Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

GENTARO vs. Takaku Fuke, VKF 3/12/2009

GENTARO was on a roll doing weirdo lengthy Bret Hart infused MUGA matches during this time period. Fuke has looked pretty weak post U-STYLE, but he was good here. This was a smartly laid out 2/3 falls match. The first fall had some cool scrambling with GENTARO grappling the shooter in a very pro style manner but doing everything in a snug fashion before Fuke casually taps him with an achilles hold. That hold has to be the most basic of all but GENTARO does a great job putting it over like death. The rest of the match is built around GENTARO trying to take out Fukes leg – including hitting some great chop blocks and the obligatory Turnbuckle Figure 4 with Fuke trying to grab shootstyle holds which GENTARO sells like death. There is a great build to the figure 4 including Fuke busting out some killer reversals. Last couple minutes were pretty great with Fuke trying to KO him and GENTARO desperately trying to grab the leg. The match reminded me a bit of those recent NJPW big matches built around limb work except this was about 40 minutes shorter so less bloated and neither guy looked silly at any point

Billy Scott vs. Daijiro Matsui (KINGDOM 6/20/1997)

Matsui could have had a pretty decent run as a shootstylist judging on his performance here. This was a total grappling sprint, both guys doing some high end slick mat wrestling getting in and out of holds. There was one moment where Scott landed a punch that bloodied Matsuis eye in nasty fashion, but other than that it was all grappling. Scott hit a pretty great belly to belly at one point. Loved Matsui selling the finish, too.

Masao Orihara vs. Original Tiger Mask (RJPW 9/26/2005)

Pretty great match which has to go down as one of Oriharas finest performances ever. The match went 30 minutes, but it was laid out in such a way that Tiger wasn’t required to do any selling, and Tiger didn’t gas out (or at least not in a way that hurt the match), so it worked. So you have Tiger doing all his cool fatman flying and spin kicks and Orihara making scuzzy comebacks, using chairs and taking a big beating. The last 10 minutes ruled as Orihara got his shoulder demolished with kicks and joint popping armlocks but refused to quit and made all these awesome comebacks while getting further demolished by Tigers kicks. When the time limit runs out it feels like a victory for Orihara for gutting it out and lasting against a technically superior opponent. It was a really cool piece of pro wrestling storytelling that felt closer to a real sport than any workratefest and way better than any braindead nearfallfest that usually caps off long matches like these.

U-DREAMS 1st Impact 11/12/1998

 I think this was also the only impact of this short lived organization.

Tomoharu Fuse vs. Mark Johnson

More Fuse content, baby. This was a cool opening match. No clue who Mark Johnson is (apparently  have been several MMA fighters named Mark Johnson), but he was good. He had good strikes, and carried the opening section with his cool throws and grappling. Fuse was along for the ride until he got full mount and started raining down punches on Johnon. He really turned it up after being outgrappled the whole time which is exactly what an outmatched fighter would do in that situation. One near KO later and what followed was a cool little run of false finishes including Fuse grapping a really cool spinning leglock. Wish we had gotten more shootstyle with MMA gloves because they utilized them well here.

Hidetada Irie vs. Tsunehito Naito

Naito is my boy, but future KINGDOM EHRGEIZ boss Irie completely squashes him here. Irie hit one or two cool kicks but his punches from mount where extremely lacking and there was no need for him to lazily dominate Naito for 3 minutes straight. It’s shootstyle, kick up the pace or at least brutally potatoe your opponent.

Tatsuo Nakano vs. Tom Burton

This was two tubby mulleted guys with sleazy mustaches basically beating on each other in a phone booth. I won’t pretend there was any genius wrestling going on here but I enjoyed watching these guys do some low distance fighting. Burton should’ve faced Ian Rotten at some point so we could know who the quintessential redneck shooter is.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Billy Scott

Getting to see Fujiwara do a faux PRIDE match is cool because it makes him do some fighting stance and striking work that you normally don’t see him to in typical UWF type matches. And Billy Scott is a really good grappler with fast movements and good tenacity that he matches up very well against Fujiwara. This went 5 minutes and really should have gone longer.

Enson Inoue vs. John Calvo

Two bulky guys tangling on the mat and punching each other for 2 minutes. Punches looked good although there is really no reason to run these kind of pro wrestling matches when real MMA is a thing.

Yoji Anjoh vs. Nicholas Starks

Anjos singlet with sparkly belt getup is just amazing. This ended up being another 2 minute squash. Anjoh just completely eats this poor guy up. Weird booking on this show, as you had a 16 minute opening match leading to a 2 minute main event. Maybe they were building to an epic Yoji Anjo vs. Tomoharu Fuse match on the next show before sponsors backed out or something.

 

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KINGDOM EHRGEIZ No Name Hero II 9/2/2000

Hidetada Irie vs. Tomoharu Fuse

Tomoharu Fuse has 2 matches listed on genickbruch, and somehow he has his own gym and was part of another hyper obscure promotion called FWF. This was straight shootstyle and acceptable. They worked stiff and I liked fuses cartwheel into a leglock. Fuse seemed kind of disinterested in the match, maybe because he was losing in 5 minutes. Camera angle on the last submission hold was bad. After the match, Irie (who is running this show) cuts a crying promo. First match on the card and you’re already this emotional, buddy? Maybe it was because few people came to the event.

Kendo Nagasaki vs. Tsunehito Naito

I love Kendo Nagasaki doing shootstyle matwork. Unfortunately, putting him against sleaze shooter Naito was a major size mismatch. This ended up being a 30 second squash as basically Nagasaki does a slow set up to a single leg crab to get the tap. It was a really cool set up but Tsunehito Naito deserved better.

Osamu Tachihikari vs. Billy Scott

OSAMU~! This show brings out all the cool kids. This was surprisingly good as Osamu works like an invincible badass that is hard to take down. He throws Scott around some and hits some cool open palm strikes before Scott is able to sink in a flash submission for the tap. Quite possibly the best Tachihikari singles I’ve seen.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo

Fujiwara tools Kotsubo a bunch. So, pretty much what you expect, right? Another squash? But Kotsubo is able to get a leglock. Fujiwara breaks, but comes up limping. Kotsubo gets another leglock and hangs onto it for dear life. Fujiwara is able to get out, but has to quit due to his leg being finished. Kotsubo going over his boss feels like the most unlikely thing to happen, so the ending here ended up being a little surreal although it was well done.

Tatsuo Nakano vs. Shinichi Takada

This Takada is also known as Bungee Takada. He would also show up in illustrious promotions like CROWN and Guts World. That is more information than this match contains, because Nakano Kos Takada in under 10 seconds with a high kick.

Osamu Arai vs. Hidetada Irie

For unknown reasons Nagasaki doesn’t show up again and instead we get Arai, a blue haired tubby guy rocking the kickpads. I liked the stiff blows both guys threw but this was sleep inducingly boring otherwise.

Billy Scott vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo

Kotsubo just got the biggest win of his career taking Fujiwara out of the tournament. Will he use this momentum and establish himself as the new shootstyle hotness? No. No he will not. This was good old Kotsubo just hitting ankle pick takedowns that go nowhere. Scott is really good though does some cool grappling. Stay classy, Kotsubo.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Takehiro Murahama - GREAT  

Toba actually doesn't wear gloves in this, but he does fine without them. This was basically two guys with great looking strikes tagging each other. Toba even does some grappling and throws some great looking knees but Murahama was on the heels of his Osaka Pro megapush and just overwhelms him with kicks and suplexes including including a pretty great spinkick that almost shattered Tobas face. Gnarly finish.

Billy Scott vs. Hidetada Irie

Irie has been kind of useless so far, but Scott is really good and gets a strong match out of him. Quality grappling exchanges and a sense that something was at stake here. Both guys were wearing gloves here which always makes things a little more frantic. The highlight was easily the desperation rolling kicks as well as Scott dropping Irie on his head and then almost ripping him in half with a nasty leg split. Irie came across as a giant mark booking himself to win the “UWF Heavyweight Title” and being overly dramatic in this match.

 

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TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST 

JPWA 4/14/2000

 

1. Billy Scott vs. Mamoru Okamoto

2. Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Tom Burton

3. Retsu Maekawa vs. James Woodin

4. Kohei Sato vs. KC Geyer (KC Thunder)

5. Koichiro Kimura vs. Shawn Hernandez (Hotstuff Hernandez)

 

The card looks interesting, but unfortunately, they clipped all the matches. Quite unecessesarily, because most of these were around the 7 minute mark except the main event and opener. Billy Scott looked quite good in the first match, doing some nifty wrestling, and his opponent, former BattlARTS undercarder Okamoto bringing the punishment. The 2nd match was wrestler vs. judoka that looked fun from the glimpses. Tom Burton looked old as dirt, but still like a credible asskicker, so it's obvious that I love him. Maekawa/Woodin was barely shown. Woodin had funny bleach blond hair and was not in great shape, so kinda looked like a garbage worker. Sato/KC looked like a fun power vs. skill matchup, with Sato looking especially good, and KC (a huge musclehead) looking nervous.

 

Then the main event - this was 28 minutes clipped down to 17 minutes. And Shawn Hernandez is Hotstuff Hernandez in a singlet, looking like an absolute tank. This match was a match of two sides - 1. Hernandez was absolutely killing Kimura for the entire duration, launching him around with some of the most beastly throws I've ever seen and exploding his nose with a stiff palm strike. 2. the absolute stupidity of putting Kimura, a guy who's not all that good, and Hernandez, a guy with very little experience especially not at shootstyle wrestling in a match this long. Hernandez didn't seem to know any submissions, Kimura added very little, and for some reason they did not allow rope breaks at this show, so even with the clipping, a lot of this was two guys lying on the mat, one of them being very unsure. Thankfully, Tom Burton was at ringside to tell Hernandez what to do step by step: "Take the ankle! Good, now slap him once!" Now that's a veteran, carrying a green guy when he's not even in the match! God bless you, Tom Burton. Fujiwara also was at ringside, and at one point was convinced Hernandez was throwing fists, so he took offense and took his jacket off, ready to go at him. So, Fujiwara and Tom Burton did more to add to this match than Kimura. Kimura eventually got to pick up the win after he KO'd Shawn with a lucky kick after absolutely getting his shit pushed in for 28 minutes, and admittedly this got a pretty excited reaction from the crowd. So I guess the match did work after all! Kinda funny to watch, and makes you wonder if with a little more help from Tom Burton Hernandez could turn into the next Shamrock or a great tag partner for Lesnar.

 

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