Footage mining: Actwres GirlZ

Tae Honma vs Miyuki Takase, AWG 11/3/2019

Straight-forward awesome match. Begins strong with solid lockups and some slick matwork. The match soon turns into an ARSION-like affair as Tae Honma is an armbar fiend and was constantly trying to snap Takases arm off. Honmas laser focus and variety of ways to lock in shoulder popping joint locks is really entertaining, and Takase constantly cutting her off with gritty lariats to the throat was great. Takase continueing to crowbar Honma throughout the match while selling the damage to her shoulders felt like something out of a grittier Choshu match. Even the chest forearms, which I’m not a huge fan of, where pretty vicious and hard hitting here. I was surprised at the greatness of Honmas selling too as she really sold being almost choked out by a modified triangle choke very well, and then taking more shots to the windpipe from Takases lariat. Second half of the match had quite a bit of unexpected brutality such as a vicious boot from Honma, and Honma cycling in on Takase to destroy her shoulders and face with dropkicks out of a Santo/Casas match. The insane headbutt was by far the highlight. I’ve seen my fair share of gritty headbutts in Japanese matches by now, this one stood out because it came completely out of nowhere. Takases sleeper attempts becoming ineffective due to her arms being shot was another neat detail. There is one kinda weak sling blade from Takase and they do overindulge a bit with nearfalls, though Honmas counters were great and Takase never let up with those lariats. Real sleeper great match, by far one of the best joshi matches of the decade if you ask me.

 Mari vs Yumiko Hotta, AWG 3/28/2019

This was something to remind you how magical pro wrestling can be. 2019 Hotta is really over the hill, but still has insane levels of aura, and she does actually wrestle in this. She has that Johnny Valentine-feeling where even a basic headlock or half crab from her feel like she’s brutalizing the other person. Hotta is basically like a wall of concrete in this. Mari struggles to do anything at all to her, and that makes this really compelling. Mari is still a ninja at this stage, but she does look like a great wrestler already. Really does a great job putting over the struggle of facing the ultra-tough veteran, and hitting lots of great kicks, which most importantly were all insanely well timed. It starts like a pretty fun match but the way Mari kept chopping away at Hotta and selling even mundane submissions like a surfboard stretch as an insane struggle it really starts to feel like a special match. Hottas performance here felt like a combination of nearly immobile Tenryu and Yoshiaki Fujiwara, she still kicks hard as hell but is vulnerable due to being so shot, and really tears into Mari with submissions. Then you have Mari getting her nose busted and the finish which felt legit as hell. Really starkly different match from pretty much anything else in the modern wrestling landscape, and to see it in a promotion like AWG is downright insane. Best post-prime Hotta match I’ve seen by a mile and Maris great performance was a big part of it.

 

Mari & Yumiko Hotta vs Tae Honma & Hikari Shimizu, AWG 4/7/2019

This was another winner. Hotta is so immobile and lethargic that conventional wrestling becomes impossible, so all her interactions become interesting by default. There is some really good stuff between her and Honma with Honma trying to damage her arm and Hotta snapping into armbars. I also loved Hotta nonchalantly breaking up an armbar attempt. The non-Hotta women her were working pretty hard. Shimizu is all hard kicks and she’s pretty fun. Mari was doing more athletic stuff than nowdays, lots of ninja kip ups and such that are cool mixed with also hard kicks. Honma continued to look good with her flash submissions and she does pull off a really cool finish against Mari. Seems these two never had a singles match which strikes me as a bit of a waste. Cool submission work, lots of stiff offense, grumpy old lady Hotta bonus, yeah this was pretty unique and enjoyable.

Mari vs Hikari Shimizu, AWG 3/17/2021

Impressive match that had well executed wrestling, great selling, a clear story, and they both absolutely bruised each other with brutal kicks. After some slick opening wrestling, Mari caught a Shimizu crossbody and slammed her hard in a great spot to establish the roles. It quickly turns into overdog Mari punishing Shimizu with her kicks and submissions, and Shimizu having to try to gut it out. Shimizu had multiple great comeback attempts that were extremely sharp. She is not quite as brutal as Mari, but she was kicking pretty hard too, and they both have effective straight forward offense. Mari clearly excels when she is trashing an underdog like this, and Shimizu had a few great hope spots. Really liked the struggle over a basic body slam towards the end. Leg kick battle towards the end was also quite intense. Most importantly, it was a modern Japanese big match that didn’t have anyone no-selling a suplex.

Hikari Shimizu vs Hiroyo Matsumoto, AWG 11/20/2021

Probably even better than the Mari match, which I nearly didn’t expect. This was just the 3^rd match on the card and honestly when was the last time you watched a card where match 3 out of 5 was fucking great? But this was pretty fucking great. Very similar to Shimizu vs Mari except Matsumoto is more of a big bruising monster. Matsumoto is really impressive beating the life out of Shimizu here with stiff chops and elbows and Shimizu was just as good as in the Mari match, kicking away at Matsumoto with hard kicks and selling pretty great. Just really effiecient. Once again I thought all of Shimizus comebacks/hopespots were insanely well timed and executed. Loved her desperate sleeper attempt towards the end, just trying to choke the beast out. Need more of that ‘just trying really hard to win’ energy. Matsumotos spinning back elbow was also a thing of beauty and timed just perfectly.

