GWE Watching: Masaaki Mochizuki

 

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Tiger Mask IV, Michinoku Pro 3/10/2001

Fun match between two juniors who like to kick hard. Mochizuki had a some scumbag seconding him who kept interferring on his behalf. It didn‘t detract from the match much and made for some fun moments. Tiger Mask IV looked slick. Mochizuki controlled a bit and he looked good potatoeing TMIV. The groundwork was a bit like a curt angle match as they just slapped on a hold and waited for the other guy to make the ropes. Good match overall.

 

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Magnum Tokyo, Toryumon 7/1/2001

The first 10 or so minutes of this were really good. Mochizuki was super fun here working over Magnum with stiff karate punches and kicks. He was like a Mini Akitoshi Saito. Tokyo‘s counter armwork was really good but had no consequence at all. There was one moment where Tokyo hit a tornado ddt to the apron in a great spot but instead of going for a cover just robotically moved on to work Mochizukis arm because that was what they had planned for the match. The second half dipped pretty hard with lots of interference from Mochizukis posse. Tokyo is athletic and had some good spots particularily the springboard ranas, but most of his offense looks so dainty and weak. Some of it barely seemed to graze Mochi. Finish run had maybe a fun strike exchange but overall was just the usual 2.9999 fest. This could‘ve been better.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. CIMA, Toryumon 4/14/2001

This was fine in terms of the moves they did, but was soul crushingly dry and uninspired. Both guys did heel spots, neither of them showed any fire, and they were going through their stuff so robotically that it felt like watching a match simulated by a computer. Mochizuki worked over CIMAs legs, which of course ended up being meaningless. As with the above two matches, there was also plenty of outside interference and more silly buggers going on with a plastic case. The finishing run had 1 or 2 cool moments but my god. This went 13 minutes and felt like an hour.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Minoru Fujita, Michinoku Pro 6/18/2000

I loved both these guys in the 90s, but man this was rough. They botch 2 moves in the opening sequence and it seems Fujita got injured. What followed was Mochizuki dragging Fujita around the arena for what felt like 5 minutes, lazily kicking him in an attempt to give him time to recover. Fujita kept dragging himself through the match although obviously things were off rails and they seemed to didn‘t have many ideas. They did some pretty lazy submission work. Fujita didn‘t even do the Reverse Viper Hold. This felt 10 minutes too long.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Great Sasuke, Michinoku Pro 6/25/2000

Fun match. This was one of those Sasuke performances where he lets his opponent kick the shit out of him and takes a bunch of reckless bumps to put him over. There was no outside interference, but Mochizuki brought a ladder and the ref went down for like 5 minutes at one point so they could do the ladder spot. You are supposed to be a martial artist, Mochizuki, your hands and feet are lethal weapons, wtf do you need a ladder for? Mochizuki kicked hard and at one point unloaded a nasty fist right to Sasukes jaw. Kinda silly finish as Mochizuki hit a Dragon Suplex but pinned himself with an improper bridge. I guess the morale is karate guys shouldn‘t do suplexes.

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #12

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 1/13/1996 - EPIC

This is from the BattlARTS debut show and you can tell they went out there and went hart to get the crowd hooked on their product. Really great straight shootstyle match. Ono is slick on the mat and can land some big strikes, but he is so light Otsuka damn well will use him as a grappling dummy. Anytime Otsuka goes for a takedown or suplex attempt Ono has to stuff him or scramble for the ropes. The early grappling is so slick and technical, the kind of intricate shootstyle matwork that became a bit lighter as BattlARTS became a touring promotion, and it‘s great to watch. It builds to a more tricked out and epic second half than you‘d expect from an 8 minute undercard match, as Ono actually gets the first suplex dropping Otsuka on his head. From then on it‘s Ono wasting Otsuka with nasty kicks and knees and Otsuka desperately trying to get his throws in. Ono is so great here scrambling for chokes and trying to pop Otsukas legs with heel hooks, and when Otsuka gets to his bread and butter, he just tosses the shit out of Ono. Tremendous last couple minutes.

 

Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Alexander Otsuka & Tiger Mask IV, BattlARTS 10/18/1997 – FUN

Opening of this match wasn‘t quite as violent as you are used to from Team Taco, I‘m not super into TMIV shoehorning his pro style spots into a BattlARTS main event, although you had some fun rudo work from Ikeda and Ono. Lots of nasty thudding kicks, and Ono trying to unmask the Tiger before sinking in a choke was a pristine BattlARTS hybrid wrestling moment. It picked up when Otsuka started picking apart Ikedas leg which built to a nasty comeback where Ikeda tried cracking Otsukas jaw with a lariat before we get the Ono vs. Otsuka finishing run. It was a strong finishing run that had several neat moments such as Ono trying to take Otsukas head off with a flying knee and then hitting a nifty sliding leg kick, and of course Otsuka ragdolling Ono hard with suplexes. Still I was kinda hoping for a grandstand Ono/TMIV exchange since Ono had kept trying to unmask TMIV indicating some heat between the two, although what we got was high quality.

Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda (8/18/2001) - FUN

Only a 3 minute clip of an 8 minute match was shown, but what was shown looked predictably great. These guys had gotten really great with their transitions at this point, just one slick move after another, that plus BattlARTS level stiffness. Travesty we have so little of this stuff.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #10

 Takeshi Ono vs. White Moriyama, FUTEN 1/30/2011 - EPIC

I loved this, a real testament to the greatness of Ono. This was Moriyamas (initial) retirement and while he has never shown much, he was game to engage in a FUTEN level war. Normally you‘d associate retirement matches with feel good moments and the retiree getting their shit in, but that wasn‘t the case here as Ono was incredibly vicious throughout and just trying to turn Moriyama into a pulp. Just a super competitive match even outside the violence, really dug the opening grappling with Ono stuffing Moriyamas takedown attempts and doing some excellent guardwork. Onos relentlesness however may have been at its peak here as he caught Moriyama with a nasty stomp during a scramble in the ropes and then just demolished him with sick punches and kicks and ungodly knees. Ending run felt shockingly epic for a Moriyama match as he uncorked some gnarly head spiking suplexes while maintaining a sense of struggle, Moriyama getting a bloody nose and trying not to get punched out, refusing to die on his sword while getting his face perforated by Onos kicks etc. It works because of how bad Ono was stomping Moriyama earlier, that Moriyama reaching deep and trying to hang on actually feels epic. Strong contender for the greatest retirement match I've ever seen, and its all Ono.

Takeshi Ono & Junji.com vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Tiger Mask IV, BattlARTS 2/14/1999 - FUN

Fun match which may have been BattlARTS hybrid style at its most experimental. These guys were going back and forth from working lucharesu exchanges to shootstyle mat scrambles. Hidaka and Tiger Mask IV tore it up. Ono looked great too, but he spent too much time on the apron. When he was in the ring he went from kicking and punching people really hard, to working cool submissions, to stooging like an expert rudo. Junji was in most of the time and he is the weakest guy in the match, although still decent when he wasn’t hitting sloppy dropkicks. Cool match which felt hard fought, but I wanted more Ono content.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. junji.com & Ricky Banderas, BattlARTS 4/26/1999 - FUN

We only got about 5 minutes of this, which is too bad because it looked like a really good match. Junji cleaning house was fun, and Orihara and Ono are real fuckers beating the piss out of him. Banderas seems really out of place in this but does fine dropping some bombs. Finish is spectacular with Ono hitting a spider german, Orihara moonsaulting over him before Ono dives outside and Orihara gets the win with an abdominal stretch of all things. Tonpachi Machine Guns rule, man.

 

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

WMF 8/28/2002

WMF was Hayabusas promotion after FMW folded. I wonder why it's not talked about more, since a promotion with lots of cool juniors, sleazy ex-FMW guys and centered around Mammoth Sasaki as heavyweight star sounds  badass, so it's time to find out by watching some shows.

Ricky Fuji vs. Curry Man vs. Seiji Ikeda

I am normally opposed to 3 way matches, however this ended up short and fun enough to be inoffensive. Seiji Ikeda was doing a super fanboy gimmick and was mostly bystanding trying to snatch fotos and autographs from the wrestlers which was pretty amusing and protected the match from the typical nonsense of 3 way matches.

Kaori Nakayama vs. Miss Mongol

We only get about 80 seconds of this as they JIP straight to the bomb throwing section of the match. Suplexes were nice, but they ended the match on a kind of crummy looking unprettier.

Flying Kid Ichihara vs. Soldier

We once again JIP to both these guy hitting their spots. This is a 2 hour show, what's with all the matches being clipped? Nothing here stood out, but I kind of dug Soldier who felt like a junior very influenced by WWF style wrestling. And Flying Kid Ichihara is a legend.

Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV & Dragon Kid vs Onryo & Goemon & Darkness Dragon

Really fun match which had juniors from Michinoku Pro, FMW and Dragon Gate mixing it up. These guys aren't used to eachother so they were working a more solid, less intricate match, but it was good and everyone brought something worthwhile to the table. There were also several huge dives and Dragon Kid looked good hitting all his freaky stuff. I also liked the spot Dragon unmasked himself in an Eddie Guerrero style attempt to get Kid DQ'd. The next moment they both unmasked eachother and were forced to wear their opponents hood. This kind of stuff won't win you workrate awards but it's what keeps the love for pro wrestling flowing. Sasuke looked sharp, TMIV hit some stiff blows and GOEMON & Onryo looked like good bases as well with Onryo hitting particularily huge bumps and dives. FEAR THE ONRYO CLUTCH! 

Mr. Gannosuke & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Hisakatsu Oya & Tetsuhiro Kuroda

Most of this was these guys doing their stuff, but everyone had their working boots on so it ended up fun. Well, everyone except Kuroda, who should've been quarantined to undercard comedy tags the second he first decided to make a scene around smashing his opponents leg into the buckle. I dug Oya in this, who has such a cool sleazy grappling pseudomaster vibe. This ended up being merely an excuse for a Matsunaga run in, who came in with a barbedwire bat, then gave GOEMON a high five and stared down Hayabusa in his wheelchair. I wanted a bit more out of this but ended up being reminded of how badass Mr. Danger is.

Mammoth Sasaki vs. Garuda

Unexpectedly great indy main event. It's pretty cool to see two underexposed guys who can work step up and deliver their idea of a big match. Both guys were bumping big to get this match over, not just taking big dangerous bumps, but also bumping big for basic moves like a shoulder block. Garuda looked like he just got hit by a truck during the opening exchange and the crowd response underlines that. Meanwhile Sasaki was flying around to put Garudas dropkicks over. Between the big slams and flying they were working a pretty solid groundbased match. Mammoth has really good looking basics, really awesome body slam, huge leg drop, kicking Garuda in the spine between moves etc, while Garuda actually looked like the legit succesor to Hayabusa, hitting thudding kicks, cool submissions and flying around. The finishing stretch was probably better than the stuff many bigger name workers would do that decade. While they did a lot of big moves, there were some really cool cut offs, everything was built to, and they had people believing in a powerslam or schoolboy. Loved Mammoth powering out of a backslide too. The only sour thing about this match is the clipping which was really unnecessary on a TV show that had a 2 hour timeslot. 

 

THE LIBRARY

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

 

2002 MOTY List Update #1

Ikuto Hidaka & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tiger Mask IV & Kazuya Yuasa (Michinoku Pro 2/3/2002)

Tomohiro Ishii comes out in full on Dick Togo worship gear. Amazing. This was a shockingly great indy tag with all 4 guys smacking eachother hard while working complex spots and cutoffs. We get lots of fun heel tactics from Rudo Hidaka and Ishii which was interesting to see these two go back and forth between throwing hard shots and working Stunning Steve Austin/Fuerza Guerrera heel spots. Hidaka likes slapping his thigh but he really does paste guys with his kicks. This was one of the greater Tiger Mask IV performances I've seen too as he looked like a graceful technico while also spin kicking dudes really really hard. Him almost crushing Hidakas ribs with a massive kneedrop and Hidaka coming up bloody was a pretty epic moment. All their brief showdowns really made me want to see a singles match between the two which is not something I would've said from watching their BattlARTS material. Kazuya Yuasa is the future GAINA and he works like a WAR rookie here, hitting as hard as he possibly can on his dropkicks and lariats and hitting awesome bulldogs and elbow drops. He survives a ton of punishment and it builds to him and Ishii trying to crack eachothers jaws with lariats. The finishing run wasn't as brilliantly tricked out as the body of the match but what the hell... it's a great little discovery.

 Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga & KENTA vs. Akira Taue & Daisuke Ikeda & Bison Smith (NOAH 11/17/2002)

Borderline great NOAH 6 man action. Really fun opening, BURNING try isolating Taue only to eat a bunch of boots to the face and Taue ends up teasing the apron chokeslam on Kobashi with Ikeda helping him. We get some brief exchanges where you can't tell what the layout is going to be and then Taue takes out Kobashi with the big chokeslam on the floor anyways. In 1995 this probably would barely phase Kobashi but in 2002 this takes him out for a long time and we get a long heat segment with KENTA taking a huge beating while Shiga desperately tries to save him. That they were able to get serious heat for something like a Sleeper Hold in Differ Ariake speaks volumes about they excellent job the rudos did here. Ikeda was in top form, hitting hard, constantly running in to cheap shot dudes and almost knocking KENTA out with high kicks and spin kicks. Kobashi ends up coming back altough looks badly wounded. We get a really fun finishing run with Ikeda laying into Kobashi, doing a great job selling a big suplex, Shiga busting out his awesome submissions. Bison manhandling the little dudes etc. Great postmatch too, Taue rules.

Tamon Honda vs. Takashi Sugiura (NOAH 11/17/2002)

One year after their first match, Sugiura looks much more rugged. Can he take down Honda now? He can't, but here's another really fun match. Plenty of grappling, and that is a good thing because Honda rules so much on the mat. His cradles, takeovers etc. are so much cooler than your average UWF matwork. His super tight headlocks etc. also help emphasize how much it must suck to wrestle this guy and they also have significance, he might just lock in a basic front headlock then yank the guy over and crank his neck. Sugiura brings a lot more to the table in this match. Not outstanding and he does look a little awkward at times but he is a fun dance partner for Honda. The finish was pretty fun and unpredictable even if you've seen a lot of Honda as he wasn't doing his usual finishers (yet?) and instead some more experimental things.

Sumie Sakai vs. Megumi Yabushita (JD 1/20/2002)

This match was like a joshi version of Atlantis/Blue Panther. Just what the hell was going on with these two girls? I'll just assume that this is how Jaguar Yokota taught them wrestling is supposed to be like. Just a straight up grappling match with a ton of legit ability in both workers and a strange lucha influence to keep it sweet and graceful. I swear to good some of the sequences here wouldn't look out of place in a 1991 CMLL title match. At one point, Sakai floated into a flying headscissor, which turned into a standing choke, that Yabushita then countered into an ankle pick. Really unlike anything I've seen in a wrestling match before. Same for Sakai's strange huracanrana where she slipped underneath almost as if pulling guard and then gracefully rolled into a pin. That kind of stuff could look cute and contrived, but they had their timing down pat and the rhythm was just right, moving from matwork, to sparringly used rope usage, to hellish suplex moves. Yabushita again went for the arm like a bat out of judo hell, and the selling was top, adding just the right kind of fatigue and desperatin. Some of Yabushita's armlocks were straight out of Negro Navarro's book. Really I've no idea what was going on with these two to have a match like this in a dying promotion. I guess it's just a thing between two workers who trained together and just did the kind of bout they enjoyed.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST