinged as Ho Death Min comes in with a fucking machete. He has to be held back and Diablo jumps him. They make use of a bunch of weapons that are laying around and they do a really good using them in unique hurty ways. Diablo at one point lands several nasty jabbing hits with a kendo stick to Mins leg, he also tries to behead him with a shovel horror movie style at one point. What really makes the match is the tumbling they do between shots. Often in brawls guys hit with a weapon, then lazily walk to the next location for another spot. That wasn’t the case here as both guys were always fighting, rolling on the floor punching each other, trying to sweep a leg or get in a bite when they were down etc. The laptop destruction is fun because that laptop is probably like half of Mutohas budget. for such a long brawl this never dragged and always kept my attention, I was really invested in some of the super simple things they did like the double clothesline exchange on the floor and they keep the crazy moments coming such as Diablo trying to stab Min with a piece of plastic or fucking Leatherface doing a run in with a running chainsaw. The stipulation of the match is that you have to put your opponent in a big bag to win and it kind of really works in its goofiness. After the match we get more sleaze characters brawling including fucking Katsunari Toi coming out to hit people with a kendo stick. Diablo really works in these kind of seedy brawls and almost 60 year old Poison Sawada worked his butt off. Super fun unique match, I love the technical stuff but I also love that they are doing this kind of brawling. People should pay attention to the art of this stuff just like to the art of something like Arai/GENTARO.

Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki, Mutoha 2/14/2016

Interesting match because Matsuzaki, while being “old school” is not exactly a technician who will do lengthy hold for hold stuff. And thankfully they worked the match just like that, resulting in a really cool contest. Matsuzaki works  this like an 80s or 90s New Japan heavyweight. He doesn’t want to play Watanabes game and instead tries to go the few impact moves that he has, clocking Watanabe with headbutts and kicks to break the holds. At one point he grabbed a tight headlock and then drove Watanabe hard into the mat with a big bulldog, which is something that pretty much nobody does anymore but it totally rules. Later, Matsuzaki would power out of an attempted Cobra Twist, sell how painful that hold was for his abdomen, then try to put the same hold on Watanabe only for sneaky technician to immediately reverse it and torque Matsuzaki some more. Matsuzakis kicks and headbutts don’t hit as hard as they did in 1993 but otherwise the man did very well. And Watanabe is perfect in this kind of match, too. This match didn’t have much mat wizardry, it was more about timing and struggle, and there was a complete lack of contrived sequences. Very nice stuff without trying to force an epic, this kind of wrestling is so good, give me a good story and a sense of struggle with some cool moments and I will be very happy.

 

Taro Yamada vs Konaka, Mutoha 7/5/2015

Terrific match, Mutoha at its very best. It’s a rounds match that begins in a fashion inspired by World of Sport matches, with both guys displaying slick counters and moving in and out of holds very swiftly, but it quickly becomes a tangled nightmare as both guys would tie each other up in increasingly esoteric ways. Yamada was an absolute monster here, he looked like a true master of the llave style, and he just does things that nobody else does. He was tying up Konaka in so many different ways here, but also putting lots of creativity into his set ups and escapes, it was an absolute onslaught. Yamada is very much the driving force for most of the match, just tying Konaka in knots, and it seems Konaka only survives because Konaka is a flexibility demon and he can be put into contortions that not many other wrestlers could stand being put in. Although Konaka has a few moments where he really catches Yamada and it feels like a big victory each time. Not only were the submissions mind blowing, but so were their escapes from them. It was a display of mat wizardry in the truest sense. They do 20 minutes of outstanding grappling before the fifth round of 5, at which point Yamada loses his cool and finally nails Konaka with that curb stomp he likes to use. After that the time was running out and each moment felt frantic. Really edge of your seat stuff with both guys displaying incredible technical proficiency and body control while maintaining a competitive aura. I have been watching technical matches from Europe, Japan, Mexico, America for 15 years now and this was as good as any that I’ve seen.