Yasushi Sato vs Konaka, AWG 6/24/2018

Yes, these two are also Actwres Girlz! It’s pretty cool that one of the greatest match ups in all of Japanese wrestling ever just so happened at a random joshi card. This was them pretty much doing the Velocity version of their match – very technically sound, but with a few jokes thrown in and made palatable for a more casual audience. They still mixed in lots of great stuff that you won’t see from any other two wrestlers. There’s this little sequence with both of them balancing on their heads and foot-wrestling which was pretty insane. Konaka does some great sleeper hold work, and Sato hits this hammerlock Russian legsweep that was just a thing of beauty. Sato busts out his big springboard dive which I always love, and even a perfect looking Victory Roll. Konaka has a really nifty counter to Satos attempted gutwrench. Really cool to watch. I still want to see their Ironman match, dammit.

Various No-Ring Matches

 Koji Sudo vs Seiya Nishiyama, NEXUS PROJECT 8/8/2021

 They ran this show in what looks like a cafe, or a souvenir shop, with a wrestling mat thrown in it and some ladders set up. The audience looks to be about 7 people, mostly elderly ladies. Sudo is 51 here, apparently he’s another Kurisu trainee. He has dyed hair and a small stature looking like he would make a sick tag team partner for Yasushi Sato. This is an entirely serious match where they go really hard, almost as if to prove that you can do it all even in this tiny cramped space. The match had everything – some cool mat wrestling, some snug strikes, a lot of cool offense, and a well told story with Sudo the older guy trying to outsmart and beat his younger opponent. Oddly enough most of the cool offense came from Sudo, the guy was wrestling almost like a joshi wrestler, hitting some hair throws, a great wrist clutch german suplex on that tin mat, some sick double stomps, a really choice roll up. It’s palpable that Nishiyama, being younger, better looking and fitter would quickly beat Sudo so Sudo tried to counter and outsmart him constantly while throwing everything he had at him. This kind of stuff is just the pure expression of love for pro wrestling, just go out there and being way too proud to not bring it even when you’re wrestling in the tiniest venue.

Super Guapo MEX vs Kaito Sero, AVANZAR 2018/2/24

This is Mascara vs Mascara. I do not know what went down in the history of AVANZAR for these two fine men to put their masks on the line, but I can see that the result was a nice hate filled scrap. Right from the go MEX was just punishing his opponent by torturing his arm in various ways. He had about the most painful version of the ‘push opponents arm back and stomp on his elbow’ spot I’ve ever seen. Often that spot can look a little time but here it genuinely looked like Super Guapo MEX wanted to kick Seros elbow out of his arm. MEX would also do mean things like kicking away at Sero with his ankle while having him trapped in a llave, just total dickhead stuff. When Sero comes back he is throwing every shot as hard as he can. There are some scrappy no-ring flying headscissors with one of them throwing MEX into a gentleman in the first row, who spends much of the match then keeling over in pain. That’s what these no ring matches are all about, the sheer danger of it. They have a ladder for a turnbuckle pad, and at one point MEX throws Sero face first into the ladder, with Sero taking it so fast and reckless like he didn’t really expect he would be about to be swept face first into a ladder. Sero pushing his own arm to get out of MEX’ cobra clutch is also good pro wrestling. Same goes for MEX collapsing when Sero tried to set up his finisher. The last llave has Sero struggling with all his might, desperately trying to his hand hooked on his own pants only for MEX to force it and lean all the way back almost snapping the guy in half. It was genuinely good wrestling, wrapped in a sleazy hate filled underground mask vs mask match with no ring. It’s a bit slow here and there but you have to love this stuff. The wrestling gods smiled on them that day for sure.

Koji Sudo & ZEAL vs Hiroshi Ando & Sanada Ten Braves, Kishu Bundara 4/13/2025

Not sure what Kishu Bundara is. Apparently Tsubasa Shiratori is the owner. Regardless, this match is a banger. They put a mat on some cobblestone pavement and wrestle hard, punishment style. Ando has MMA gloves and does honest to god shootstyle with Ando dishing out some really mean kicks and knees. Then Sudo tags in and we get some great wrestler vs shooter exchanges. Sanada Ten Braves is this tough looking lady, and she is not afraid to engage in some absolutely harrowing exchanges. ZEAL has the vibe of a tough old man with a shot body and a big balding patch who can’t move very well anymore but still do some neat things. There were sick headbutts, closed fist punches, people smacking the absolute dog shit out of each other, and Sudo here and here doing improbable cool things like hitting a springboard crossbody off of a flimsy looking ladder. Towards the end it starts raining and yeah it feels like an epic match. At just a bit over 10 minutes they cut a relentless pace too. Match had story, shootstyle, cool wrestling, plenty of sick punishment, and a surreal vibe that you don’t get twice. Yeah this ruled.

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.

