Some more modern joshi

 Moeka Haruhi vs ASUKA (Veny), Ganbare Pro 11/23/2020

A surprisingly scrappy joshi big match where they both decided to absolutely grill each other with tons of violent offense. Thought Asuka was quite effective here as the taller sadistic asskicker booting Haruhi in the face. Apparently Haruhi used to be a teen idol (horrifying) and has only been in a handful of longer singles matches over the years, but she was quite good here. Her submissions were cool and she absolutely drilled Asuka with some insane headbutts and double stomps. She also really kept trying to rip Asuka in half with her straight jacket holds. Selling wasn’t a huge deal here but they kept a good pace with little letdown and sometimes you just wanna watch two wrestlers try to kill each other.

Mari vs MARU, AWG 12/29/2024

MARU had a run in JD Star in the early 2000s before retiring 2005. Somehow she came back 17 damn years later and now she’s having wild brawls like this. That is pretty crazy in itself, and this match is pretty damn crazy too. Reminded me of those early 2000s JD brawls in the best way. MARU provided some cool wrestling with her nifty Stretch Muffler counters and Mari is just a badass with her kick variations. Match had plenty of violent chain punches and soon, after some scrappy opening fighting it turned into a psycho bump fast. MARU taking those bumps at her age was pretty insane. I did love how Mari would just pick her up and throw her into chairs or a ladder, totally not caring about making it fancy. There was also a kick that lead to MARU spilling down the Korakuen Hall stairs which again was straight out of those old JD street fights. MARU was feeling it here, just taking totally crazy punishment and dishing it right back at her opponent. It really felt like they were trying to crush each other. In the end it seemed MARU was too caught up in trying to hurt Mari instead of winning the match, which costed her as Mari finally caught her and finished her off with a series of devastating kicks. Really good brawl that had both the big spots and the gritty fighting that is often lacking from these modern hardcore matches. Insane MARU performance and Mari looked like total badass.

 

Misaki Ohata vs Hiroe Nagahama, WAVE  10/22/2017

Very good joshi style match. Energetic Nagahama overwhelmed Ohata initially, but quickly became the underdog due to Ohatas vicious style. Ohata was pretty brutal here: trying to take Nagahamas head off with elbows, almost ripping her in half with several Fuchi-ish submissions, and dropping some vicious knees and stomps. This builds to a few increasingly desperate and great comeback attempts from Nagahama. Good stuff, they had another match the following year that was also good and pretty similiar to this but I thought this one had more of an epic well together title match vibe. At 13 minutes it's pretty compact too.

Exploring... Dyna-Mido

Dyna-Mido vs A-Z, Shin Osaka Pro Wrestling(?) 2/16/2020

Dyna-Mido is a fascinating wrestler. Apparently, he’s a veteran of the JWA Kansai days, so he is a stalwart of serious no ring pro wrestling. When you search his name on YouTube, you get all kind of wonderous results. Matches in Fu*ck, battles against grapplers and MMA fighters, fighting in parking lots with no ring. And this was the no-ring shootstyle action that your brain craves. I think I’ve only seen A-Z in FU*CK one or two times, and his Cagematch profile reveals that he’s been creeping around the seediest places ranging from EXIT to KOBE Meriken and other micro indies. Apparently he belongs to something called AVANZAR which mainly seems to specialize in no-ring wrestling so A-Z has quite the pedigree. But A-Z is a serious shooter who kicks really hard. These two level some hellish strikes against each other here. It’s a totally serious match and it rules. A-Zs kicks are hard and he landed this one enzuigiri to Midos skull that was horrific. Mido is as solid as a brick and he looks tough as hell here absorbing punishing kicks and firing back with brutal headbutts and elbows of his own. There is some fun groundwork, too. The audience for this couldn’t be more than 20 people and it’s just filmed with a single overhead cam, yet these two went out here and tried to crush each other. This is the kind of stuff that embodies pro wrestling.

Dyna-Mido vs Yuko Miyamoto, B168 5/30/2021

This takes place on a parking lot, in the blazing sun, on some mats that are flimsily held together by a plastic wrapping. It’s a deathmatch too and they got barbedwire and a ladder and other things. There are a bunch of ladies in the audience for this too, mostly with hats or towels on their head because of the sun burning and it’s during the height of COVID. It’s insane to think the Japanese authority allowed this to happen at the time. They do some snappy opening chain wrestling before Miyamoto grabs a barbedwire bat and bangs it into Midos shin to escape a front headlock. Miyamoto is clever enough to do the Sakuraba dragging spin to Mido on the pavement which I assume is scorching hot. It soon turns into a surreal gritty trenchfight with Mido bleeding in this parking plot. Miyamoto looks really sharp here, making the general deathmatch affair more fun with his explosive kicks and athleticism, and Mido is just pure guts. Miyamoto wraps barbedwire around Midos had and snapmares him across the mat in an incredibly nasty spot that I don’t recall seeing before. There’s Miyamotos cool spin kicks, Mido has a really nice Northern Lights Suplex.. at one point Mido gets hit by a truck. Mido ends up taking a press slam off the ladder and bounces really hard on those flimsy mats. There are gritty no hands headbutts and a few cool moments that caught me unexpectedly. This match isn’t anything intelligent, it’s just two crazy guys fighting and bleeding grittily in a parking lot and occasionally smashing a barrel or barbedwire board into the other. Truck getting involved added to the craziness too. Another piece of immensely sick and enjoyable raw pro wrestling.

