Tanonmusaku Toba Documentation #24

 Tanomusaku Toba vs Hikaru Sato, Evolution 12/17/2023 - GREAT

I'm enjoying old man Toba. He is not as athletic or conditioned, but he will still brutally punch people in the face. And that is pretty much the selling point of this match. After some cautious exchanges early on where neither guy wanted to make a mistake, Sato made the mistake of trying to follow a regrouping Toba outside the ring and immediately ate some brutal street fight punches on the floor. A seemingly pissed off Sato was then bent on outstriking Toba, only for Toba to block, dodge and punch him in the face some more. Sato catching himself and figuring out to weather the storm was cool and the finish with Toba trying to kick and punch his way out of a submission was gnarly. Nice story and Satos willingness to get punched in the face hard is commendable.

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs Sanshiro Takagi & GENTARO, DDT 8/26/2007 - GREAT

First half of this was solid but not blowaway stuff. Everybody here has good execution and is fun to watch, even doing basic stuff like hitting elbow drops or dropkicks. Takagi getting tagged by Tobas punches and having to try a little harder than usual is always entertaining. In the second half they started busting out the fireworks, and they were big dman fireworks. A ladder comes into play and they do a bunch of crazy highspots. It's kind of amazing that in a match like this Toba may have had the biggest highspots, he hit this sick double stomp off the ladder, as well as taking a stunner from Takagi off the ladder which was pretty insane. In between the spots you have Toba tagging people with punches which is pretty cool in a match against two WWF worshipping guys. Toba repeatedly blocking GENTAROS super kick attempts and wrecking him with punches was really cool. It made me think I would really enjoy an X-Division 4 way or a Young Bucks tag if Toba was involved.

 

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Master List

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #23

 MIKAMI & Tanomusaku Toba vs. Daichi Kakimoto & Chou-un Shiryu, DDT 5/23/2007 - FUN

Another JIP match. But we get 5 minutes of total action with Shiryu doing a bunch of awesome stuff and Toba getting ragdolled around. Shiryus whacky kung fu kicks and dives are truly awesome. He also hit this awesome foot stomp off the top of Kakimotos shoulders. Then it was time for Toba to punch Kakimoto in the face and they did some manly exchanges. Can’t ask for much more from a clip like this.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Daichi Kakimoto, DDT 6/3/2007 – FUN

JIP once again. Common, 2007 Samurai TV editors, give me a complete Toba match! This looked insanely good as it was basically all straight punches, crowbar lariats and ragdoll suplexes. You can watch a lot of Toba stuff but he still surprises you with what he busts out, in this case hitting a cool rana. They reference the finish of the above tag, and the finish of this one is insane.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shuji Ishikawa, DDT 2/7/2007 – SKIPPABLE

Well, not all of these can be good. Toba was good as always, punching Shuji in the face, but Shuji was really lame and weak and the match had a shitty run in finish.

Tanomusaku Toba & Munenori Sawa vs. Kota Ibushi & Hoshitango, DDT 8/5/2008 - FUN

Clipped but holy fuck I‘d kill to see this in full. Everyone has boxing gloves and they are beating the shit out of each other. Even Hoshitango is swinging hard and eating huge blows! Toba and Ibushi take turns hitting each other in the face as hard as they can. Then Toba and Ibushi are brawling on the floor. Finally everyone is in the ring and just beating on each other like its real life Super Smash Bros until Toba hits a huge dropkick. God I really hope the uncut version of this is sitting somewhere because this looks like EVERYTHING.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #22

 

Tanomusaku Toba & Kota Ibushi vs. Manabu Hara & Katsumi Usuda, DDT 6/13/2007 - EPIC

Don’t know what was happening in DDT in 2007 that they were booking all these BattlARTS invasion matches but I am here for it. This was awesome and basically just pure asskicking all the way through. Pretty much perfectly digestable shootstyle stiff fest with minimal submission work and clear face/heel roles with Hara and Usuda being a pair of assholes and brutalizing Ibushi. Toba in DDT usually faces easy opposition and it was pretty awesome to see him here mixing it up with a pair of beasts and getting kicked in the face by Usuda. Ibushi cut out the bullshit and was just a gutsy fighter here, even his blown backflip kind of worked in the match. This was just a hair under 10 minutes and just incredibly stiff and exciting for the whole duration.

Tanomusaku Toba & Sanshiro Takagi vs. Manabu Hara & Katsumi Usuda, DDT 6/20/2007 - GREAT

I wasn’t sure how Takagi would do with the shooters, but he mostly does fine. Him dumping a table on Usuda and hitting a stiff dropkick was great, but his later stuff lacked the same intensity. Toba vs. BattlARTS guys was really great once again and his exchange with Usuda was must see. Usuda shoot headbutting Toba through a flurry of punches and kicks was awe inspiring.Toba would’ve had one hell of a career as a BattlARTS or FUTEN guy. I mean he still had one hell of a career but this stuff is where he shines most, and there’s so little of it. All the more reason to cherish random little matches like this more, I guess!

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Kota Ibushi & HARASHIMA, DDT 4/11/2007 – FUN

JIP, which is too bad because on paper this is a great match. What we get is pretty fun though as we get a couple great Toba exchanges vs. Ibushi and HARASHIMA. Toba annihilating Ibushi with body blows and brutal kicks was really great. HARASHIMA isn’t afraid to eat punishment, hit back and then dive right into a Toba punch other. Toba also almost got ripped in half by a nasty Shima leglock. Everything else was solid and the Toba sections were absolutely worth checking out.