Konaka in the Sportiva Arena

 

Konaka vs. Sae, Sportiva 5/11/2022

Super good Konaka carryjob. Sae is kind of not very good, only having some bland offense and almost breaking her own neck when going for a Kamikaze roll, but Konaka pulls her through this 18 minute match just fine. Opening work is pretty solid with Konaka making things like taking a basic bump for a shoulder tackle satisfying by having it set up with a rope move. Soon we move on to the best part of the match, Konaka working a side headlock of Destroyer-esque greatness. Usually with side headlock segments it’s the guy stuck in the headlock making it interesting by trying different escapes, but in this case Konaka is the guy keeping things interesting by having a bunch of different ways to pull Sae back into the headlock. Later he keeps going for headlock crossfaces and neck attacks, at one point he was cranking a facelock like crazy and digging his fist into Saes face in brutal fashion, it was like something fucked up Ole Anderson or Tully Blanchard would do to a jobber in a 80s TV studio squash. Finishing stretch was really good with a bunch of cool moments centered around Sae going for a dragon sleeper of all things, a superplex bump that felt epic, Konaka missing a big attack off the top and a completely awesome finish. Real master performance from Konaka getting the most out of a limited opponent.

Konaka vs Shinya Ishida, 3/17/2021

For a white meat highflying babyface, I am pretty okay with Shinya Ishida. He has good offense, and he is capable of adding neat touches like connecting with a surprisingly punishing kick between moves, or doing some stubborn matwork. Most importantly is good enough to let Konaka do his thing and not interfere. This was a result very good. They start with some neat fast sequences before Konaka cuts off Ishida in a cool way and does some work on the arm. Ishida makes a solid comeback and then acknowledges said armwork by giving it back to Konaka in kind. Ishidas brutal stomp to Konakas ankle was probably the highlight, it looked just sick. The second half had a bunch more good stuff and neat moments that Konaka has a knack for, I also really liked the well worked chokehold segment they did, it shows Ishida is more capable than your usual spotty indy guy. Very decent stuff and anytime Konaka gets to stretch out and do his thing is a gem.

Konaka vs Kazuhiro Tamura, Sportiva 3/16/2022

I love Konaka and I know Tamura can be pretty great when he tries. Still, this slightly exceeded my expectations. Delivers exactly the kind of cool, unique matwork you hope for from the match up, and it delivers that in spades. What I love about Konaka is that because of his mysterious act, he is believable doing just about anything. I buy his weird reverse spinning toehold just as much as buy him locking in an achilles hold or rolling calf slicer. So him grappling with U-File guy Tamura is really cool. They settle for a work the arm vs work the leg story and they both have a bunch of really cool ways to attack a limb. Tamuras selling of the legwork wasn’t the greatest but our guy Konaka was stellar as always.

Assorted Mutoha

 As always, buy them on X or thebase!

Unicorn Rules: Yasushi Sato & Konaka & G Valion vs. Hiroshi Watanabe & Masamune & Super Crafter U, Mutoha 7/22/2021

35 minutes of sweet wrestling, like you expect from this killer lineup. This was Unicorn Road rules which means the 1^st fall was a singles between Konaka and Crafter, 2^nd a tag between Sato/Valion and Watanabe/Masamune and the 3^rd a 6 man between all participiants. Konaka/Crafter was really good, the shootstyle submissions of Crafter mesh very well with Konakas more esoteric pro style approach and it was awesome to watch Konaka figure his way out of Crafters shoot leglocks, really good little technical match and Crafter blasting his opponent with brutal looking kicks was awesome as always. 2^nd fall had some awesome grappling from Masamune and sweet exchanges between him and Yasushi Sato. Masamune is really good when he’s just grappling and not doing Kurt Angle shit, he had some amazing counters, honestly he may have been the best guy in the match, he looked like a grappling machine. I would’ve liked to see a bit more of Sato vs Masamune because these two just trying to put the other guys shoulders down for the 3 is always awesome to watch, but then again I always want to watch more Yasushi Sato. Valion is the weakest guy in the match, I was interested in what he would bring to the table but in this murderers row of fantastic grapplers he doesn’t stand out a ton but he was alright and I liked his series of quick DDTs and odd submission. 3^rd fall didn’t have as much grappling and some slightly odd moments such as a random ref bump that had no effect on the match, however both teams looked like they were trying to finish the match and Yasushi Sato held the ending run together with his cool submissions, russian leg sweeps and neat touches. This was kind of like a pro wrestling mixtape with 6 really unique wrestlers bringing a ton to the table, just really cool to watch.

Kenichiro Arai vs. Masamune, 3/19/2022

30 minutes of mostly matwork. Strictly for the technical wrestling freaks but if you can’t get into something like that, what the hell are you doing reading this? They started out basic but put some amazing details into their otherwise basic holds and transitions, and continued in that fashion throughout the match putting some gritty struggle into hings. Masamune is always game to just grapple it out and it was really cool watching him trying to put Arais shoulders down for the 3 with his more amateur style flourishes while Arai is just the king of grabbing a basic hold and cranking it to the maximum. Arai paying tribute to Giant Baba with an ultra tight full nelson into the leg nelson was a really nice moment. I really liked how Arai sold vulnerability by selling his leg after missing a knee drop and seemed to be close to self destruction when he went for a couple flying axe handles. I am a bit tired of ankle locks at this point but Masamune chess match approach to the hold worked for me. They meandered a bit on occasion but overall this was very good and fascinating to watch if you were a fan of GENTARO/Arai already this should definitely go on your watch list too.