Dyna-Mido vs Jun Masaoka, B168 12/12/2015

This also on just a mat held in a bright but small Japanese multi purpose hall. Description says this show was held without prior announcement so yeah they work their butts off here. Masaoka is a bouncy lithe junior wrestler and his bouncing around makes this pretty fun. More fast paced action than you expect from such a match and Mido is as solid and reliable as you need a thickly built shaven headed ass kicker to be. He made sure to really punish Masaoka slamming him on the tin mat, and the contrast between Masaokas twisty rollups and high jumping dropkicks and Midos lariats and slams makes this a really fun match.

Dyna-Mido vs Maori Kawashima, Steak Pro Wrestling 10/16/2021

This is held in a small BJJ gym room and it looks like they just glued some foam mats together to make a ring. I am fascinated with this. Kawashima has been a bit of an indy hotness with his cool look, but Mido just eats him up here. Mido toys with Kawashima on the mat in fun ways and when Kawashima tries to get into a strike contest Midos elbows are just way too hard for him. Both guys try to go for sneaky rollups but the time limit runs out after like 5 minutes. Probably the most grappling I’ve seen Mido do and it was pretty fun, it does make me want to see him against someone who can provide a bit more of a challenge.

Dyna-Mido & Daisuke Masaoka vs Jun Kasai & Kamui, Steak Pro Wrestling 10/16/2021

Oh, they had another match that day, so that’s why the previous match went short. This is not as gritty and insane as the Miyamoto match, but it’s still quite fun Mido plays the crazy old coot here, and he does get his head skewered. It was even kinda smart since Mido got pinned early and after the restart they kept teasing another pin on him. Masaoka and Kamui are pretty fun hitting their flying headscissors stuff in this no ring environment. And Kasai is good as he always is, does this guy simply have infinite HP? Gritty finish where Mido takes a nasty double arm facebuster on his head with the skewers in.

Assorted Ganbare Pro

 

ASUKA (Veny) vs Haganne Shinnou, Ganbare Pro 8/22/2020

Surprisingly very good big match. Opening had some scrappy disdainful kicks before ASUKA establishes her superior agility over Shinnou in neat ways. Shinnoue then proceeded to work over her leg. Really good legwork, especially dug all the spots where Asukas leg was caught in the ropes. Finishing run had lots of nifty moments and counters. Resisting the Ranhei felt epic, and while Asuka was never gonna sell that legwork all the way to the end it wasn’t exactly blatant no selling either. The spot where she struggled to lift Shinnou and then went for a takeover instead pretty neat. Her spinning wheel kick is also one of the best I’ve seen in a while, really hit Haganne in the face like a baseball bat. Shinnou also looked really solid in this. Quality stuff, probably one of the best matches of that cursed year 2020.

Shuichiro Katsumura vs Cherry, Ganbare Pro 4/24/2021

Judo jacket match where they basically come out and do worked BJJ. Worked BJJ can be really cool, and they did lots of fun transitions and submission attempts here without ever slowing down. There was a funny bit where Cherry did an eyepoke and pulled Katsumuras jacket over his head, but other than that this was just clean grappling and pretty fun. It’s always cool to see wrestlers showing a different skillset and Cherry looked pretty legit here. Really cool finish with the crazy gi choke.

Ken Ohka vs Naoshi Sano, Ganbare Pro 7/8/2017

BLOODBATH!! Surprisingly fun scummy heel performance from Sano here working over Ohka. He does a fine job acting like scum, and his open handed shots are pretty fun. Ohka is kind of a sleazeball too, and while he’s probably not very good, he brings a good deal of vibe with his scrappy flying tackles and the schlubby wifebeater and jeans he’s wearing. Both guys end up bleeding big and it’s fun, with Ohkas blood getting all over Sanos hands from Sanos strikes. Sano looked surprisingly competent demolishing Ohka here, and there was a fun sense of irony in how Sano would cut off Ohkas lazy comeback attempts. They are wise enough to not overstay their welcome. Just bleed big, let people soak in the spectacle, and go home.

Shuichiro Katsumura vs Tsuyoshi Okada, Ganbare Pro 8/11/2019

One of the better BattlARTS-style matches in the post-BattlARTS world that I can recall. Actually felt like an angry PANCRASE fight with both guys really hitting those palm strikes like they meant it. Great aggression and no real sense of holding back, which is awesome. The flash submissions ruled, too. Katsumura is a legit grappler so he can really do some spectacular stuff and Okada was up to the task. I loved the shootstyle version of the TKO, and his jumping knee looked like it nearly killed Katsumura. Nifty Fujiwara-esque finish. Really good for what it was, I actually wanted to see it go longer.

More Sportiva

 Shinya Ishida vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 11/25/2020

Sick WAR-esque match with both guys beating the fuck out of each other and showing tons of hatred. Ishida is starting to grow on me, the guy really knows how to deliver an asskicking.Yes he looks like your typical junior wrestler but when it comes to stomping a guys guts out he is much closer to Ashura Hara than someone like Marufuji. He is also very good at working momentum shifts. Him blistering Shimizu with those nasty short kicks to the chest, brutal Garvin stomps and bitchslapping him was great stuff. Shimizu is a rookie who at this point has little more than dropkicks and elbows, but he throws some fierce elbows and his dropkicks land flush in Ishidas face, really putting the Wrestling and Romance into a silent arena plague era match in a way that should have gotten more attention at the time (who can blame people, I didn't have my eye on Sportiva at this time either). Some awesome moments here where both guys are pummeling each other from the mount, and for a fairly long match they keep things fairly interesting with Shimizu really having to earn his salt. I love me a stiff war where guys land basic strikes with bad intentions and this was that kind of match.

 

Toru Sugiura & Kengo Takai vs Kyozo Furuta & Hiroaki Ura, Sportiva 5/8/2019

It’s Kyozo Furutas debut match. Since I’m writing about it you know it was a good debut match. Furuta almost immediately gets a bloody nose when Sugiura and Takai start beating him down, and you get Sugiura slapping his bloody face and Takai stepping on his nose, and Furuta gets all kinds of fired up. He did good for a young boy. And, just the fact that even getting his more established opponents up for a bodyslam for him takes enormous effort out of him makes things interesting. That and the fact he might tap out to any random boston crab. Ura was pretty fun here, too. He’s no Akiyama but his ways of catching people with dropkicks from odd angles is very cool. In a way he’s still a young boy too but more accomplished and he still surprises you with what he can achieve and what he busts out. Sugiura and Takai don’t do anything beyond the basics and they didn’t need more than that, tho Takai blasts Furuta with a pretty hefty lariat. Blood, fire and characters that get you invested. This was pro wrestling done right.

Takaya Shibayama vs Kyozo Furuta, Sportiva 5/29/2019

Takaya Shibayama is a curious wrestler. He’s pretty checked out in his late career and mailing it in most of the time, but capable of delivering good stuff in a while. Thankfully he decided to deliver the good stuff here. This was a really nice rookie vs veteran match where Shibayama guides the freshly debuted Kyozo Furuta through sensible match without relying on no-selling or extended beatdowns and stretching. Obviously he dominates a lot and it takes a while before Furuta can even get Shibayama off his feet, and things stay basic, but it’s ever dull simply because they manage to create that sense that it might just happen. And they just build every part of the match nicely. Furuta has to build up to basic stuff like even a bodyslam and even getting in something as basic as slipping underneath and hitting a forearm feels very satisfying. And Shibayama does some cool stuff in the second half, hitting some gnarly forearms, a really stiff swinging lariat and a really cool snapdown into a facelock for the tap. Furuta only had the most basic dropkick and bodyslam stuff at this point but his fire was good enough that it’s definitely a letdown that he retired before his career could really get anywhere. Still, I look forward to checking out how far that boy made it.

Mutoha Customer Reviews

The group known as Mutoha is probably one of the most interesting things going on today. They are staunchly indifferent to the general trajectory of the current wrestling landscape and instead resolve to convince fans of the awesomeness of mat-based matches and weird rulesets. You can now directly buy their stuff for about 2 bucks per video from @itako18jp on Twitter. The process is really simple, ask them to DM and you will receive a message, then give your PayPal email adress and select what you want, then you can download and will receive a bill to your PayPal later. You can find their general selection here and sometimes you will also receive something extra. I will be reviewing matches as I purchase them to give you a general idea of why you want this stuff, and you do want this stuff.

 

Yasushi Sato vs. Konaka, 7/21/2018

Quirky technical match between two of the greatest to ever do quirky technical matches. I think at one point Konaka looked in the greatest submission anyone has ever done on Sato in this. It was pure yoga demon insanity. The rest of the match was really great too. It was a 15 minute Ironman Match with 2 count pinfalls, so… they did a lot of unique stuff. Sato was dominating with his knack for pin combos and out of nowhere Russian Leg Sweeps so Konaka had to come up with something. Great sense of struggle over the pinfalls/submissions and Satos suplexes were really cool as usual, and the psychology was truely excellent. Absolutely tremendous stuff, basically a 5 star match as far as technical matches in Japanese bars go, this kind of whacky creative oddball scientific match was really the best thing going in Japan at the time.

Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Konaka, 4/21/2018

This was “just” a rounds match so it didn’t have the insane creativity of Konaka/Sato but it was still really excellent. Watanabe is super athletic for an old guy just bouncing around effortlessly and hitting cool hip throws that I’ve only seen done by old timey French workers before, so you know he was on to some different level. Konaka is once again really good, always doing something interesting. These guys are no worse than your top flight WoS or lucha matworkers. The hold for hold stuff was really good and I dug the exchange of llaves in the last round. It caps out at 3 rounds so it was more of a taste than a full blown epic, but maybe another match between them is somewhere that really breaks the scale.

Hideya Iso vs. Taro Yamada, 1/13/2020

Another really good match from Mumejuku. Very mat based as you expect. Iso has that Osamu Kido-like vibe, he’s a dumpy technician who doesn’t look like much and doesn’t do fancy moves but he has that easily overlooked kind of charisma and he can pull out some cool crafty stuff. This was Isos best performance that I’ve seen and Yamada looked like one of the best wrestlers in the world. It was pretty much Isos traditional, basic skillset vs. Yamadas llave holds. Several really good mat exchanges here, I especially liked Yamada pulling off a Paradise Hold in plausible fashion. They just went out and wrestled so there wasn’t some kind of exceptional story although I was rooting for Iso to upset his opponent. Sometimes you just want to watch two guys wrestle for 20 minutes and they delivered. Gnarly finish. This stuff is why Mumei was maybe the most important promotion in the world during that time period.