 

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

More Dramatic Fantasia Outtakes

 MIKAMI vs. HARASHIMA, 11/27/2007

It’s the two top juniors in DDT in a big title match. If you know and like these two you will like this a lot, if you don’t know these you will be positively surprised. While the match was a bit spotty here and there, both guys can bust out unpredictable highspots. Like MIKAMI can always hit an odd 619 or springboard move from any angle, and HARASHIMA can just kick you in the head. Ladder stuff didn’t detract from the match and lead to a few big crazy bumps and moments. I was also surprised they didn’t go into finisher overkill, instead focussing on MIKAMI avoiding the Somato like death. Also got a kick out of HARASHIMA going ‘fuck you’ to the ladder.

HARASHIMA vs. Kota Ibushi, DDT 12/30/2007

This won a “match fans want to see the most” contest. With that kind of set up you can expect them to bring the goods, and they did. If you like 2010s HARASHIMA you will like 2000s HARASHIMA because he’s nearly the same wrestler. He was smart enough to work some basic exchanges with Ibushi early on, making the highspots they did look bigger. He also worked Ibushis arm, so even though Ibushi didn’t sell anything it wasn’t super exposed and Ibushi could still hit all his highspots. Both guys did some amazingly spectacular counters and sequences like you expect from an Ibushi match. The match had handsprings, reverse ranas and all that, it was like 2022 match except this was actually good because they had good pacing and structure. Also both guys weren’t afraid to hit each other hard. Recommended if you just want to see a cool MOVEZ match/spotfest and don’t expect a deep story.

 

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Shuji Ishikawa, DDT 2/24/2011

Shuji is way bigger and a damn old crowbar. Kikuchi was on the way out, but he could still take a murder asskicking. Goodness gracious. Ishikawa just brutalizes him with his big knees and headbutts and Kikuchi bleeds hardway and hits a really pretty suplex on the bigger guy and it’s just really gutsy and gritty. Wish they had aired the whole thing because those 6 minutes were pretty insane.

Shuji Ishikawa vs. Kengo Mashimo, DDT 10/3/2010

God I am MAD they only showed 5 minutes of this because this looked like an epic, FUTEN-esque battle. Both guys bleed hardway and they beat the shit out of each other. Brutal kicks and knees left and right. Check it out for some old-fashioned violence.

Dramatic Deep Cuts

 

Kota Ibushi vs. Taro Nohashi, DDT 9/23/2007

NOHASHI SHOWCASE MATCH! Man, I am glad I had a hunch that I should watch this. I had no idea Nohashi was this awesome in 2007. This was the kind of performance that makes you fall in love with wrestling all over again. Nohashi doesn’t care that he’s stocky and doesn’t stand a chance against the better looking, taller, chiseled Ibushi, he was gonna go hard and do a bunch of awesome shit. Nohashi had a bunch of cool ways to attack Ibushis leg, a bunch of awesome old school spots weaved perfectly into a modern day juniors match. It meshes really well with Ibushis athletic style, so you’d have Nohashi do a thrust kick and Ibushi would kip up and right into a tight Octopus Stretch. Ibushis leg selling wasn’t very deep but you can do some spectacular stuff with Ibushi and they did that here but man Nohashi is so much cooler. Nohashi was also taking all of Ibushis stiff shoot kicks like a champ. Loved the Mandara Hineri variations from Nohashi, the crazy floor dropkick, the headbutts etc.. The man was on like no tomorrow that night, total hidden gem performance.

TAKA Michinoku vs. MIKAMI, DDT 5/4/2005

This is MIKAMIs comeback match, which means TAKA is a total piece of shit to him. TAKA won’t bump for a MIKAMI headscissor, he sidesteps a MIKAMI dive, he even blocks MIKAMIs 619 and kicks out of 1 after MIKAMI hits his big senton. So MIKAMI has to bring the fight if he wants to get anything in this match. Taka was really punishing Mikami too with his tight headlocks and headscissor neck crank, and his fancy jump kicks were hitting hard. He also kept MIKAMI scurrying for the ropes with his out of nowhere facelock attempts. The insta-tap finish was great, too. Really gnarly, hard fought, unique match where it felt like TAKA was channeling Fujiwara.

Sanshiro Takagi vs. Masa Takanashi, DDT 7/20/2008

DDT is this weird promotion that puts on a ton of filler and lame jokes but sometimes you get a creative gem. This was a T2P style match that works both as a parody and a serious attempt at the style. Takanishi is really smooth and Takagi is surprisingly adept at this. These two have Skayde-ish transitions down pat and bust out a bunch of cool holds before a smart finish occurs. Fun in the same way like the first time you saw Johnny Saint wrestle.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #21

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Poison Sawada & HARASHIMA, DDT King of DDT 2008 - FUN

 

HARASHIMA was in snakeman facepaint and doing charms here. Sawada and Shima won’t blow you away here but they are a charismatic heel unit  and there are some fun charming spots including MIKAMI getting hypnotized while standing on top of the ladder. SUICIDE BOYZ were about as good as you ever see them here, MIKAMI can make any random move like a springboard back elbow look totally awesome and Toba was kicking and punching people as hard as ever. TOBA even broke out of the snake charms twice and hit one of his stiffest backfists I’ve ever seen. I also appreciate that Sawada looks old and like he doesn’t train anymore but still takes a full force Toba kick to his head. This needed another Toba tag in to push into GREAT territory but for what it is it is an immensely fun little match.