 

Kenji Takeshima vs. Hikaru Sato Mutoha 11/14/2015

Pretty badass no-ring shootstyle match that exceeded expectations. This match is compelling because of their difference in ranking and because of how competitive they make it feel. They really put over the fact that Satos kicks are bombs, Takeshima was Fujiwaralike in catching them early on and taking Sato down, however as soon as Sato started landing the kicks Takeshima was getting destroyed. Takeshima comes back hitting a desperation headbutt and they go into this Lawler/Mantell style headbutt exchange while selling the accumulating brain trauma. Eventually they start shit talking each others promotions (causing the 20 people in attendance to start a “BattlARTS” chant). They move back into a straight shootstyle finish. I love how Takeshima laid on that Achilles Hold, he really looked like he wanted to force the tap more than anything else in his life. Good, really competitive feeling stuff, pretty unexpected from a match with no ring in front of 20 people.

PSYCHO vs Koju Takeda, Mutoha 1/14/2018

Bit of a different favour for Mutoha with this match. No extended technical wrestling section this is just PSYCHO putting a scumbag rudo beating on Takeda. A lot of really cool stuff from PSYCHO in this, trying to screw Takedas neck with some nasty moves, knees to the face, hard elbows, and his cool cross armbar variations. Takeda is a 666 guy who is ridiculously good looking, in terms of wrestling he does just basic stuff but all well executed and I guess that’s just fine, he is a good foil for scummy PSYCHO. Really fun match that serves as an excellent showcase for all the cool stuff PSYCHO can do.

 

Exploring Pure-J Pt. II

 Leon & AKARI vs Rydeen Hagane & KAZUKI, Pure-J 7/4/2021

It’s a bit of a shame that this Pure-J stuff is so under the radar. Sure, it’s behind a paywall on their YouTube channel, but matches like this are well worth a couple dollars. For a dojo show tag match this was pretty great. Awesome hard hitting exchanges between Leon and Rydeen, and Kazuki and AKARI more than hold up. Rydeen is a really fun powerhouse, and the more I watch Leon the more I think she’s one of the best wrestlers around. Leon is just so incredibly sharp, and her ability to build bigger moments is what makes her stand out. Just the way she will set up her signatures to hit them in more exciting ways make her stand out. AKARI is really cool here, lots of slick leglock takeovers from her, and KAZUKI also brought some fun stuff to the table mostly focussing on attacking peoples mid section here. Some great cut off and double team spots as well.

Leon vs Rydeen Hagane, Pure-J 7/22/2021

Badass match between two great wrestlers. I don’t know why you don’t hear more praise for Rydeen Hagane, she brings a lot of cool shit to the table. Just the way she would slam Leon down with a cool judo throw really sets her apart from other heavyweight monster types. This was a really good long form title match with an unpredictable layout. Obviously Leon is a huge show with all the cool stuff she can do, but I thought Hagane also held up, and it turned into a hard fought match. Big vs little psychology was in place and it provided lots of neat moments, Leon putting on scarecrow submissions, Rydeen powering out of Leons offense in cool ways, Leon finding nifty ways to slow down Rydeen etc. Rydeen has a few impressive reversals of Leons stuff, picking her up for hard slams and big throws occasionally. I also loved Leon increasing the grittiness of the match, headbutting Rydeen in the back of the head to set up a suplex, her spin kicks hitting like a truck, double stomping Rydeen for good measure etc. Leon just comes across as such a force in this, cool submissions, hard hitting, slick movements, and Hagane was an impressive tough wall trying to swat her down. Great stuff that should be on peoples radars when it comes to 2020s joshi.

KAZUKI vs Rydeen Hagane, Pure-J 4/10/2022

KAZUKI is hit and miss, but she was hitting it here. Basically Rydeen Hagane starts dropping bombs immediately on Kazuki, swatting her with some hard hitting lariats. It looks like KAZUKI is done in, but she is able to knee Hagane in the head and go for the arm. KAZUKI then does an impressive job stopping the monster by going for the arm relentlessly and hitting cool knee attacks, I love any wrestler who makes something like a kitchen sink look special. KAZUKI had some really cool arm attacks such as a nifty monkey flip into an armbar. I continue to enjoy Hagane as she continues to add touches that make her matches more interesting than the usual heavyweight affair, in this case trying to strangle KAZUKI with a nasty sleeper when she went for a too predictable arm attack. Cool stuff and the finish with the weird armlock was badass.

Hanako Nakamori vs Leon, Pure-J 7/18/2022

Some really good fast paced hard hitting pro wrestling here. Obviously these two have offense for days, but the way they move between everything is outstanding. Pretty much no let down in this at all, and they pull off some really slick stuff. Really like their dynamic with Nakamori having her vicious kicks and Leon focussing on her spear variations. There was some leg work which Nakamori didn’t really sell, which is too bad because Leon did a nice job taking her leg out locking in some cool leglocks and hitting a nifty spear to the leg, Leon is just the queen of the spear if you ask me. Finishing run had some evil moments such as a few vicious headbutts, Leon throwing a straight punch at one point and Nakamori kicking her in the face. Not as good as their matches earlier in the decade, Nakamoris kick were looking a little weak here and there and there were some things that felt a little cliché like the double KO spots, that said this was still well worth watching.