Of all things... a Yusaku Ito Deep Dive

 Yusaku Ito vs. Koji Kanemoto, Kobe Meriken 3/17/2023

Yusaku Ito is this scuzzy little guy who will kick you hard and blast you with nasty headbutts. He reminds me of the indy guys who would sometimes work Fu-Ten undercard matches, he’s not quite a shooter, but he hits some awesome strikes, really makes his pro style moves hit hard and as a knack for timing a cool transition, like he’s a lost 3^rd Brahman brother or Shoichi Uchida dance partner. Kanemoto is 56 here and while he doesn’t kick as fast as he used to he will still kick a scuzzy indy guy in the face and do random dick moves like stopping Ito by kicking him really hard in the leg. This takes place in some dingy bar and is filmed by a single webcam so we don’t get the brief brawling portion outside, we just Kanemoto leaving the ring, then we hear some clanging banging noise as if from a metal tin can and when they come back Yusaku is in control so you kind of imagine what happened. Ito is not afraid to hit the old man in the face, and he earns his sault leaping into Kanemotos spin kicks and knees. Really really fun stuff.

Yusaku Ito vs. Toru Sugiura, FREEDOMS/Sugiura Pro Wrestling 12/10/2021

Sick fucking match. Japanese wrestling is in this weird state right now where most of the wrestling you see is a bunch of fucking nothing, but occasionally you will get something fucking crazy on the smallest of stages. This was worked like a big match and really great, there is lots of basic but extremely tight and well executed opening hold for hold work. You gotta appreciate that Ito is this scuzzy guy but he can also do things like hit a really slick dragon screw. Opening going reminded me of a great 90s NJPW juniors match due to the tight basic work and both guys peppering in some psycho headbutts and elbows. Toru Sugiura is kind of the scuzzy king of the Japanese indies and I liked how he established himself as a class above his opponent, 1) in terms of wrestling by reversing a leglock from Ito into a cool leglock of his own and 2) by acting deranged and scummy as fuck. Middle portion was a bit middling but the ending portion is one of the sickest finishing stretches I’ve ever seen, just pure insanity with both guys trying to annihilate each other with crazy headbutts and elbows. Just a hair below the best of FUTEN and they worked some great transitions. Match had a bunch of well executed tight wrestling, head dropping moves and truly psycho violence, Japanese indy wrestling at its best.

Yusaku Ito vs. Konaka, Sportiva 12/16/2020

 

This was a rad 7 minute match. Konaka is like a freaky lithe Arn Anderson working a studio TV match here, just constantly attacking Itos arm, while Ito beats him around the ring with his cool kicks, back elbows and headbutts. Everything Ito does lands really solidly and the Konaka arm attack stuff is great. I imagine a 20 minute match between them would be epic considering both these guys are quite the hidden gem workers but sometimes it’s cool to see two talented guys having a unique short little match that has maybe 1 or 2 back bumps.

Yusaku Ito vs. Konaka, Sportiva 9/15/2021

Well, I just said a main event between the two would be epic, and here’s a main event between the two and it’s really good! Mind you it’s a weekday show in front of like 12 people, but that’s kind of the best match these two will do. And this was really good, almost scientific. We start with some really fun matwork with Konaka doing a cool job catching Ito in pins and submissions. The transition is Ito catching Konaka with a sleeper, which Konaka fights out of but Ito keeps knocking the wind out of him with blows to the body. Ito constantly going back to locking in cool chokes was really good. Konaka is such a fun wrestler, I love how he sets up his comeback and ends up working Itos legs over. The finishing stretch was Konakas leg stretches vs. Itos chokes and it was really smart and great. These two are awesome, and it was cool to see Ito in a really good match without brain damaging stiffness that was built around cool submissions and counters.

Mutoha Blog Revival

 Yasushi Sato vs. Kenichiro Arai, Mutoha 3/11/2020

Surprise surprise, another very good Yasushi Sato match. Loved the cagey technical action early on. Then we got the usual dose of cool Sato amateur spots, such as an awesome Honda-like double arm suplex into a chokehold, as well as great struggle over Satos finishing hold and a reckless Russian Leg Sweep that left Arai in shambles. Arai was hardly a mat genius but he does his sneaky technically scuzzy heel act very well. I dug how Arai early on worked some neck cranks on Sato after Sato tried to fuck with him. Loved the little punch Arai threw at Satos face and the cool Figure 4 work. Fun finish.

Chon Shiryu & Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Hideya Iso & Osamu Namiguchi, Mutoha 3/11/2020

Fun tag with the old guys looking good as usual doing nifty technical old school work. Shiryu was a lot of fun too, he dialed down the kung fu spots a bit, although when he did kung fu stuff it suited the match and made a cool contrast to the other guys more traditional approach. His grappling and technical work is a lot of fun too and at one point he spin kicked Namiguchi in the face really hard. Namiguchi was okay but didn’t do anything brilliant and you really gotta bring a little more in Mutoha. Watanabe and Iso did their thing and it was cool as always, and Iso even got to pick up a win! We love Iso.