More Sportiva Twitcastings

 Fuminoru Abe & Nori da Funky Shibiresasu vs. Shinya Ishida & Yusaku Ito, Sportiva 11/30/2016

Nice match that had structure in place and all 4 guys doing a bunch of cool shit. Starts with some cool matwork, I was surprised that Yusaku Ito was a kickpadded shooter at this point, he and Abe do some nice slick shooty matwork and then we get some equally nifty traditional pro style chain wrestling between Nori and Shinya Ishida. The recent Ishida I’ve seen wasn’t good, but he was perfectly servicable here, he had a nice dive, acted like a scummy heel and was never loose or dragging the action. I once again dug Nori, he had an awesome big boot that turned Ishida inside out, and a big guy who boots peoples heads off hits different in an indy tag with a bunch of juniors. The ending is Abe vs. Ito and it’s cool sleaze shooter stuff with both guys blasting each other with cool kicks. I was amazed this match had absolutely no comedy, what happened to the indy scene, why did they all decide they wanted to be clowns at some point?

Fuminoru Abe & Yusaku Ito vs. Nori da Funky & Xevious, Sportiva 1/25/2017

Hell yeah, it’s XEVIOUS. Xevious is this fat looking dude in a mask who does all kinds of random things on offense, but it all looks hurty. He has a stiff solebutt, nasty kneedrop to the back of the head, really painful looking stretches etc. He’s really fun to watch. Not much happens in the first few minutes of his, but it turns into a good little match when Abe eats a DDT on the floor and Nori and Xev work over his neck. Neck work was really good, Ito makes a nice hot tag and has a cool exchange with Xevious leading to Ito hitting a big punch to the face. Abe vs. Nori finishing stretch was brief but pretty neat as Nori kept hitting violent offense to Abes neck. Nice little match, why is this stuff more energetic and serious than any undercard match now? This was in front of like 15 fans for crying out loud.

Yasu Kubota vs. Fuminori Abe, Sportiva 4/5/2017

This was a fun match where they do some unlikely fun matwork. Kubota is a sleazy looking guy who has been around for a really long time, and this is the best I’ve seen him look. Abe does some fun submissions and kicks targetting Kubotas arm, and Kubota comes back working Abes leg with cool stretches, ramming a bar stool into his knee etc. I also liked the weird standing stretch he busted out. All the Arn Anderson style body part targetting work was really good, and the second half where they busted out their bombs with Abe hitting spin kicks and Kubota hitting big dropkicks and drivers was a lot of fun. Limb selling wasn’t super consistant though both guys acknowledged that they were hurting and had to figure out how to transition from there. Kubota only being able to lock in his submission hold with one arm was a cool touch. It’s weird how guys like Kubota can have their best performances on the smallest shows like this.

Fuminori Abe & Kazuhiro Tamura vs. Yusaku Ito & Nori da Funky, Sportiva 5/31/2017

I’m amazed Abe was probably a more serious worker than he is now at this point. Seriously, these guys had all the reason to joke it up since they were wrestling in a sports bar, but instead they had a lengthy, serious no frills tag where everyone brought their A-game. I enjoyed Nori vs. Tamura, their grappling early on had a nice big vs little feel, and later on we get to see them really lay into each other. They have a fun dynamic going on with Noris traditional power offense and Tamuras jump kicks and flying moves. The heart and soul of this is Abe vs. Yusaku though. Both these guys were really scrappy, early on they had an exchange where Ito casually kicked Abe in the face, then later landed these really violent knee strikes to Abes head on the ground. Finishing run had both guys raining hell, hitting all their cool jumping face kicks. There were some cool moments such as Abe working a neat rolling arm scissor for a submission nearfall and Ito bumping big for a dropkick of all things. Itos punt kick was probably the highlight of the match for how out of nowhere it came and how violent it looked. Dare I say, these guys were really good at this stage.

Dradition 2016 First ~ Battle Invitation 3/29/2016

 

Nobuyuki Kurashima vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi

I’m a Kurashima fan. He has a few things he does very well, and he sticks to that. He will always do some cool matwork, engage in scrappy hard hitting, and occasionally throw a hefty suplex or drop his opponent on their head. This match didn’t have a suplex for some reason but it Kurashima adding some cool touches to the matwork such as pushing his foot into Tsubakichis face, grinding his knee into the shoulder while working an armlock etc. The scrappy hard hitting was fun too, with Tsubakichi eating a nasty headbutt early on, throwing some cool punches to the body and hitting some kicks that left Kurashimas head bouncing. Very gritty and simplistic opener so it was just the right thing.

Kazuhiro Tamura vs. CHANGO

Decent undercard action that needed a bit more matwork. It’s DRADITION, you gotta hit the mat. Tamura was coasting, but Changos scuzzy technical heel act is cool enough to carry the match. His cradles were awesome and also extremely well timed. Tamura really needed to do some matwork in this.

