Yuki Ishikawa & Fuminori Abe & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda
& Ali Najima & Kazunari Murakami, Kakuto Tanteidan 7/1
Impossible not to love this match. Chaotic and frenzied with everyone
potatoeing each other a ton, which is probably the best possible
approach they could have taken. While there wasn't much refined
shootstyle going on I really liked that Abe armlock early on that nearly
dislocated Najimas shoulder. Najima was pretty much a whipping boy
here, eating punishment from all 3 opponents early on. Shuji Ishikawas a
pretty effective crowbar as almost everything he does looks downright
murderous. It's also pretty cool that we got a little Yuki
Ishikawa/Najima section. Ishikawa crowned him with a pretty sick
headbutt too. I was also pleased that there was no stupid Abe comedy,
instead he and Najima developed a really amusing hatred for each other
throughout this with Najima going at him aggressively constantly. Really
hope they can face each other at Sportiva sometime soon or something.
Floor brawling section wasn't amazing but we got to see chairs being
used and Abe knuckle punching Najima in the crowd. Ishikawa/Murakami
exchange was fun and nostalgic with Murakamis mugging and Ishikawa still
being willing to take some punishment. Match went to the next level
with the Ikeda shoot headbutt section. Shuji Ishikawa seemingly trying
to drill through Ishikawas face with his head may have been the moment
of the match. I did not think they would be able to keep up that level
of violence, but the Abe/Murakami section surprisingly delivered thanks
to Abes punches causing hardway blood and the violence of Murakamis face
kicks and punches. There was also an attempted eyerake that looked like
Murakami was really about to rip Abes eye out, so just the right kind
of grizzly violent little thing. Abe also may have had the most violent
save of the match with his flying face stomp. Great match, delivering
plenty of sick violence without overstaying its welcome, and a bunch of
these guys pretty much had their best performance in forever here.
Pretty great hard hitting high adrenaline opening match like a Fu-Ten or WAR match. Basically they tried to put some scrappy violence into every exchange, along with a few unexpected moments and succeeded. I've not seen Sekimo and Kasai before, but they knew what they had to deliver here. Sekimo seemed a little goofy but he was throwing really violent hands and working a camel clutch like he really wanted to torture the guy. Also liked how he just rammed into Najima with his head. I also really enjoyed Kasais throat jumping outburst towards the end. I like how guys were really trying to crank necks with their headlocks so the way Kosuke Sato snatched a surprise front headlock was pretty great. Nomura was quite the bruiser here also and Kosukes dropkick on the armbar was another great moment. Other highlights include some brain-scrambling headbutts and a straight face punch as well as Najimas face stomping.
Hideki Suzuki vs. Go Shiozaki, AJPW 5/17
I haven't cared about Shiozaki since he adopted the embarassing Fake
Okada look, but his banged up performance was pretty good here. The
gritty out of nowhere lariat was great. What followed was the usual tour
around the ring, made a little better by Suzuki resisting some of
Shiozakis attacks. After some mediocre minutes the match got back on
track when Suzuki would use the guardrails to hurt Shiozakis taped up
ribs. What followed was some nice violent work in which Suzuki took some
pages out of the playbooks of Terry Rudge and Johnny Smith. I was even
somewhat okay with Shiozakis no-selling comebacks as he looked like such
a zombie, and him coming up with a bloody nose and actually starting to
put some spirit into his Baba chops was a cool moment. The finishing
stretch wasn't super interesting aside from Suzukis comical pedigree,
but I did like how Suzuki went back to smashing the fuck out of
Shiozakis rib section. I'm a bit lukewarm on this overall as it suffered
from typical modern day Japanese big match problems but there was some
fun violence here.
HII vs. The Wolf, fight of the ring 1/18/2026
The Wolf's return to pro wrestling is something I have glossed over a bit and I probably need to cover it more. I mostly remember him as a reckless kicker from his WYF days, but he was quite good doing maestros style technical work here, busting out a cool peterson roll amongst other things, and generally looking pretty adept. HII has also become a pretty interesting worker at this point. This didn't really shift into next gear with its intensity, but it was two old technicians doing some fun pro wrestling and that's always right up my ally.
Chon Shiryu vs. Rina Yamashita, Choco Pro 2/25
I'm a shameless sucker for Chon Shiryu, the representative of the 2 coolest martial arts in the world, pro wrestling and kung fu. Yamashita is not super interesting but she is big enough that she can credibly fight against Shiryu, and she has some good power offense including a nice harai goshi. That said the bulk of the match was carried by Shiryus crazy kung fu antics and unique spots. Early minutes had some good hard fought hold for hold wrestling, including Shiryu making sure to put extra torque into a basic wristlock like Pai Mei torturing Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Shiryu is able to make even a fairly rote strike exchange look interesting with his kung fu poses, he also makes even his basic kung fu strikes look pretty hard hitting. Most of the early parts of the match is the Shiryu show with him busting out crazy transitions and set ups for odd 619s, including a few things I've never seen him do before, he's always coming up with new tricks. He does take a pretty reckless looking bump when Yamashita catches him on an attempted springboard, and later he hits his springboard rider kick to the floor which is a crazy spot from a 47 year old guy. Finishing run had both of them selling damage to their legs when they got their knees up on flying moves and some crazy rollups, which was a lot more interesting than the usual bombfest, and Yamashita coming alive a bit.