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Chocoball Mukai, Fuyuki Army 12/5/2003

Mukai usually was this scuzzy character, but here he‘s an asskicker wearing MMA gloves and kickpads beating the hell out of Ishikawa. Everyone gets to work stiff when facing Ishikawa I guess. And this is really one hell of a match. Mukai gives his all beating the shit out of Ishikawa, hitting some gnarly punches, joint-popping arm holds and even bloodying Ishikawas mouth. Ishikawa is who you think he is, busting out some neat counters and letting Mukai look way way better than he has any right to. Add Chocoball Mukai to the list of guys to have their career match against Yuki. 

Rikiya Fudo & Raito Shimitsu vs. Tatsuhiko Nakagawa & Akira Jo, ?? 1/11/2020

Glad this kind of modern scum indy match is now seeping onto YouTube so I can watch and cherish it. This is labelled DARK KARATE vs. WRESTLING HEAVYWEIGHTS and that's really all the story you need. Akira Jo is this Ex-IGF guy who kind of turned into an Oriharaite, and Nakagawa looked pretty badass with his gloves and overall just punching and kicking people. Shimitsu is the perennial good little worker of these trash indies with his amateur style and energy, and Fudo is that old CAPTUREhead who comes in to chop hard and drop really violent elbow drops and splashes on people. I think current day Ishii vs. Fudo would be pretty amazing. Great moment where Fudo busts Nakagawa in the face with a chair, Nakagawa comes back bleeding and pulls a belt out to choke Fudo. Then you get Shimitsu unloading his cool suplexes for the finish, Nakagawa spin kicking him in the face etc. Good shit.

BATOS CAFE 2/23/2020

 Manabu Hara vs. Onryo

It's BattlARTS vs. WYF baby! Just 20 years late! Onryo in his broken down old age has become a good little worker and this was a ton of fun. Opening grappling where Onryos radiation dust kept annoying Hara was really fun, and Onryo produced a nice highlight when he caught Hara in a neat pin combo. They made it clear the ghost wasn't on Haras level as a grappler but he could do hang on and maybe do something ghostly to catch the shooter. Onryo controlling by working Haras leg was a bit trite and didn't mean much. The finishin stretch on the other hand was made fun by Onryo busting out some surprisingly slick moves while Hara just tried to armbar the zombie. Satisfying match up.

SUSHI vs. Kagura

Kagura is some sleaze junior in a cheap skull mask. He seems to be decently athletic. This was a slow junior match and kind of trite. They really needed to work some decent basic opening exchanges or something. SUSHI I think has worked AJPW but he really doesn't show much at all here, and he was supposed to be the face, Kagura did all the somewhat cool things. Crap finish too.

Yasu Urano vs. Hiroshi Yamato

Wow! Surprisingly fun match. Is matwork becoming trendy on the Japanese indies now or something? I'm here for it. They honest to god did some pretty good matwork here. Urano had these neat leg stretches and takeovers and looked like he should be with the Mumejuku crew. There was also a sequence of duelling strait jacket holds that was straight out of WoS. Yamamoto looked pretty decent. They also went into a sequence of armdrags at one point that felt honest to god spontaneous and cool. The finish wasn't as exciting as they went for comedy for some reason. Still, I probably should watch more of these guys.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. GENTARO

This was all grappling, if you can get into match that is all matwork you will like this. Honestly thought the grappling here was up there with Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco. Ishikawa is a bonafide master at this stage, and GENTARO is really tenacious and matches him. They make no secret that Ishikawa is dictating things with all the awesome and unusual stuff he was doing, which makes the match. GENTARO doesn’t get to grapple often but he’s really good at it. He kept locking in hammerlocks and short arm scissors from odd angles and it made it feel like Ishikawa was facing a 50s grappler. Several amazing moments (the painful leglock battle, all the choke attempts including GENTAROs sleeper, the leglock/head and arm choke battle, the ending) and Ishikawa honestly looked like the GOAT.

Yuiga vs. Rion Mizuki vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Minoru Tanaka

On a show full of serious undercard matches, they do a weird 4 way dance where they break every other minute to drink shots. Some solid individual exchanges here, especially dig Yuiga who's such a crowbar, but everyone just did their bread and butter and you can imagine there wasn't much depth with the stipulation. I would've rather seen this run as a tag as I imagine Yuiga and pretty boy Mizuki vs. the junior vets would've been pretty cool.

THE LIBRARY

KEITA in the VKF

 

Keita Yano vs. GOA, VKF 9/29/2019

GOA has also gone by HUB and a bunch of other names. I've only seen him in Fire Pro Returns so it was cool that the gimmick is still around. But he was a straight forward wrestler here and game to have a really good little match with KEITA. This starts with a bunch of indy WoS matwork which is something that can be trite in 2019, but Keita is pretty much a master at this point. Just the way he gracefully slips beneath to lock in a surfboard hold is a class above. GOA was a bit bland initially but he came into his own as the match went along busting out neat offense. I really liked his strangle holds and the following llave exchange, as well as the crazy pin combo he busted out. And Yano feeds really well into GOAs offense, such as eating a shining wizard to the back of his head while getting his leg stuck in the ropes, and timing his comebacks such as an inside cradle really well. I also really like his backbreaker with the arm behind the back, and the Yano Lock variations. Another neat finish.

Keita Yano vs. GOA, VKF 2/1/2020

This also opens with about 10 minutes of sublime matwork. I think GOA may have taken one of those Wallabee seminars as he matches up extremely well against Keita and adds a lot of nifty touches this time, such as turning a basic headscissor into a strangle hold. Keita of course is king of the mat now and was just the right mix of vicious and esoteric. At one point he did this great pin hold that looked to nearly pop GOAs shoulders. Really slick transitions between the holds while both guys busted out some great llaves, it was basically high end IWRG matwork. The standup portion was similiar to the previous match as they did a few callback spots and even teased the finish from the last match, so that was really neat. GOA did these cool moves where he did the Low Ki shining boomerang kick or whatever its called and he would spin into armbars. Keitas out of nowhere pin combos always get great reaction. Good shit and it says a lot that KEITA has been able to work himself up to an indy main eventer (well, this show as attended by 200 people, but its still something).

A very GAJO new year!

  GAJO vs. Takahiro Tababa, 2018/7/8

Simplistic, insanely violent, gory match, which resembled a mix of early 2000s NJPW, FUTEN, CAPTURE, EXIT and an especially brutal sparring session. If that description isn't enough to sway you into watching this, both these guys are thickly built and pissed off. GAJO violently shoving Tababa into the corner to start was a nice basic opening. Tababa then dodged him and went to town beating the soul out of him with gross kicks, a big double stomps and punches to the skull. Gajo is busted open but comes back taking down Tababa and busts him open with some sick elbows to the head. Wonder why you don't see those more often. The spear spots in this match were brutal and made me think I was watching the worlds most violent Goldberg match. Just as Gajo was trying to decapitate Tababa with lariats I was wondering how the match could get more violent, and then a crazy bump into the chains/wall happened. This was just barbaric but well executed, didn't get boring, had credible transitions and an arc, never did I think I was watching two backyarders engage in a senseless gross out spectacle, while it retained that sense of chaotic brutality. Genuinely great match, thank to Ohtanis Jacket and his wife for helping to provide this.

GAJO vs. Takahiro Tababa, IMPACT 11/1/2020

This was not quite as crazy from the get go as the previous match, but it was still about 10 minutes of two thickly built lunatics beating each other to a bloody pulp. Another primitive shootstyle brawl where the fun really started when Tababa connected some nasty headbutts in the corner and GAJO came back opening him with those elbows. Another really violent standoff ensued. There was another sick bump into the wall, and Tababa trying to kill GAJO with gnarly kicks. There was a subtle build to GAJOs spear to add some semblance of psychology to the carnage.

A Very MUME Christmas

 

Hiroshi Watanabe & Yasushi Sato vs. Manabu Hara & Raito Shimizu, Mumejuku 1/13/2020

What a Christmas present from the guys at Mumewhatever (apparently this group has undergone multiple names from Mumei to Mumetoha to Mumejuku but I‘m filing them all under Mumejuku)! Just a wonderful matchup. Watanabe and Shimizu start this with some solid hold for hold exchanges, before things spice up with Hara vs. Sato. That section was just magical, just the right combination of shootstyle grappling vs. Satos tight veteran pro style holds. Then, Hara brained Sato with a sick kick that was way stiffer than what you‘d expect a 50 year old guy to take to the back of his head. The whole match had a surprising level of stiffness as later Sato busted out some stiff elbows and clocked Shimizu with an absolutely nasty shoot headbutt. As usual with Sato matches there was some neat psychology. For example, Shimizu kept reversing his gutwrench suplex attempts into his own, until Sato spotted it and hit a really neat counter where he fell on top. Another neat detail was Watanabe being wobbly after being in Haras triangle choke despite being able to break the hold. Satos springboard crossbody as also way prettier than anything you‘d expect from him. Second Sato/Hara section was really great too. I loved how Sato hit a Terry Funk style punch combo to Shimizu, but then immediately was overwhelmed by Haras shoot striking. As always, Sato makes great use of the russian leg sweep. Watanabe also looks really spry here including hitting some great suplex and carrying the ending section with his selling. Another absolute gem from this crew. I also have no idea why Hara isn‘t signed to a major company as he‘s in insane shape and looked great.

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

GWE Watching #7: Serena Deeb

 Serena Deeb vs. Riho, AEW 5/30/2021

This blog takes its first dips into relevance, for AEW matches are being reviewed now. Serena Deeb reminded me a bit of Eddie Guerrero. Working a tight, simple style with lots of stretches, some neat counters and being fully dedicated to her heel act. I haven't seen Riho before, and she is another dainty Japanese girl who doesn't have much athletic ability - her dropkick and high knee got pitifully little height - and can't make Serenas work on her leg very compelling. I was impressed with how good Serenas basics looked. Really good side headlock, really good european uppercuts. Her set ups were quality, too. The neckbreaker in the ropes looked like a vicious spot Finlay would do and the finish itself was great, too. I respectable performance from Deeb considering how limited Riho is.

Serena Deeb vs. Taynara Conti, AEW 1/13/2021

Conti is this brazilian martial artist. She's not very good yet, clearly gifted but stumbling around awkwardly. I wonder if Serena will ever face an opponent who adds something in AEW? This was Deeb carrying her opponent through a fun 5 minute TV match. I once again liked her stuff around her submission finisher, as well as the badass corner stretch.

Serena Deeb vs. Thunder Rosa, AEW 11/18/2020

This was your bog standard 2021 indy match upgraded to be worked a little tighter, and a little less silly buggers thanks to Deeb. Enjoyed the opening mat work. After that the match seemed to go too long, random leg work and apron bump occurs, convoluted booking happens etc. Deeb looked solid, especially dug the quick drag into the Figure 4, but this was a get your shit in type match which is something I don't care for much.

Serena Deeb vs. Syuri, Reine 7/10/2015

A pretty random pairing to happen on a Japanese indy card. Syuri isn't a super interesting wrestler, and this ended up being rather forgettable. Deebs offense looked good - especially dug the punches and knees - but she didn't show any of the ring general ish touches she would have 5 years later. I imagine a rematch 5 years later would be pretty cool.

White Moriyamas Return to Pro Wrestling Part 2

 

White Moriyama & Takafumi Ito vs. Raito Shimitsu & Tetsuya Ido, Heat-Up 2/19/2021

This was probably the best Heat-Up match I’ve seen so far. It had the smooth matwork and stiffness of the previous matches, plus a story, and they worked a breathless pace. Moriyama and Shimitsu have heat now, and all their exchanges felt heated, even tho there was no crowd. We start right with Moriyama taking Shimitsu down and going for the kill with an armbar, before Shimitsu throws him off. We get a cool slick Ito/Ido matwork section  before they move into Shimitsu and Ido working over Moriyama mostly involving Shimitsu throwing Moriyama around. Really good comeback tease spot where Moriyama takes out Shimitsus bad leg. His actual comeback ends up being great too as he just catches Ido flush in the face with a spin kick. Extended finishing stretch built around Shimitsu uncorking all of his great looking throws and Moriyama rolling out a dozen submission reversals (with Shimitsu once again doing a really good job selling those submissions) was really good. At one point, Shimitsu got out of a triangle choke by just spinning Moriyama around, which was something I had never seen before. Heat Up is looking really promising right now putting out some of the best neo-shootstyle work.

White Moriyama vs. Takafumi Ito, HEAT-UP 10/22/2020

Man, promotions really missed the boat not giving Takafumi Ito more to do in the 10s. I really liked this match, they did some cagey defensive work early trying to crack each other, before Moriyama cranked up the pace just trying to catch a hold later. Ito looks crafty and the finish with him trapping both of Moriyamas arms before sinking in a choke was great.

White Moriyama vs. Hiroshi Watanabe, Heat-Up 12/24/2020

Ridiculously fun match built around Moriyama trying to use his shootstyle and Watanabe catching him in side headlocks, abdominal stretches and O’Connor roles. Great finish with Moriyama spinning around and into a heel hook that nearly twisted Watanabes foot off. I wish it had gone longer. It seems Watanabe considers himself over the hill at this point which is said because I love the guy.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #9

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Naomi Yoshimura & Yuki Ueno (DDT 8/15/2020) - GREAT

2020 pro wrestling always feels like a soulless husk of what it used to be. But there will always be Toba, punching people in the face. Toba was working this like a broken down old fighter. Well, he was probably for real, considering he has been doing hard hitting matches for 20+ years now. It added some character to his, sections though. When he came in to work over Yoshimura with punches it felt like a great moment. I dug MIKAMI a lot in this, he doesn’t have the crazy dives and athletic high flying anymore, but he was busting out cool transitions and flash submissions left and right. Yoshimura was also a fun guy, who felt like a poor mans Rikiya Fudo, throwing vader hammers and jaw cracking lariats. Ueno is some Ibushi clone and while he offers nothing in terms of personality, he doesn’t do anything stupid either. The ending section is between him and Toba and really made by Toba punching him in the face and taking some way bigger bumps than you’d expect from a broken down aging guy. This def. felt slow in parts and was lacking in snap compared to how Japanese wrestling used to be, but I was happy to see the Suicide Boyz still riding high in 2020 and having a good match.

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Takashi Sasaki & Yuki Nishino (DDT 12/14/2000) - GREAT

12 minute sprint where everyone of these guys arguably in their primes hits all the cool shit. I would’ve liked a bit more depth, preferably an in-peril section or something, but all these guys were so fun to watch at this point. Naturally I liked all of Tobas sections the most as all he does is throw hands hard and fast. Sasaki may have been his best opponent, Sasakis asskicking ability really increases tenfold when he faces Toba. Their exchanges weren’t as violent as their singles match earlier in the year, but still pretty damn stiff and make basically all current (2020) pro wrestling outside of Ishikawa/Ikeda matches look like a trained monkey show. They also took to the floor in another nasty street brawling section. MIKAMI did a lengthy nearfall section and I was expecting the finish to involve him, but thankfully Toba tagged in again and we got two more great sections between him and Sasaki/Nishino. Nishino looks good here again throwing these running headbutts. Aside from 1-2 botched spots, this delivered in spades.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Takashi Sasaki (DDT 9/30/2004) - FUN

These two had some great matches earlier in the decade. This wasn’t as great, but it was still these two beating each other to a pulp. This was Takashi Sasakis farewell match so it had the kind of emotional feeling those matches have. Neither guy was willing to go down and they were daring each other to hit each other harder and harder for the last time. I usually dislike the exhibitiony feeling Japanese stiff fests have sometimes but at least it made sense here. Also, they clipped this down to 5 minutes, which feels like a massive dick move.