Assorted EAGLE Pro

 

Shoji Ohno vs Hiroyuki Kondo, EAGLE Pro 2/28/2021

This was from the plague era, so they wrestled in the empty EAGLE Pro dojo. I love Shoji Ohno now, I am not super familiar with Hiroyuki Kondo since he is another very elusive guy, but I thought Kondo was cool when he was in BJW 20 years ago. And oh my god this is a great match! They start with 10 minutes of ground wrestling like a classic NJPW match from the 90s and these two are really interesting to watch twist each other up on the ground. Kondo is really cool here – at one point he tried to snap Ohnos wrist with a headbutt that looked really good. Eventually it devolves into Kondo damaging Ohnos arm and Ohno damaging Kondos leg. This makes things further interesting both guys would try to go for their signature moves but couldn’t hit them because of the limb damage. Rarely do you see the logical conclusion of limb damage drawn to the end, and it really paid off in making this match more exciting. Kondo even hit a an arm-breaking piledriver on Shoji Ohno, which was amazing. Ohno is as straight forward as we know him from Mutoha. He doesn’t have the palm rushes yet, but he throws a lot of closed fist punches, and he is already really cool, he had this awesome reversal of an attempted russian legsweep. This was just the kind of minimalist, technical pro wrestling I really like, really it’s a gem considering what a small stage it was put on for.

Shoji Ohno vs Hiroyuki Kondo, EAGLE Pro 9/24/2023

Another match between them, and this one is in front of an audience. It’s also great! It’s also a pretty different beast from the 2021 match. Here, Shoji Ohno is a dirty heel bastard, and he has learned how to palm strike. So Ohno spends the whole match pummeling the hell out of Kondo with his hard as stone palms, even mocking a little girl in the audience. Crusher Takahashi is also with Ohno, ready to beat on Kondo with a kendo stock. Kondos only chance is to dismantle Ohnos arm and lock in the Scorpion Armlock. We get to see some great arm attacks from Kondo, including him busting out the arm breaking piledriver again, and there were a few great moments. The one problem was that I thought Kondo should’ve been slowed down more by Ohnos assault to his leg, but it wasn’t a huge problem. Kondo also busts out a great senton to Ohnos arm. Another really unique, cool as hell match from Shoji Ohno.

Hiroyuki Kondo & Kazunori Yoshida vs Leo Isaka & Takahiro Katori, EAGLE 2018/12/16

Another cool match from EAGLE Pro, based on what I see the promotion seems really cool. From what I gather Kondo and Yoshida are the veteran stalwarts of the promotion, with Yoshida being the founder of the company and Kondo its long time ace. Isaka and Katori are SHOCK DA HEROES, the budding young hotness of EAGLE, and they are trying to upset the veterans. This is a really good sprint, lots of spectacular moves but it’s really made by the veterans vs rising stars story. Kondo once again looked like the king of unorthodox arm attacks here, busting out an awesome Russian Legsweep targeting the arm. Yoshida may be some kind of best kept secret of the japanese indies, he has all these amazing looking rope climbing springboard moves, and also brings a trampolin for assisted springboard moves, he’s really graceful and awesome to watch. Isaka and Katori are mostly outgunned but I liked the few bits of offense they got in this too. Check this out if you want to spend 10 minutes watching some fresh wrestling.

Battle and Arts 1/24/2021

 

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Maori Kawashima

Quite the hate filled 3 minute match. Yamamoto was clearly there to put some punishment on Kawashima, who gave as much as he could. Kawashima had a pretty cool Shining Spin Wheel Kick and good energy, though he gets smacked and beaten by Yamamoto pretty fast.

Shin Suzuki vs. Takahiro Tababa

Pretty neat undercard match. Never seen or heard of Shin Suzuki but he looked like a good wrestler. Suzuki did a bunch of tight, no-nonsense pro style grappling against Tababas shootstyle and he had some impressive holds. He also gave Tababa opportunities to do nifty counters. Not a ton of Tababa hard hitting but he does lay in some nasty kicks. The finish was really cool as Suzuki slips beneath to try for a neat Gory Special variation but Tababa breaks out and chokes him out cool, just saying ‚fuck you‘ to that llave bullshit.

Masayuki Kono vs. Yoshihiro Horaguchi

I don‘t think I‘ve ever seen anyone praise Masayuki Kono. He is not horrible, but there‘s also nothing remarkable about him except that he is tall, I guess. As such and with him being the higher ranked wrestler having spent an eternity doing nothing in AJPW and W-1, this match ended up being forgettable.

 

Manabu Hara vs. Yujiro Yamamoto

First 7 minutes were pretty great. Both guys engage in some really nice slick U-Style matwork, and Hara was really vicious when the opportunity presented itself. Yamamoto is so great on the mat, and their match up felt like a worthy heir to the Ishikawa/Ikeda stuff. Insertion of pro-style moves like irish whips was a bit jarring as I wanted them to go full BattlARTS epic. They get back on track though and deliver a good finish with both guys busting out the cool suplexes and submissions you expect and blast each other with some really stiff blows and headbutts. Not quite the classic that I feel they have in them, but a very good match all in all.

The Library

A Sakura Hirota Match

 

Mio Momono vs Miyuki Takase vs Sakura Hirota (WAVE 6/29/2021)

The ruleset for this match was really cool. Basically it’s like a gauntlet match where you just try to survive both opponents. It starts as a 1 vs 1 match, the loser goes out, the winner stays in and fights the next person, and the first to get two straight wins is the winner. I don’t really like 3 ways so just doing them as a series of singles matches with an overarching story is a win for me.