Seiya Sanada vs. LEONA

Surprisingly a very good match. Crowd was invested in this and they worked a bunch of basic exchanges at a nice pace building to some cool nearfalls over basic moves like a double arm suplex. LEONA did some pretty cool wrestling, I really liked the way he set up a dragon screw into a Figure 4 which felt meaningful, and his pins and cradles were really good. Sanada mostly served as an overdog to LEONA, he had some nice european uppercuts and one really slick sequence into a springboard move. I also really liked the cheekiness of him going for Dragon Sleepers on Fujinamis kid. Very worthwhile undercard match.

Kengo Mashimo & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Mitsuya Nagai & Super Tiger II

Pretty fun match where every part was good and everybody was working really stiff and exciting. Mashimo had a good showing, really pelting people with his kicks and knees, his segment against STII was pretty good and had some really really good leg attack stuff. I liked Sekimoto fine and Nagai was fired up kicking people hard and even going after Sekimoto with a chair at one point which generated good head and buzz.

Taka Kunou vs. Masakazu Funaki

Kunou low key rules, he has that grubby tough old grappler charisma similar to someone like Osamu Kido. Funaki can’t be arsed to do more than the bare minimum but he brings some presence and something for Kunou to overcome, plus almost anything is a plausible finish. Very defensive and cagey bout early on with neither guy giving an inch as they worked some simple matwork. It builds to a really good explosion in the last few minutes mostly due to Kunou, who hits an awesome headbutt and the most awesome suplex while surviving more from Funaki than you expect. Dope shit, very far from a workrate classic but very intense and satisfying pro wrestling that feels real.

 

Tatsumi Fujinami & Hiro Saito vs. Jun Akiyama & Yuma Aoyagi

Solid if slightly short main event to close out a good card. Fujinami/Akiyama exchanges were built around both guys resisting the others signature moves in cool ways and I would've liked to see more of that. Nice to see even fossilized Hiro Saito can still hit a gnarly senton.  Aoyagi was just a rookie here and soon dutifully ate the fall.

 

The Library

Unseen Yuki Ishikawa

 

Yuki Ishikawa & Hornet vs Fuminori Abe & Kenji Takeshima, Battle Arts Canada  2/20/2016

A few years ago somebody made a documentary on Yuki Ishikawa and BattlARTS. It included a few matches including 2 from Ishikawas stint in Canada which I haven’t seen online before. This was just 1 year into Abes career and he and Takeshima are introduced as the POTATOE BROTHERS, which may be a one-time joke or the name of their actual team in Sportiva (yeah, Abe is another Sportiva guy!!). I like that most Japanese wrestlers coming to foreign lands will tweak their act a little, maybe slow it town, be paltable for Western audiences, but not Yuki. Yuki doesn’t give a fuck, he’s there to kick ass and do BattlARTS style matches. This was punishment style alright, just 4 guys smacking and stretching each other. No punches pulled, I think Takeshima gave Ishikawa a headbutt like 2 minutes into this and started bleeding. It wasn’t even a showy hard hitting match like you sometimes see on the US indies, where guys will hit each other hard in really showy ways, waiting for the other guy to come over, doing a sneering face, letting yourself get hit and selling it for the back row, this was guys cheapshotting each other in nasty ways and scrambling on the mat. I liked Abe and Takeshima a lot here, Abe all spunky and smacking people in the face, Takeshima hitting gnarly headbutts. Ishikawa was Ishikawa, he did a lot of falling elbows and knee drops which I dug, at one point he was dropping elbows and knees on Takeshimas head as if Greg Valentine had absorbed Khabib. Hornet is a guy who comes in with this really tassely neon outfit but he is really game to roll with this, he was pretty good at scrambling on the mat, locking peoples legs up in cool ways, and trading hits. At one point he hit a fist drop and then started working an armlock which is totally cool with me, because it was a decent fist drop and that’s something junji.com would do. It’s really fun to see a Western audience react to this stuff, like they don’t react to this unstructured brawl in the same way they would to a face vs. heel match or a spotfest or whatever, but they clearly react and all these guys got over. People are clearly way into Yuki Ishikawa, they are into Hornet, they are into Abe and Takeshima as a pair of goofy pricks, they are clearly in shock whenever someone would land a particularily gruesome smack, and even with the complete absence of high spots (I think the biggest move was a double suplex) they enjoyed the match. And this was just a bunch of guys hitting each other and scrambling on the mat and trying to twist each others legs off. This was just a really good time.

Yuki Ishikawa & D-Man Parker vs Freedom Wallace & Bradford Montague, Battle Arts Canada 10/7/2016

It’s Ishikawa working a parking lot indy show, baby. This is Ishikawas “Hashimoto stiffing Dylan Night in Pennsylvania” or “Negro Navarro stretching Quackenbush in a bar in delaware” moment, he is just there to kick ass and punish these guys. Like seriously anytime someone was down he would punch them in the kidney, kneedrop their head/throat, stomp them, punch them in the head some more etc. It was a total uninterrupted, messy asskicking that the crowd didn’t know what to make of. The other guys fuck up a lot, although Ishikawa working his signature reversals and submissions is a lot of fun, there are at least some tentative attempts at BattlARTS style where a scrub would try to work a leglock or armlock and that is enough for Yuki Ishikawa to carry you. The big spot of the match was some guy hitting an elbow drop off the second rope on Yuki. D-Man Parker is some skinny kid with kickpads and he was barely in this. The ending has both scrubs working segments against Ishikawa and they seemed to find their groove a bit there. Crowd mostly has no idea what to make of this as they are not sure who to cheer and who to boo but they pop for the Octopus Hold finish and you have to love that.

Bukotu 9/25/2016

Kaoru Nemoto vs. Takeshi Michibata

For a low level regional indy opening match, this was pretty fun. Nemoto is this cool thickly built old dude with a suck mullet and cool skull trunks design, who wrestles like kind of a tribute to a Hiro Saito being a troll with a nice backdrop suplex. I enjoy that kind of heel act and he did a decent job punishing Michibata who is as generic an indy junior as they come.

Michio Kageyama vs. KB

Kageyama is the next nice surprise on this show. He looks like a mini-Gannosuke but was really good working over his opponents arm here and picking him apart with kicks. KB looked quite pathetic and untrained, like a middle aged businessman randomly decided to get in the ring and got booked by paying the ring rent, but his offense was restricted to a minimum. I want to see more of this Kageyama guy.

Toru Sugiura & Dyna-Mido & AK vs. Hideaki Sumi & Takeshi Irei & Naoki Ito

This was also pretty good for a midcard 6 man tag. The trio around Dyna-Mido did a good job playing enforcers and putting a beatdown on young Naoki Ito, who did a decent fired up black trunks youngster performance. I especially enjoyed Sugiura just working people over with kicks. Sumi is this grouchy karateka who doesn't pull his strikes at all and he's great. He hit this cartwheel kick to a guys face and it was awe-inspiring. Really want to see more of that guy. Irei is a thickly built guy with nice suplexes who apparently came from Apache Pro. I remember absolutely nothing about AK but when your name is "AK" I guess you just set up not to be memorable.

Yuji Yoshida vs. Masao Ando

This was a nice surprise. Two tubby guys with kickpads hitting each other hard and basically doing a sleazy WAR match. No stupid back and forth strike exchanges, they just battered each other with kicks and elbows. I wonder about Andos background because he shows up consistently on sleaze undercards and is a cool fatboy shooter. I've never heard of this Yoshida but he's old, very lumpy and takes and gives punishment well. There was a gnarly moment where Ando lifted up Yoshida for a waterwheel throw and just dumped him on his head. Too bad Yoshida just did a shitty looking single leg takedown to comeback. The finish was fun though with Ando getting dumped with some big suplexes, way bigger bumps than you'd expect from a local show in front of 50 people. Not polished but it was fun.

Kenji Fukimoto vs. SATOSHI

Fukimoto is a Kurisu trainee who can be a really great sleaze brawler, but he was paired with a guy who seemed green and brought absolutely nothing to the table. Fukimoto just carefully strung this dude through the match. A waste of Fukimoto, but at least he wore some really cool facepaint.