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Cho-un Shiryu & KUDO, DDT 4/1/2009 - GREAT

This was from a weird theme show where they had all the wrestlers dress up as different nationalities. So Toba and MIKAMI represent Thailand with MIKAMI dressed like a thaiboxer and KUDO doing his New Beijing Pro Wrestling Dragon Achoooo gimmick. So this is thai boxing vs. hong kong movie kung fu match we all were looking for all of our lifes and it’s totally awesome. It works because Shiryu and KUDO are really slick and there are still a ton of stiff strikes in the match. I think the joke was that MIKAMI isn’t skilled enough to be a thaiboxer because he was mostly doing body shots early on, but he hit a pretty brutal jumping knee later. Of course Toba rules coming in and punching and kicking people really hard. Also, nice showcase match for Choun Shiryu, who is also awesome. This was only a slightly bigger finish away from an EPIC rating.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 12/29/2006 - GREAT

This was for the Extreme Title and had a rounds ruleset where one round be pro wrestling rules, the next round would be martial arts rule and so on. Pretty smart match that was also brutally stiff. Even during the pro wrestling sections MIKAMI was absolutely leathering Toba with his clotheslines and kicks, for a skinny short guy he can really hit like Tenryu. MIKAMI was really trying to finish the match during the Pro Wrestling Rules section going for flash pins. MIKAMI was more cautious during the Kakutogi sections, trying to contain Toba with takedowns and groundwork. Eventually MIKAMI eats a knee to the face when shooting for a takedown and after that it’s time for Toba to kick his ass. The sections where Toba was blasting MIKAMI with his kicks and fists really felt like a fight to the death as MIKAMI barely survived. There was this great moment where MIKAMI went for a desperate schoolboy but Toba landed on top and rained punches on him from mount, you could just see MIKAMIS body going limp as Toba punched the soul out of him, if it had been martial arts rules it would have been a KO but because it was pro wres rules Toba had to go for a pin. Other neat moments include MIKAMI going for a 619 and getting punched in the face, as well as Toba countering a codebreaker attempt with a nasty elbow. Finish was great too as MIKAMI hit this really uncooperative shoulder dislocating armbreaker move before locking in an Octopus Hold, Mikami knows no martial artist can resist an Octopus Hold. Great match that had top notch selling from Mikami, brutal stiffness and a really well told story.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #20

 Tanomusaku Toba vs. Munenori Sawa, DDT 5/4/2007 - GREAT

Okay – the bad first: it‘s JIP. We still get 7 minutes of blistering action between these two, and every second of this was just great. Just Toba having superior striking and cracking Sawa with nasty punches left and right and Sawa trying to soften him up. This version of Sawa was great – he was just fired up, no jokes or theatrics, and giving and taking hard. They make the back and forth hitting actually compelling, and there were some great spots such as Toba getting ragdolled by suplexes or Sawa jumping right into a Toba punch. They really needed to give Toba more matches like this, I can‘t think of much better undercard stuff than two crazy guys beating the snot out of each other in a quick exciting match.

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Poison Sawada JULIE & Super Uchu Power, DDT 8/25/2002 - EPIC

This was the finals of a tag league and they went 25 minutes. Pretty much 4 cool indy characters doing a Kings Road style epic and succeeding. We get a quick start and then it's pretty much all action. This may have been the most I've enjoyed Poison Sawada, he doesn't have much athletic ability or stiffness but he displayed great timing, had some genuinely impressive exchanges with MIKAMI and is just a really cool character with his green mist and hypnosis spots. In a 2022 world where most wrestlers feel so fucking dry and generic a guy like Poison Sawada JULIE feels like a real wrestling genius in comparison. TOBA was generally awesome dishing it out and getting ragdolled around, leaping into the scenery to spin backfist people in the head at just the right moments. MIKAMI did his usual huge highspots, timing them really well for some awesome moments, and Uchu was a destructive space force as usual. These 4 deliver exactly what you expect and want from them, and this maybe ended up being even a bit better than expected. The only blight is they clipped about 5 minutes from this, but you don't really notice anyways, and the match had more than enough to enjoy

Tanomusaku Toba Master List

Assorted Kuishinbo Kamen

 

Kuishinbo Kamen vs. MIKAMI, Osaka Pro/Kuishinbo Kamen Produce 12/15/2010

It‘s a serious Kamen match baby! They basically wrestle a straight juniors match until Mikami pisses Kamen off by going for the mask. That causes Kamen to snap and beat the shit out of Mikami with fucking insane dropkicks and open hand slaps. Awesome. This resembled the better WAR junior matches as in it had scrappy violence, cool flying and one absolutely insane huge highspot that I am not going to spoil. But it‘s safe to say that Mikami is an absolute lunatic. Finishing run was a bit more standard stuff but there were some nasty face kicks and face stomps and Kamens fire was great. I thought the constant rollups were cool as both guys are the type to win a match with a tricky roll up, so the ending didn‘t feel like bullshit. This was a gem.

Kuishinbo Kamen & Black Buffalo vs. Masahiko Kochi & Magnitude Kishiwada, 7/30/2010

Another violent match with no jokes at all! The passion and fire these guys put on for a crowd of like 200 people puts all current wrestling to shame. This was less about Kamen the asskicker and more about Kamen the sympathetic taking a beating. Kochi and Kishiwada sure were out to kill the clown here. Plenty of stiff blows and chair shots. I have no idea how old Kochi lucked into this match but he looked good dishing out kicks and taking some stiff headbutts from Kamen. Buffalo is a great secondary guy who can tag in and hit mean lariats and leg drops. And Kishiwada is a damn great monster shrugging people off and killing them with his lariats and bomb-ladden moveset. Kamen going for Kishiwadas mask and then hitting his super stiff looking corner dropkick was great. The finishing stretch was surprisingly elaborate and had a few convincing nearfalls without going overboard, always staying true to the Kamen underdog story. No downtime or filler, just a great heated match.

WMF Marvelous Days 7th 12/27/2003

 GENTARO & Yuko Miyamoto vs. Junji Tanaka & Mineo Fujita

Junior opening match! This was JIP and I really would‘ve liked the whole thing. Junji is such a fun technician to throw into a match worked at a fast pace, really mixes it up nicely with all these athletic juniors. GENTARO is just super sharp, and he will also turn around and throw nice punches. Miyamoto was in young lion trunks here and already looking really polished and athletic. He hit a springboard diving headbutt with crazy distance and later almost killed Fujita with a brutal lariat. Fujita also looked good busting out cool flying armbars and triangle chokes. Everything looked good and they never lost a step, this gets the full indy point for these kind of fun little matches.

Yoji Anjoh & Koichiro Kimura & Ricky Fuji vs. Mr. Gannosuke & Chocoball Mukai & GOEMON

What a match up. Pretty fun stuff for the WAR 6 man-like randomness of it all. Anjoh was fun mugging and throwing punches, Kimura was stiff, Fuji and GOEMON did some cool ratboy exchanges together (did either of them ever face Yoshinari Ogawa?), and Mukai was cool trying to stand up to the shooters and putting his weird finishing hold on people. Gannosuke was basically Choshu here, just hard lariats and sharpshooters and it was cool. I was hoping for a Gannosuke vs. Anjoh faceoff but the Anjoh/Mukai finish was also pretty nice. Everything you can ask for from a random undercard 6 man.

MIKAMI & ONRYO vs. Asian Cougar & Tomoya Adachi

Spot after spot, but if you want spots, these guys will deliver pretty much the best you can get. Cougar had switched his stuff up a lot since the 90s, and he still had a bunch of crazy moves out of nowhere. Sleaze lucharesu boy Tomoya Adachi is a cool addition too and he looks good, really liked his reverse wheelbarrow hold which lead to Cougar once again flying in with a leg drop. MIKAMIs athleticism is crazy during this time, his dive looked like he just jumped from the ceiling, he also busts out a huge moonsault elbow drop, and a big swanton bomb from the top of a ladder. Ladder stuff was fun as they didn‘t take too long setting everything up and they pulled everything off. Loved all the Onryo character moments during the finishing stretch. This was a lot of fun.

GARUDA vs. Tsubasa

Garuda already had suffered a bad neck injury at this point that would cut off his career, but for a guy with a neck injury, he was pretty good in this. Very solid match. Tsubasa showed a lot of spunk, bitchslapping Garuda, taking him out with a spectacular dive, hitting a flip senton and then kicking Garuda in the face etc. He even targeted Garudas bad neck. Pretty good match although it suffered a bit from too many junior matches on this card.

Dick Togo & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Kazuya Yuasa & Seiji Ikeda

Solid if a bit by the numbers heel performance by Togo & Kuroda, cutting off the two young lions. Ikeda was this pudgy guy that they were trying to turn into something, and he had pretty good fire. Kurodas stuff doesn‘t annoy me as much as usual because he is supposed to be an annoying heel here, and he even sets up stuff for Togo in nice ways here and there. Togo was the best guy in the match getting fire out of these schlubby youngsters and hitting really high end sentons. Given a bit more tenure Togo could‘ve done the impossible and amde Kuroda matches watchable on a regular basis. Young guys were kinda bland so it doesn‘t amount to anything more than a solid formula match.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Mammoth Sasaki

This is what you buy the show for. Tenryu lowers himself to filthy WMF to teach their boy Mammoth a leason. I think I liked this more than Tenryu/Kojima, as from memory this had more awesome Tenryu moments, a bigger asskicking and young Mammoth trying to take down the legend. The opening moments had some fun tubby guys rolling on the mat moment before Sasaki decides to really go for it to which Tenryu responds by simply taking him down and torturing his bad leg a bit. However Sasaki won't let up and soon both guys are throwing punches. Mammoth decides to start the garbage brawling by taking the match to the outside to which Tenryu responds „Sure, you can have it“ and smashes a fucking bottle on his head. Tenryu keeps flinging stuff at Mammoth and really puts a WAR sized assbeating on him just kicking him in the face and pasting him with lariats over and over while Mammoth is selling all big and sympathetic. I wish the 2^nd half were a little less one sided altough Mammoth gets in a good one on Tenryu when he smashes him with the chairs (to a befuddled „He's doing this to ME?“ reaction) and he gets over big just for the amount of punishment he is able to survive before going down. 

The Library

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #18

 Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba vs Tomohiro Ishii & Issei Fujisawa (DDT 06/09/2001) - GREAT

We only get the last 10 minutes of a 20 minute draw, but what we get looks like a very good match. Toba being used as a human projectile was fun, I loved how Ishii turned the knife against his opponents by gorilla pressing Toba into Sasaki too. Then we get some fun Sasaki/Ishii exchanges and some awesome Toba/Fujisawa exchanges. Fujisawa was doing a Fake Kensuke Sasaki gimmick but he had no problem taking ultra stiff punches and kicks from Toba, getting fired up and dropping him him with reckless power moves. It was better than any comparable Kensuke Sasaki faceoff (maybe against Kazunari Murakami) that I‘ve seen. The build to the time limit draw was cool too and they never slowed down without just doing brainless kickouts left and right.