The first match up is Momono vs. Takase. I haven’t seen Takase before but she was a pleasant surprise. She doesn’t do any flimsy offense, she focuses on the more solid stuff like snug clotheslines and she has a really great leg drop. Momono is one of those really fast moving modern day workers with endless cardio who can go really hard. Thankfully she doesn’t do anything stupid either. The opening goings are very fast moving without being too much. Joshi often has the problem that they throw everything out right from the get go, that wasn’t the case her as they start dodging moves, battling over moves, eventually being able to take advantage and zone in on weak spots. That also avoided another typical problem in joshi – random offense. Very targetted offense by both of them. Even basic fairly basic stuff like a backbreaker or dropkick to the gut felt important because it was followed up. It made everything important especially in the context that this was going to be a long match and both of them would probably have to go again after the fall. Nothing mind blowing but it was a good warmup for what was to come.

However the main selling point of the match is the performance of Hirota. Sakura Hirota is 42 years old and she has been largely doing comedy for the past 20 years. However, in this tournament she got humiliated by rookie and that caused her to transform into a serious wrestler and kick ass. No imitation jokes from her at all in this, and man judging by her performance here you wish she’d wrestle like this more often. After some going here and there she basically challenged her opponent to a straight wrestling match and they grappled it out. It was compelling because while Hirota was game and motivated, she was still facing a much younger, faster and more athletic opponent. As a result Hirota had to give it her all and that she did. She busted out all these awesome suplexes, submissions and counters and had one awesome exchange after another. What I love about this match format is that everything can truly be a finish. The roll up stuff was really freaking good and really helped by the fact that you by a roll up as a finish in this context. Not that any finish done here was cheap, everything was extremely hard fought. Honestly some of the best exchanges I’ve ever seen, they were that fucking great.

So Hirota was absolutely amazing. She was the star of the match, no doubt, but the other two were fantastic also. I was amazed they went such a long time without going into overly dramatic overkill or dangerous spots. The match didn’t even have a dive and they kept pretty much the whole 40 minutes or so in the ring. I loved the constant focus on the roll ups and pin attempts. Momonos out of nowhere dropkicks ruled and Takases power based offense was crushing. Often in Japanese big matches you have a bunch of nothing for the first 20 minutes before the last 10 minutes turn into a dancy reversal fest. Here the opposite was the case as they started busting out the fire works pretty early, but kept them going in a believable way by focussing on slick pin attempts and submissions, before settling into an amazing 50/50 finish with both the last surviving participiants busting out some epic counters and battling for control while selling this like a battle on the last few hundred yards of a marathon.

So, there you have it. You basically had several awesome singles matches sandwhiched into one coherent narrative over a 40 minute stretch that never got boring and provided plenty of highly intricate wrestling, plus the amazing story of Sakura Hirota being the biggest wily veteran underdog badass you’ve ever seen. Execution was good, action was tight, no silly antics aside from one very well timed joke that only lasted 3 seconds and served the narrative. Best modern joshi match I’ve seen by a mile. Hell it’s one of the best matches in any era. This was absolutely fucking mental.

2021 MOTYCs

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.

A brief Yosuke Takii career overview

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time to FU*CK

 Fugofugo Yumeji & Hiroaki Moriya vs. Hideaki Sumi & Yuki Toyoura, FU*CK 5/30/2021

Man, Fugo is super broken down, like he can barely walk, but he is still one menace in the ring. He looks so tough, like it would hurt you if you hit him, and when he's throwing hands he is just killing you. All the Sumi vs. Fugo exchanges here where hard as fuck, no trained monkey show for sure. Sumi also did a pretty decent job torturing Moriyas arm and I was just going to write down that they worked a well rounded match, but then Fugo sprinted across the ring to clock Sumi in the jaw again. Moriya and Toyoura are absolutely nothing special but their involvement in the match is so miniscule and I kind of liked Moriya, who is weirdly old, like older than Fugo here, doing something of a Tenryu impression. You want this for the old guys killing each other, and I really liked that Fugo and Sumi even got to do the finish. Yes it was a bit slow, but it felt like a fight to the  death. These kicks from Sumi were no joke for sure, and Fugo took them right to the skull.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Hiroaki Moriya vs.  Tatsuhiko Nakagawa & Hiroyuki Iwahara, FU*CK 1/3/2022

This starts as Fugo & Nakagawa vs. Iwahara & Moriya, but about a minute into that Nakagawa decides to attack Fugo and it turns into this match. Bad bad decision, because holy mother of god Fugo decides to absolutely murder him. The opening exchange of this may have been the most violent thing of the year, it starts as basically two tough old guys who won't back down beating on each other and then FUGO completely escalates it with a headbutt that sounded like a rock cracking. I thought things couldn't get more violent then that and Nakagawa looked like he was having an aneyurisma, but then Fugo headbutted him in the face and then stomped on his bleeding mouth. Totally out of nowhere and hideously brutal. The rest of the match is pretty good too, obviously not on that level, but surprisingly decent for a FU*CK match. We get a better look at Moriya here, he is built like a potatoe, all lumpy and no arms, and his Tenryu stuff looks pretty nice here as he and Fugo put a good beatdown on Iwahara with Moriya busting out some nice kicks to the face, punches and lariats. The highlight though was obviously Fugos crazy suicide dive from that tiny ring. He looked like the craziest motherfucker on earth in this match, all while working FU*CK in a toy ring in front of like 12 people. You have to love the man.