Tadanobu Fujisawa / Daisuke Masaoka vs. YU-ICHI / KENJI

Fujisawa looked damn good here. Apparently he's another Kurisu trainee and he gave a 100% Kurisu performance. He was punching and kicking people flush in the face and cracking them with grueling headbutts and chairshots. He displayed good timing and selling too, so he wasn't just a crowbar. Brawling around the ring was actually good and closer to IWRG than the lazy shit you usually get on Japanese indy shows. The other people in the match weren't bad, but nothing to write home about either. But the match had a structure where the veteran team of Fujisawa and Masaoka were isolating their opponents and killing them, and I was into that. I lost a bit interest with the trained monkey stuff of Yu-ichi and KENJI, but fortunately Fujisawa was there to run in and tag people with Takaiwa lariats. The finish was great as Fujisawa just kicked the guy in the face hard. No theatrics or setup, just kicked him in the face and pinned him. As far as I'm concerned Fujisawa is another candidate for the list of must see Japanese sleazeballs, but his tape history is extremely limited.

The Library

RIP Jimmy Rave

 

Jimmy Rave vs. AJ Styles, Pro South Wrestling 5/8/2015

This was Styles working some dingy hall in the south to defend the IWGP title against Rave. A nice PS to their storyline in RoH 10 years earlier. Structurally this felt a bit like both guys doing their take on an NWA title match with modern stylings. Nice fast movements by Rave during the opening hold exchanges, with Styles sinking into holds for control. The whole match was built around Styles controlling, with Rave gradually making comebacks, until Rave was stringing enough offense together that it seemed like he could really win the IWGP title. I would have liked a bit more emotion given both guys backstory, maybe for Rave to revive his old cheating tactics more, although that rope bump he made Styles take was pretty nasty. But it was a very good veteran psychology match with high athleticism.

Jimmy Rave vs. Nigel McGuinness, RoH 3/4/2007

This was a Fight without Honor and took place in Nigels home country. Just a brutal old fight this was. Typical in RoH fashion they start with a lock up, but Rave imemdiately establishes his ratboy heel role and they are soon laying into each other. Really amped up level of violence, with guys taking nasty bumps and really smacking each other hard between exchanges. McGuinness is a trashing machine laying into Rave with open hand strikes and jaw-breaking lariats, and Rave holds up his own landing a really violent face stomp and bitchslapping him. Nigels bandaged leg comes into play, and while there wasn‘t much legwork Rave would use it to cut him off, and he did a pretty decent job selling it. Guardrail bumps were just insane and really took this to the next level, Rave was fearless just absolutely getting killed on that steel. Because this is 2007 parts of the match came across a bit work-rateish particularily the bit where McGuinness first did his Tower of London when there should‘ve been a bit more hatred and torturing each other. Still those sections were well executed, and everything else was super gritty and mean. Loved the „fuck you“ Pedigree from Rave complete with a shit eating, bloody grin, too.

Dog Collar Match: Jimmy Rave vs. CM Punk, RoH 5/7/2005

This was more like it. Jimmy Rave jumps CM Punk before he can get the collar chain on him. After that it‘s all hatred, chain punches and blood. The chain prevents much workrate so they had to stay focussed and it produced a really good brawl. Punk bled a gusher and Rave beat the fuck out of him. For a guy who‘s a pretty boy heel, Rave knows how to get violent, his Mistica into a chain across the mouth was super nasty. Punk won‘t make you forget Jim Duggan in his role but he‘s smart enough to get a few things right. It was getting a bit silly at the end with Punk fighting off the whole Embassy as more and more goons kept jumping on him, but Rave took me right back with that insanely violent chair assault.

Jimmy Rave vs. Chris Crunk, AWE 9/20/2015

At this point Rave had turned into a slightly fatter, grizzlier indy veteran. He beats the shit out of his skinny opponent here. Snug clotheslines, violent face stomps, big STO, just eating this guy up. Rarely do you see one sided veteran beatdowns in wrestling like this nowadays and this was a glorious one. Crunk didn‘t do much for me but he doesn‘t get in much offense either. And you watch this for Rave cracking him.

Jimmy Rave vs. Matt Riddle, SCI 8/6/2016

This is grizzled veteran Rave taking on Riddle who is younger and was also a huge indy star at this time. Nice example of Rave working a completely different than usual match. He is still his usual persona, but he is so outmatched and has to fight from underneath so he almost assumes a Masao Inoueish babyface role. Riddle outgrapples him early, so Rave thumbs him in the eye and stomps his bare feet. After some more scuzzy Rave heel antics, such as punching Riddle in the face and spitting on him, Riddle would go on ragdoll Rave with his throws. Raves STO was once again a great, really well timed spot set up by Riddles doozy dooness. Riddle is a bit goofy here but Raves performance draws the crowd into the match in a much bigger way than his usual match. A testament to the skills of Jimmy Rave.

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

Fugofugo Yumeji & BUKI vs. Kikujiro Umezawa & Martn Pain, EXIT ?/???? (probably 2013)

EXIT is Fugofugos fed. It's kind of like an even sleazier CAPTURE. And well, this match was fucking insane! Kikujiro Umezawa never stood out to me much before, but holy hell he was a killer here. Working like a WAR heavyweight, doing cool sumo spots, and just working insanely stiff. Whenever he and Fugofugo matched up it felt like someone was about to die. Insane headbutts and lariats. Fugo even busts out some crazy kicks including an abisegiri right to Umezawas head. Even Umezawas big splash landed in a brutal way. BUKI also looked good - a mini Great Kabuki with ultra stiff neck chops and trust kicks is something else. At one point he landed a thrust kick to Umezawa where Umezawa ran into it in a way like he didn't expect to eat a thrust kick. Martn Pain is an Austrian guy and doesn't stand out much, but he ate some stiff shots and didn't get in the way much. Still, holy fuck this makes me want to get all of Fugo and Umezawas back catalogue.

Daichi vs. Yousei Estrella, Llave Libre Workshop ?/2017

This match was „Llave Libre“ style, a style created by Japanese indy luchadore Jiraya, which is basically shootstyle grappling meets lucha matwork. Think if Negro Navarro gave the U-Style roster a training session. There is also a weird points system and rounds. Pretty fun to look at two grapplers scrambling in and out of crazy lucha submissions. Some insanely tight submissions here, and the scrambles and avoiding the dreaded 5 count where really fun. Wouldn‘t mind seeing more Llave Libre.

Yasushi Sato vs. Hakaru Imai, Jishidan 11/27/2016

Some may remember Hakaru Imai as HYOMA or Plug Imai. He‘s a scum indy guy how tried to come up in BJW sometime in the 2000s. He looked a lot fatter, and balder here, but he was game to go at it with Yasushi Sato. This was a weird rules match – the first fall had 3 count rules, the second 2 count, and the 3rd one counts. This was a Yasushi Sato signature match with lots of matwork and some great psychology. For a fat old guy, Hyoma was pretty fun hitting some fast takedowns early on for a fat old dude. Sato was quite vicious, dropping a nasty knee on Imais ankle as well as trying to scratch his head open. Aside from the grappling both guys also laid into each other with some stiffer than usual strikes. As usual with Sato matches, there was an excellent build to his russian legsweeps. Lord knows that man puts the entire industry to shame with how he makes the most basic move interesting. Second fall was really great as Imai was down 1-0 and all Sato needed was another legsweep to get the fall. Imai to his credit made a great comeback. His fat man moonsault ruled. 3Rd fall was tricky with the one count rules and once again had some great moments centered around the russian leg sweep. Also dug the backslide spots. Not sure if the ref bump was needed but it was funny. Another inexplicably great Sato match in front of a tiny audience.

 

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.

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

 

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. KATSUO, Dounan Pro Wrestling(?) 3/31/2019

These two had a very good main event in Yamamotos BATTLE And ARTS promotion, so I was delighted to find another match between the two! The BAP match was a match built around Katsuo being a monster and demolishing Yamamoto. This was about Yamamoto picking apart Katsuo with shoot strikes and nasty arm stretches and Katsuo being a tough guy absorbing punishment and firing back with KO worthy potatoe lariats and headbutts of his own. One thing was constant: these two potatoed the daylights out of each other. Yamamoto is quite the offensive tank combining cool arm submissions with a variety of kicks, knees, elbows and open hand strikes. He even mixes in a cool Kido Clutch at one point. And Katsuo is really solid in his role. Fun fun match.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Kyosuke Sasaki, Kyushu Pro 12/2016

For a 66 year old man, Fujiwara could still go. This match blows a lot of shootstyle attempts between younger guys away. Fun beginning with guys shoving each other to the ropes and trading stiff cheapshots, and then we a get a bunch of really good matwork. Fujiwara was stretching the hell out of Sasaki and doing some nasty as hell ankle grinding. There was also a great leg lock exchange. Sasaki is really cool here, not holding back with the kicks, and doing things like going for a Gotch style piledriver on the old man. Great finish where Fujiwara baits Sasaki into finally throwing a hand and catching him.