Tanomusaku Toba & Seiya Morohashi vs. HERO! & KUDO (DDT 11/2/2004) - SKIPPABLE

Pretty missable match. This was a title change but felt like an undercard match. HERO! Had some cool highspots, but definitely looked green between the highspots. And KUDO felt a bit like a spotmonkey with a martial artist gimmick here. Worst of all, there was no Toba asskicking section. He did this weird Final Cut style move that looked weak. I’m glad he stopped that. It wasn’t a terrible match, but it just felt sloppy.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

White Moriyamas Return to Pro-Wrestling

Man, White Moriyamas return to pro wrestling completely flew under my radar. He was never the 5th best guy in FUTEN or U-Style, but by 2021 standards he's basically Tamura. 

 White Moriyama vs. Tetsuya Ido, Heat-Up 2/28/21

 This was a really fun, unpredictable 10 minute match with a surprising amount of hate. Ido is a kick padded kid who acts all cocky towards veteran Moriyama. Moriyama puts him in his place with some slick, fast grappling, so Ido retaliates with an awesome stomp to Moriyamas face. Ido kicks hard and his spinning choke is a fun false finish, so I am completely fine. Finishing run was really cool with Moriyama giving Ido the business with his kicks, including throwing these cool Tamura style leaping kicks, and some slick U-Style grappling. You can tell Moriyamas grappling is a class above what most guys can do these days the way he would move in and out of submissions. Dug all the slick leg locks.

White Moriyama & Takafumi Ito vs. Raito Shimitsu & Tetsuya Ido, Head-Up 1/29/2021

Really good little match. We get some really good U-STYLE opening grappling to start. Most of the Japanese wrestlers we’ve seen in the last 10 years doing that kind of wrestling have been old veterans, so it was nice to see Shimitsu and Ido step up and show they have no problem doing that kind of wrestling. I haven’t seen Takafumi Ito in a while, but he looked good here. He had some cool leg stretches, and this really cool cravate choke that nearly popped Shimitsus head off. Shimitsus head was turning really blue and pale while in that. Shimitsu came in with a bandage on his leg, and Moriyama and Ito work over it a bit. Really cool spot where Shimitsu tries using his typical idiot strength but fails due to his leg. Shimitsus selling in general down the stretch was really good. The finish was built around Shimitsu trying to hit his power moves with Moriyama countering them. It wasn’t as grand as the stuff we saw in other matches but it was cool. I am pleasantly surprised by Heat-Up delivering the goods with these matches, why is GLEAT not using these boys?

White Moriyama vs. Raito Shimitsu, Heat-Up 2/25/2021

Fun 5 minute sprint built around Shimitsu trying to crush Moriyama with his throws and Moriyama countering him and kicking him in the head. Shimitsu acted a bit like a Sekimoto clone here, but in the end Moriyama put him to sleep, so I wasn’t bothered. Moriyama had some slick counters and surprisingly violent kicks.

White Moriyama vs. Yu Iizuka, Heat-Up 11/26/2020

7 minute sprint where they hit the mat and don’t slow down, grabbing holds left and right. Very nice to see this kind of slick matwork again. At this point I’m used to seeing wrestling where there’s always at least one guy in a match who really sucks, but Iizuka looks like the real deal here and holds up very well. Very promising young wrestler.

Some 2020 pro-wrestling worth watching

 I am admittedly pretty hard on wrestling in the year of our lord 2020. There is more of it than ever, and it all sucks harder than ever, not to mention the virus delivering a near-death blow to an already struggling industry as promoters and wrestlers failed to come up with experimental solutions to the given problem and instead gave us some pro wrestling that feels even dumber, even more forced and more Jackass-like than ever before. However, there have been some bright spots, and I am going to highlight some of them in this post.

Junichi Hanawa vs. Takahiro Tababa, H-Production ?/?/2020

Meth lab BattlARTS style match taking place in a small bar without a ring. Hanawa is dumpy and balding. I've never seen him before, but the way I know Japanese sleaze indies he probably has been running his own micro-shootstyle shows since 1993. This was really entertaining thanks to some unexpected psycho stiffness and Hanawas tough old man charisma. Tababa was doing some subtle heel tactics in between crowbarring his opponent. The brawling portion where they ventured into the street was a bit of a letdown, but there was a funny spill down a ramp and a kneedrop off of a railing. The finish was very good with both guys throwings some brutal strikes and the German suplex on the floor has to be the spot of the year.

Junichi Hanawa vs. ZIMA Yoshida ?/?/2020

This seems to be taking place in Hanawas backyard garden in the pouring making it essential pandemy era viewing material. Another fun unexpectedly stiff little match that had some pretty nasty low kicks and shotais and some neat matwork. ZIMA describes himself as the self-declared Volk Han of Adachi but with the hair and condition of Andrej Kopylov.

Takanori Ito vs. Yutaka Yoshie (GLEAT ?/2020)

GLEAT is uploading random exhibition matches to their YouTube. I didn’t really like the first GLEAT show, but if they are to continue giving Yutaka Yoshie things to do they are getting on my good side. Takanori Ito is one of the GLEAT boys with a shooter gimmick. He isn’t very impressive, especially not if you compare him to Pioneer Senshi rookies, but he has a decent enough variety of strikes, and he didn’t do any stupid shit like 99% of modern pro wrestlers too. So this ended up being a good no frills match. Yoshie doesn’t really enage in shootstyle, but he is really fun here potatoeing the young guy, working simple pro-style holds in a very snug and no-nonsense way, and absorbing Itos strikes with his blubber. Nasty nasty finish.