Karateka vs. Pro Wrestler matches!

 

Iori Sugawara vs. Ninja Lee, Kazushi-Gumi 1/19/2018

Great little match, exactly what we are looking for on this blog. Ninja Lee is  a masked guy doing some mortal kombat stuff and Sugawara is this veteran karateka who can work a really solid pro wrestling match, and they are fighting each other in a chain ring. Lee can really throw out of nowhere axe kicks and fast hands, and Sugawara is like a Finlay with karate kicks here, working snug holds, using the chain ropes, trying to rip the mask, but also working the guy over with nasty kicks. I love a match where two sleazy guys give their all and they gave their all, stiff work, unpulled kicks, hard suplexes and STO on the not very giving ring mat, this ruled.

Hideaki Sumi vs. A-Z, FU*CK 8/22/2021

I don‘t know why we have to watch FU*CK now to get good shootstyle but here we are. Sumi is older here and has silver dyed hair like an anime character and you can see he‘s developed into a really cool worker. A-Z is some kick padded skinny guy who I assume is young (who knows, he might be 40) and Sumi really punishes him, really thudding kicks and bare knuckle punches. Sumi knows how to beat on a guy and then hit a huge kick for accentuation. His Tenryu-style enzuigir where he barely leaves the ground is great and his spinning wheel kick landed flush in A-Zs face. There is some decent groundwork (Sumi can put on holds) and it‘s just a way better match than it had any right to be in a promotion as sleazy as FU*CK worked for a Twitcast that maybe 20 people bought. A-Z looked alright but Sumi looked like a Katsumi Usuda type worker who can have a good little match against anyone.

Akitoshi Saito vs. Juyong Kim, Seishin Kaikan 7/13/1991

At this point, wrestler vs. Karateka is pretty much the only kind of pro wrestling I‘ll accept. This was violent, out of control, just perfect, Saito is an Aoyagi protege and he did his master proud here. Kim is a thickly built Korean pro wrestler (I assume), and while he looks strong he looks like was not ready for the punishment Saito would give him here. This is young nimble Saito and he just tries to crush this guy, it looks like one of his spin kicks bloodied Kims nose or lip. Kim hits some nice suplex including a really gritty butterfly suplex where he just muscles Saito over, the kind of suplexes where it looked like the other guy wasn‘t going along at all but still flew. At the second round Kim just grabs a chair and demolishes Saito, which is what you should do after you got uncessarily brutalized by a karateka in a foreign country, why did nobody ever run Steve Austin vs. A karateka? Saito comes back guns blazing though and the ending is awesome, as Saito takes off his jacket throws it in Kims face and then knees blinded Kim in the head until he stays down. Gotta love pro wrestling.

2021 MOTY Project Update #6

 

6. Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes, AEW 10/23

Pretty interesting match between a hybrid wrestler and an aging heavyweight star. Dustin is lower ranked, so Bryan was absorbing most of his moves and obviously the superior technician. It builds to a handful of excellent Dustin comebacks. Obviously the superplex felt like an epic moment, and when he hit that powerslam it felt like the whole match had built to that. Great cover after the reverse DDT as well. When Dustin hit the lariat, it felt like Jumbo on his last legs trying to shut down Misawa. Danielson was a bit go-go when he went back to offense, but Dustin kept edging out nearfalls so you knew Dustin was close to pulling off an upset. Really cool how they eschewed a traditional match structure and just had a really good match.

8. Josh Barnett vs. Tiger Ruas, Bloodsport 10/22

I thought this was well nomination worthy. Ruas was winning the match through elite level grappling and superior conditioning, so Barnett was left to rely on blasting him with suplexes and strikes. Mat section had a number of slick moments and was extremely well executed. Ruas was controlling and throwing strikes on the ground. Even after Barnett had hit a big suplex and hit some strikes from mount, he looked pretty spent. Ruas capeoeira kick was an amazing spot as not only was it cool looking but also extremely well timed. Barnett was just making his big comeback and then Ruas bounced back with THAT. It made Ruas look unstoppable. Finish worked as an out nowhere bomb being dropped. Barnett had been the biggest badass to walk the US indy scene so Ruas pretty much destroying him made for an exciting match. Great stuff and probably better than the recent Bryan/Suzuki match

10. Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki, AEW 10/15 

This had a bit too many Your Turn/My Turn exchanges for my taste. I get Suzuki probably has to do these because he has to be pretty banged up at this point but too much of this felt like a glorified Nagata match. I also don't by Bryans character engaging in that macho stuff since he is supposed to be a smart technician. Outside of that this was very good. Opening PANCRASE grappling was cool, dug Bryans fast shoot for the single leg, and there were plenty more great transitions and counters throughout the rest of it. I was a bit annoyed with Bryan doing things like the face stomps and elbows mid-match since I see those as finishers, but what can you do. Submission work was great and I dug all the pins. 

 

2021 MOTY List 

2021 MOTY Project Update #5

1. Kyosuke Sasaki vs. Daisuke Nakamura, Kyushu Pro 9/6

Proper 20 minute shootstyle main event. Sasaki has been a bit hit or miss in Kyushu Pro, but he cut out the bullshit here and had a real U-Style worthy contest with Nakamura who's like a great 20 year late RINGS worker. Opening grappling was the best shootstyle grappling in years. Both guys were of course ultra slick, but the refusal to go for the ropes created some great counterwork and intense scrambles. Highlights include a neat Kimura counter and a credible battle of shootstyle Figure 4s. Second half was pretty great too since both guys kept internal logic consistent. For example, Sasaki was able to overwhelm and down Nakamura with a  series of leg kicks, but once things went to the ground it immediately became difficult again to force submissions. Sasaki also had this sick looking choke attempt. Finishing run was pretty great with both guys grabbing submissions left and right and some dramatic near KOS. Gotch piledriver tease was tremendous as both guys sold it that you knew the match would be over if it was hit. The 1-1 situation at the end was pretty intense. I liked how Nakamura ate a head kick and fell on top of his opponent into another scramble to credibly not lose a point. Great match.

 

5. Keita Yano vs. Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 8/13

Yanos redemption is coming along nicely. This was the best striker vs. grappler match in a while. It was straight out of PWFG. Normally I associate Yano with carny matwork, but he really decided to be a makeup wearing Tamon Honda in this. Really cool dynamic in this with Yano going for fast takedowns and quirky stretches and Sato lighting him up. I've never been a Hikaru Sato fan but he was there to light  Yano up and he did just dead. Brutal, brutal ending that saw both guys throwing some insane shoot headbutts and bare knuckle punches. Actual finish was a thing of beauty.

7. Keita Yano vs. Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 8/26

Even more esoteric match which saw both guys grappling it out for 17 minutes. If you can get into that, this was excellent. No strikes, but a perfect balance between shootstyle grappling and carny holds. Yanos chokes were great. This may have been the best actual wrestling Sato was involved in. He did some cool things like a sweeping hip throw, or busting out a cool double leg stretch (which Yano reversed in a great moment). It can be hard to just grapple and keep momentum going and not put your audience to sleep but they succeeded here. Great little match. Is Yano the best wrestler in the world now?

2021 MOTY List

2021 MOTY Project Update #4 - New #1!

 1. Masa Takanashi vs. Fuminori Abe, Gatoh Move 7/13/2021

This is the kind of weirdo match that is right up my alley. Over 30 minutes of almost all inventive grappling on a mat in front of 10 people. I'm a big fan of Takanashi and he's the reason I checked this out, but Abe looked great too. Loved all the quirky holds and pins, especially Abes grovit to a small package or double armlock. Everything had just the right amount of struggle for it not to look like an exhibition. Takanashi just came back from a pretty bad leg injury and much of the early grappling is him trying to prevent Abe to get to the leg, and later Abe just demolishing him by twisting up the leg and working it over with punches and kicks. Abe looked really good both doing shootstyle rolling leg locks as well as making pro style moves like a spinning leg bar look painful. Loved Abe booting Takanashi through the window. Takanashi sold the fuck out of that leg work and then made an intelligent comeback working Abes arm. There was one extended full nelson sequence that felt a bit random but also like a struggle and Abe immediately landed another hard kick to Takanashi as soon as he got the advantage. Finishing run had the usual excellent counters and submissions from Takanashi and Abe landing more hard kicks and punches to his skull. A seemingly paralyzed Takanashi trying to make one last comeback was pretty epic and the double armlock nearfall was just amazing and the best shit I've seen in a wrestling match all year. I'm no expert on Gatoh Move but I'd wager this has to be the best match that group ever ran. I mean, run this back in a MUGA ring in 1999 or something and you'd have an obvious classic.

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

2021 MOTY Project Update #3

 6. Yu Iizuka vs. Takuya Nomura, GLEAT 7/22/2021

Basically a slightly stiffer U-Style match. Both guys beat the hell out of eachother with shots to the body and later open hand strikes. Nomura is always great in shootstyle matches, I have no idea why he wasn't utilized as the Hiroyuki Ito of GLEAT from the beginning. Nomuras submissions were great as usual too and both guys produced some slick mat exchanges. This is all about the last minute where Iizuka is down 2-1 and both guys start throwing hell at each other with Nomura trying to stay on his feet. Very satisfying use of the points system.

2021 MOTY Project MASTER LIST

2021 MOTY Project Update #2

3. Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kaito Kiyomiya, NOAH 6/13/2021

This reminded me of a Destroyer carryjob. Ogawa is in his mid 50s now and for some reason he gets a longer match than I can ever remember him in during his prime. Opening battle of side headlocks was just beautiful and felt like a struggle for control. Kiyomiya reminded me a bit of a young Jumbo, as in he did everything right, trading holds and going along for cool things like criss cross spots, but didn't do anything outstanding. I liked how he bridged out of Ogawas headlocks and that about was it. Ogawas ratboy tricks and veteran moves kept the match entertaining. I especially liked the bit where they ended up in a side headlock on the outside, one of those examples of an old wrestler breaking out an exciting new trick. Kiyomiya struggling out of Ogawas stretches was nice, but his dainty offense didn't do anything for me. Thankfully, we get a very good section of Ogawa twisting up Kiyomiyas leg and essentially bullying him. Kiyomiyas tried his hardest to ruin the match by acting like superman, but Ogawa saved the whole thing by busting out some amazing counters. Beautiful, beautiful finish. Best 70s style match since... Nishimura/Tajiri, I think?

 

2021 MOTY 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.