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI & Sanshiro Takagi vs. Takashi Sasaki & Asian Cougar & Asian Condor, Onita Pro 9/23/2001 - GREAT

Probably the best match I‘ve seen the DDT crew do in Onita Pro so far. They went 13 minutes so stretched out a bit and did some fun opening exchanges before the Asian Cougars in the match whip out their cool highspots for a frenzy in the second half. Toba/Sasaki exchanges were pretty boss as usual, kicks and punches landing with full force, and you also get to see Toba in peril as he gets ragdolled by triple team moves. Toba really is great at timing his more spectacular kicks for comebacks. The finishing stretch with Cougar hitting all his lunatic legdrops and then trying to tap out Toba was pretty exciting and even though Takagi isn‘t the greatest guy in the match he was fun too. A++ undercard material.

Tanomusaku Toba vs.  Fuminori Abe vs. Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 1/8/2022 - FUN

3 ways are usually gonna be stupid so they can almost never be great matches, but this was one had enough fun action and they seemed to be aware of the stupidity so they just brutalized each other like it was a chaotic fight. Toba is the oldest and most broken guy here but for some reason does the most sections, and he looks pretty good. Made me think he would still be good in NOAH undercards working in the Aoyagi role of old guy who doesn't pull punches. He was really landing some face shattering punches to Abe, who did this amusing psycho laughing. The section where they all beat on each other could have been silly but ended up looking crazy. Even the finish seemed to make fun of the concept of 3 ways. Enjoyable match overall.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

Matches from and old Scott Mailman comp tape

 Watch

 

 Takashi Sasaki vs. Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 9/30/1999

Pretty good quasi-BattlARTS match. Sasaki was the real deal ripping out fast submissions and landing knees to Takagis face. I didn't really appreciate Takagis stomp-punches-Stone-Cold-Stunner style much next to Sasakis cutting edge spin kicks and cool Destiny Hammers, but to be fair Sasaki ate the fuck out of those Stunners. Takagi kind of redeemed himself busting out some cool backfists. Full indy scum point to this match.

Asian Cougar & Kurokage vs. Kyohei Mikami & Takashi Sasaki Onita Pro 9/16/1999

This is a really 'comp tape' match. They do some brief opening work and then get to their cool highspots. Sasaki looked good once again being surprisingly vicious to Kurokage. It's nice to have a guy who can kick ass and while punch the shit out of people inserted into a more spot oriented junior undercard match. Dive train on the concrete was really sick and the neck-crunching big move ladden ending run was choice without getting on your nerves. I miss when juniors did moves like Powerbombs or Flying Armbars instead of superkicks and canadian destroyer like shit all the time.

Asian Cougar & Yuki Nishino vs. Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO Onita Pro 12/1/1999

Even more 'comp tape' highlight reel match, since they clipped a 9 minute match down to five or so. This was worth watching though. Nishino is my boy and he and Sasaki beating on each other with lariats and running headbutts was pretty badass. After that we get a Korakuen Hall upgraded run of sick highspots mostly involving Asian Cougar. He hits the chair senton to the floor, a bunch of whacked-out legdrops right on peoples jaw etc. Sasakis spinning kick to an opponent placed against the apron was a pretty sick regular spot. Full point, once again.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #17

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/27/1999 - GREAT

MIKAMI comes out barefoot and with MMA trunks and gloves. Amazing. This was a great little scrap. MIKAMI realizes quickly he‘s outgunned by Tobas striking and just goes for armbars left and right with Toba making dramatic escapes. The fact Mikami could do this kind of match shows why he was a special boy then. I really enjoy this kind of singular focus in shootstyle, and these two did a great job working a 5 minute match around armbars and KO blows.

 

Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba vs MIKAMI & Super Uchu Power, DDT 8/30/2001 - GREAT

This was another match that exemplifies what made all these guys so fun back in the early 2000s. We get some cool exchanges between MIKAMI and Sasaki before Mikami and S.U. Power begin putting a beating on Sasaki. MIKAMI has quite good chemistry with the Space Monster, Uchu Power was brutally shoot throwing, stretching and kicking Sasaki, and MIKAMI held up the violence with some full bodyweight flying moves and a neat Tiger Spin kick to the face. Loved Tobas hot tag where he flew into Super Uchu Powers face with a huge, huge knee and then he proceeded to brutalize the Space Monster. Could have done with more Toba content (he only gets in after Sasaki makes the hot tag) but the finish was great with Sasaki trying to finish off Mikami and Toba running in to help with some face kicks.

Sanshiro Takagi & Fake Takagi vs Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba, DDT 9/30/2001 - FUN

This was just a 2 minute match. Pretty much just a Toba/Sasaki control segment on Ichimiya before Ichimiya steals the pin with a flash pin to Toba. It was a really good control segment, Ichimiya has worked CAPTURE so he has no problem getting kicked in the face by Toba, and that pushes this into the FUN territory.

 Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #13

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. GENTARO & Takashi Sasaki, DDT 10/24/2002 - EPIC

This felt like the biggest match that DDT ran that year, and they rolled out all the spots. For that kind of match where a bunch of indy juniors roll out their spots, you can‘t get much better than having Toba in there to punch people in the face. As usual his exchanges with Sasaki were pretty violent and ballsy, and he was up there with all the super athletic guys in the match when it came to producing fireorks. He hit a big Toyota style dropkick to the floor, a nasty flying kick off the top that caught GENTARO in the chin, and a badass elbow/STO combo. GENTARO is really fun too, he was roughing up Toba with snug pro wrestling style strikes, and MIKAMIs highspots were big and crushing looking. The match didn‘t have some kind of epic story or great transitions so it as definitely popcorn material, but there was no over cooperative stuff, no thigh slapping, everything looked hurty. Even the ladder being brought up was used to add a sense of escalation and didn‘t detract from the match. Good stuff, maybe the best popcorn match of the year.

Tanomusaku Toba & Ichiro Yaguchi & Chotaro Kamoi vs. Takashi Sasaki & Kurokage & Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 6/30/1998 - GREAT

A match which was thankfully mostly about TOBA. Yaguchi and Kamoi were kind of treated like comedy jobbers, so they knew who was the man. Early Toba was beastly, his punches were less showy and landing more straightforwardly in peoples face, and he did more crazy kicks than later. Everytime he‘s in the ring the match was just relentless, him just beating on people and then getting hurled around by suplexes. He matches up against all 3 guys and everyone looks good cranking up the violence when facing him. Toba vs. Sasaki is a known guarantee for violent, ballsy exchanges by now. Kurokage is some masked junior and he looked good throwing suplexes, throwing some stiff kicks and locking in armbars. Kamoi is kind of a 99 ct store Toba, he has one fun moment where he leaps off the top rope with a punch but was pretty sloppy otherwise. Yaguchi isn‘t good but doesn‘t drag the match down either. The finish was Toba vs. Takagi and good shit. Bit long at 18 minutes but a fun watch thanks to our thai boxing hero.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

IWA Japan NEW YEAR LEGEND 1/17/1999

 Masanori Nakamura vs. ???

Yuki Nishino & Asian Cougar & Phantom Funakoshi vs. Takashi Uwano & Yuji Kito & Tortuga

Akinori Tsukioka & Kyohei Mikami vs. The Great Takeru & Makoto Saito

Miho Wakizawa & Sachie Nishibori vs. Emi Motokawa & Kayo Noumi

Shigeo Okumura & Keizo Matsuda vs. Masao Orihara & Takeshi Ono - GREAT

Tarzan Goto & Freddy Krueger vs. Katsumi Hirano & Yoshiya Yamashita - FUN

Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Thumbtack Death Match: Mr. Pogo & Shoji Nakamaki vs. Keisuke Yamada & Takeshi Sato

Another super fun IWA Japan card. The first 4 matches were pretty clipped, but they gave you pretty much what you want, all the fun juniors in those matches busting out sometimes inventive and often crushing offense. My boy Yuki Nishino looked good stomping the crap out of the IWA Japan boys in the 6 man tag, and the other juniors tag was also really fun. Mikami got a bloody nose from a Saito kick, and Tsukioka would potatoe guys with chairs. Junior wrestling really is better when the guys look like they are actually trying to do damage to each other and not run through a routine of elaborate sequences to get brownie points from an audience.

The last 3 matches all had blood - IWA Japan rules, baby. Really liked the Tonpachi Guns, as they have a knack for mixing in unpredictable sequences while keeping the sleaze level high. Takeshi Ono is a treasure in that match kicking and punching people in the face and sometimes in the nuts. Okamura and Matsuda are good enough as thick guys pasting their scrawny opponents with lariats and it ends up a fun match that sadly doesn’t have a finish.

The Goto match was 23 minutes clipped down to about 10. Probably a wise decision, but what was shown looked very good as it was a total slaughter of Hirano and Yamashita. Both guys got busted open and I imagine all their offense was clipped out. Freddy Krueger did almost nothing in that match, which is a good thing as Tarzan Goto is just great as a monster punching and stabbing the shit out of people.

The main event was also really fun, although nearly a squash. Pogo & Nakamaki are like the Road Warriors in that – here to beat the fuck out of the young guys, and not selling shit. It ends up being a really fun match due to the underdog charisma of Yamada & Sato and the character work of Nakamaki and Pogo. At one point Nakamaki stuck his own face in the thumbtacks to prove that he doesn’t give a shit, and later Yamada took a nasty suplex into the tax, coming up looking like a christmas tree. But the story was how long would Yamada and Sato last, and the answer is not very long.

THE LIBRARY

Assorted DDT World

Super Uchu Power vs. DAISAKU (DDT 2/28/1999)

DAISAKU is a kickboxer dude who has worked CAPTURE, so can handle himself against a stiff monster. Doesn't matter though cause S.U. Power just crushes him. Daisaku puts on a good fight but is put to sleep in about 3 minutes. Very brief but very painful looking. Amazing promo after the match and Super Uchu Power struts away as the theme from Terminator 2 blasts from the speakers. All hail the Super Cosmic Force!

MIKAMI vs. Yuki Nishino (DDT 3/25/1998)

Younger years Mikami really was something. His combination of sudden athletic bursts, grappling and willingness to exchange manly assbeatings made for a quite compelling wrestler. Nishino is an SPWF guy with a crazy mullet who works kind of like a sleazy Finlay. He keeps it simple, and puts a major assbeating on Mikami, hitting some sick headbutts, chops and lariats, and Mikami cracks him back hard on the occasion, and sometimes he will hit a huge powerslam or suplex. In a different universe Nishino had Tomohiro Ishiis career. This was simple and to the point and a really fun undercard match built around two guys crushing each other until one stayed down.

 

MIKAMI vs. Takashi Sasaki, DDT 12/22/1999 

Cool, somewhat experimental junior style big match. This was Mikami as a slick junior before he started the Ladder thing, here he was just as prone to bust out slick armbar transitions aswell as fast springboard huracanranas. I really liked how they started out simple working headlocks and hammerlocks and slowly morphed into more tricked out stuff. Mikami looks damn good, technically sound and unpredictable on the mat, while pre-deathmatch kickpadded Sasaki is a perfectly good second rate Ikeda spin kicking him in the throat. The match turns into a style mix where they land stiff kicks and work flash armbars building towards AJPW style headdrops and Mikamis big flying moves. It's pretty much the ideal indy style match as they take from various styles and produce something that feels sound and fresh. The finishing run is great as they just kill eachother. Not only do they bust out the big moves, but there's also some thudding strike exchanges. When a springboard dropkick and lariat feel just as deadly as the big Emerald Frosion style finisher the execution is on point. Really cool to check this out, I would really like this type of indy wrestling to make a comeback. 

Sanshiro Takagi & Kazushige Nozawa vs. Super Uchu Power & Super Rider, DDT 3/25/1997

Out of the ruins of Pro Wrestling Crusader, a new creature emerges. Who would've thought Takagi and Nozawa would control Japanese wrestling 20 years later? And it all began with them absolutely getting their asses beat by a pair of space monsters. This was just a merciless beatdown. Takagi and Nozawa have some fire, but are outgunned. Rider has some crappy junior moves, but is good hen he is kicking the shit out of people. And Super Uchu Power was just a fearsome menace here. Always trying to pop peoples jaws with kicks and lariats or hammering them into the mat with big throws and slams. Not a pretty match, but it felt like a fight and got pretty visceral the more Takagi and Nozawa ate shit.

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

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #7

 Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Kota Ibushi & Daichi Kakimoto, DDT 12/28/2005 - EPIC

Spectacular indy match upgraded to a Toba-style stifffest. Ibushi was way better here than in their 2008 singles. In that match he played kind of a moronic overdog to Tobas underdog, here he is underdog while Toba demolishes him and it’s way more compelling. Tobas initial flurry of KO’ing Ibushi over and over was great and it set up a great Ibushi offense where he was kicking the crap out of Toba with a serious sense of pissed offness. So obviously I loved the Ibushi/Toba slaughtering each other sections, but MIKAMI and Kakimoto hold up their own. Kakimoto is a really fun thick guy who throws suplex and potatoes people with elbows and lariats, which is exactly the kind of simplistic pro wrestlers. I’ve seen people call MIKAMI a poor mans Marufuji before but from everything I’ve seen he is worlds better than Marufuji. MIKAMI really knows how to time his stuff, knows how to fly into the scene with a thudding missile dropkick or flying rana at just the right moment. He knew Ibushi and Toba were gonna be stiff and understood he had to land his stuff with real oomph to it. His senton to Kakimoto may have been among the most crushing moves I’ve ever seen. He and Toba also exhibit great veteran chemistry working several cool cutoffs against Ibushi and Kakimoto. The finishing run was grand with several twists and turns and a few epic saves, but didn’t overstay its welcome. I’m surprised this match doesn’t get more play, really stiff, compelling action with enough athletic moves to keep even a more casual audience entertained, the perfect hybrid of 90s and 2000s Japan indy action.

Asian Cougar & Tomohiko Hashimoto v Showa & Tanomusaku Toba (Onita Pro 10/28/2001) - GREAT

DDT crew bringing the goods on a random Onita mark show. I am 99% sure Showa is just Phantom Funakoshi in a cheap mask doing a tribute gimmick, which is not as cool as him just being a guy who happens to wrestle like the old stylists. Still, match was quality shit between 4 juniors who all have unique styles and personalities.. Starts great with Hashimoto ragdolling Toba around and dropping him on his head with a crazy Randleman like throw. We get everyone doing their cool shit, Toba busts out his apron kick, nice dive train etc. Asian Cougar seemed to be holding back at first, and it made his big spots later seem cooler. There was an unfortunate moment where Toba slipped on a double team move, but other than that he was the Toba we all love, kicking hard, punching guys in the face, and getting spiked with some of these throws.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shintaro Karasu, Onita Pro 5/4/2001- FUN

Shintaro Karasu is a flier who looks like a mini Hayabusa but with a weird birdlike mask. Normally he’s just your average spotty undercarder, but he takes a pretty big asskicking from Toba here and responds in kind with big swinging open hand strikes and a nasy solebutt. They only showed a few minutes from a short match, would’ve liked to see the whole thing, but it serves as a nice career highlight for the mysterious Shintaro Karasu.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

Keita Yano vs. Taro Yamada (WALLABEE, 6/14/2012)

Damn great match, I imagine if Yano had never stunk up BattlARTS and instead was only known for doing weird technical matches while wearing his joker makeup and clown singlet in a tiny gym we’d all be Yano superfans. Taro Yamada is the last guy in Japan still holding up the T2P style matwork and one of the most underrated grapplers on the independent scene. This was 25 minutes of matwork that was like a great IWRG style title match. It was a mix of Yamadas llave holds with Yano going along and some cool RINGs-like leglock work thrown in, with both guys doing a great job escaping and transitioning between holds. Whole match felt fresh and competitive and never was like a derivative or weird LARP, these guys were trying to pop each others shoulders and/or ankles the whole time. There were one or two geeky moments where Yano did some “rope running” although it was more like a comedy spot with Yano hooting like an owl, and both these moments lead to cool spots, one where Yamada actually trips Keita with a drop down and another where Yano tricks Yamada into his special hold. There wasn’t some kind of story if you are into that but there were a few great nearfalls and I deeply respect these two for just grappling it out for 25 minutes without slowing down, and never throwing a strike or even a body slam, it was all submissions and funky cradle pins (especially loved Yamadas weird Delfin Clutch variation), just really tightly worked stuff that wouldn’t look out of place in a WoS or lucha title match. I did love Yanos dickish knee slide across Yamadas face and the moment where Yano had enough of the llave holds and challenged Yamada to an amateur match was really cool. Finish was great aswell. Best Yano match I’ve seen by far and actively a great match, which is a major shocker. Yamada played a huge part too but I’ll be damned if Yano wasn’t feeling it that night. Apparently there have been a few matches between these two and I look forward to checking them all out but as it stands this is the best I’ve seen from Yano by a mile.

Yu Iizuka vs. ZIMA Yoshida (RAW 9/30/2018)

ZIMA Yoshida makes his return to the blog. This Yu Izuka is a HEAT-UP guy. While Heat-Up is technically the follow promotion to Style-E, it doesn’t really do shootstyle, but Izuka works full shootstyle here, and actually looks like a guy with lineage to Tamura. Really promising performance from Iizuka, throwing wild spin kicks and looking in cool submissions while doing lightning smooth mat transitions. Our man ZIMA is overwhelmed but he manages to lock in a cool leg lock/neck crank submission of his own. Def. Would’ve liked this to go longer.

Hideki Suzuki & MIKAMI vs. UTOMARO & Yuiga (Batos Cafe, ?/?/??)

Not a pleasant match. Yuiga is a NEO-wrestler who has been working scum indies for 20 years. She tries to take it to Hideki Suzuki in this, who responds by punting her in really violent, unpredictable ways. Yuiga is throwing some crowbar shots and sick headbutts but it seems Suzuki is untouchable. He even no-sells UTOMARO completely. Their match up is really intense and it builds to a great moment where Yuiga is finally able to get something in when she counters a sleeper attempt into a judo throw and tries to sink into a desperation armbar. MIKAMI and UTOMARO basically just provide some fluff between the Yuiga vs. Hideki sections. Great sleeper hold finish.

Assorted Onita Pro

 So someone put up a boatload of Onita Pro shows from 1999-2002 up on the internet archive. While I don't care a ton for Onitas late career work (although it is solid in the sense that you always get a fast paced brawl with a bunch of dudes bleeding, flying through tables and Onita doing almost nothing but hitting powerbombs and DDTs) the man was booking all kinds of weird and cool matchups on his cards using DDT guys, random luchadores and various indy scum, so that is excellent blog material.

MIKAMI & Sanshiro Takagi vs. Takashi Sasaki & DAISAKU (Onita Pro 12/26/1999)

 I see matches like this as the equivalent of a great WCW syndicated match. 6 minutes in length, and all these guys roll out their cool stuff, while maintaining a tight pace and a good level of stiffness. Lotsa stealworthy speats, my favourite being the running spin kick from Sasaki that really bent MIKAMIs spine across the ring apron. DAISAKU is a CAPTURE regular with a cool style largely based around kicking his opponents really hard. MIKAMI looked really good here as well, a guy who was comfortable both hitting slick ranas and slapping the shit out of his opponents. All his exchanges with Sasaki were really good, he hit a great dive and got turned inside out by a nasty Sasaki lariat for his troubles. Takagi is the least guy in the match but manages not to fumble anything. Full japan indy point.

Tomoya Adachi & Asian Cougar & Starman vs. NOSAWA & Heaven & Arkangel De La Muerte (Onita Pro 7/20/2000)

Bless Onita for bringing in these random luchadores. This was like a slightly sleazier approximation to an M-Pro tag. I dug Adachi here, cool dude who could both do smooth matwork and hit big dives. NOSAWA was already comfortable in his stooging role. Asian Cougar also looks good without even hitting his crazy highspots, mostly doing swank lucha armdrags instead. I was expecting them to have Arkangel and Starman married to each other, but instead they shuffle through all kinds of possible matchups, and everything went smoothly.

Takashi Sasaki vs. GENTARO (Onita Pro 3/14/2000)

Cool 8 minute match where they showcase their stuff. Starts with some cool matwork before both guys go through their bread and butter. GENTARO has some fantastic athleticism and Sasaki mostly just smacks him hard with kicks and lariats. GENTARO blows a Space Tiger dive but redeems himself immediately by hitting a springboard senton with amazing height. Full japan indy point.

Tomoya Adachi & Asian Cougar & El Matematico vs. Babe Richard & Heaven & NOSAWA, Onita Pro 5/21/2000)

 Ahhh what the hell, they flew in Matematico and Richard for one match? I assume they went on an extensive tour with ZIPANG that month in Japan. To be honest, Matematico is old as hell here and his exchanges with Richard weren’t great, but I loved his big plancha to the outside and him picking up the victory with the Muscle Hold. They also clipped this in half (whole thing went 18!!! minutes), probably for the wiser.

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Kengo Takai (Onita Pro 6/27/1999)

Kurisu beats the dogshit out of this DDT boy with the most violent headbutts, stomps and chair shots you’ve ever seen. Takai retired to Osaka Pro shortly after.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #6

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST