Underground Wrestling EXIT 1/29/2012

Fugofugo Yumeji vs. MASAKI

I think MASAKI is a Nightmare guy or something. At least I recall seeing his name on those shows 10 years earlier. Weird how these guys keep popping in and out of random scum indies over the years. Masaki has nice kicks and knees and is not afraid to get slapped in the face hard, and this starts out as pretty decent BattlARTS scrap on a paper tin mat placed on a wooden floor. Soon enough Fugo cranks up the violence to Kurisu-ish levels by hitting some pretty crazy stomps and kicks to MASAKIs head. Masaki doesn‘t give up yet but is soon toast as Yumeji cracks his head open with an ungodly headbutt. Pretty short, primitive and fun.

Nyudo vs. Ghost Face

Ghost Face is a masked guy who looks really buff and kind of old, like he is an undercarder from the 90s, maybe Rikio Ito. This was pretty basic rookie punishment stuff, Nyudo throws forearms and the big guy blows him off etc. Standard staff made a little rougher by the EXIT setting since that mat really seems to provide almost no protection.

Keita Yano & THE KABUKI vs. Kikujiro Umezawa & Kenji Takeshima

Yano was a workhorse in this, hitting the mat with Takeshima and bumping his ass off on that thin mat. He even seemed to be doing a Mighty Inoue tribute act, perhaps inspired by him teaming with the son of the Great Kabuki. Yano does an airplane spin and some flip sentons. The first Umezawa vs. Kabuki Jr. section was great, they start by basically ramming into each other and do a bunch of uncooperative looking grappling. Still I wanted BUKI to do some neck chops and superkicks, but he just didn‘t tag in again for some reason. Still Umezawa is super gritty in this environment and Keita was well worth watching.

 

The Library

The Call of the Underground #1

 Fugofugo Yumeji & BUKI vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Johta, EXIT 7/14/2018

Now this… this is a damn MATCHUP!! Fugofugo going toe to toe with Ishikawa is a weird fever dream of this blog… and in this match, holy fuck they go toe to toe! Everything you can ask for from a match in a tiny ring with chains instead of ropes held in a Tokyo merch store. You get Fugofugo and Ishikawa brutalizing each other (including Fugo almost shattering Yukis face with pretty much the most god awful headbutt in the history of the world EVER), but you also get plenty of neat Ishikawa matwork. BUKI and Johta are really fun complementing characters, BUKIs super stiff mini Great Kabuki act is so cool, and while Johta was slower compared to his CAPTURE days he was willing to hit and get hit which is all I ask for. This went +20 minutes and had a really nice ebb and flow structure to it. The finish was between BUKI and Johta and while maybe that wasn‘t the epic Fugo/Ishikawa showdown you hoped for it was primitve and violent. Besides both the old guys were probably on the verge of brain damage at this point. Really extremely well done stiff quasi-shootstyle brawl, felt like one of the better Japanese tags of the 2010s.

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

Fugofugo Yumeji & BUKI vs. Kikujiro Umezawa & Martn Pain, EXIT ?/???? (probably 2013)

EXIT is Fugofugos fed. It's kind of like an even sleazier CAPTURE. And well, this match was fucking insane! Kikujiro Umezawa never stood out to me much before, but holy hell he was a killer here. Working like a WAR heavyweight, doing cool sumo spots, and just working insanely stiff. Whenever he and Fugofugo matched up it felt like someone was about to die. Insane headbutts and lariats. Fugo even busts out some crazy kicks including an abisegiri right to Umezawas head. Even Umezawas big splash landed in a brutal way. BUKI also looked good - a mini Great Kabuki with ultra stiff neck chops and trust kicks is something else. At one point he landed a thrust kick to Umezawa where Umezawa ran into it in a way like he didn't expect to eat a thrust kick. Martn Pain is an Austrian guy and doesn't stand out much, but he ate some stiff shots and didn't get in the way much. Still, holy fuck this makes me want to get all of Fugo and Umezawas back catalogue.

Daichi vs. Yousei Estrella, Llave Libre Workshop ?/2017

This match was „Llave Libre“ style, a style created by Japanese indy luchadore Jiraya, which is basically shootstyle grappling meets lucha matwork. Think if Negro Navarro gave the U-Style roster a training session. There is also a weird points system and rounds. Pretty fun to look at two grapplers scrambling in and out of crazy lucha submissions. Some insanely tight submissions here, and the scrambles and avoiding the dreaded 5 count where really fun. Wouldn‘t mind seeing more Llave Libre.

Yasushi Sato vs. Hakaru Imai, Jishidan 11/27/2016

Some may remember Hakaru Imai as HYOMA or Plug Imai. He‘s a scum indy guy how tried to come up in BJW sometime in the 2000s. He looked a lot fatter, and balder here, but he was game to go at it with Yasushi Sato. This was a weird rules match – the first fall had 3 count rules, the second 2 count, and the 3rd one counts. This was a Yasushi Sato signature match with lots of matwork and some great psychology. For a fat old guy, Hyoma was pretty fun hitting some fast takedowns early on for a fat old dude. Sato was quite vicious, dropping a nasty knee on Imais ankle as well as trying to scratch his head open. Aside from the grappling both guys also laid into each other with some stiffer than usual strikes. As usual with Sato matches, there was an excellent build to his russian legsweeps. Lord knows that man puts the entire industry to shame with how he makes the most basic move interesting. Second fall was really great as Imai was down 1-0 and all Sato needed was another legsweep to get the fall. Imai to his credit made a great comeback. His fat man moonsault ruled. 3Rd fall was tricky with the one count rules and once again had some great moments centered around the russian leg sweep. Also dug the backslide spots. Not sure if the ref bump was needed but it was funny. Another inexplicably great Sato match in front of a tiny audience.