2025 Wrestling Week 11

 Hanako Nakamori & Leon vs Crea & Moeka Haruhi, Pure-J 3/9

Really good go-go tag with lots of quality exchanges throughout. Everyone here is really fun to watch. Nakamori still has vicious kicks, Crea is a really fun energetic enforcer booting people in the face, and Leon hasn't lost anything in all these years. I wasn't familiar with Haruhi but she was pretty cool too, she had some really violent double stomps and cool ways to stretch opponents. They bust out some bigger spots than you'd expect from a dojo show and the finish is a damn finish. Real quality stuff, just all 4 of them going hard and it was really cool.

Chon Shiryu & Leon vs Mei Suruga & Baliyan Akki, Choco Pro 2/2/225

This was a MOVEZ~ match but it was a pretty fun one. Shiryu is still really awesome and can bust out awesome exchanges and nifty things like no tomorrow. Enjoyed Leon a lot as always, her team with Shiryu is really random but they have some cool moments together. The cutesy act of Akki and Suruga isn't for me, but they also did some cool stuff especially Suruga. The finish was really cool as the constant double team assisted moves blew back up in their face and it was the kind of nifty touch Shiryu is so damn good at pulling off.

Yuta Oya & Ali Najima vs Konaka & Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 2/26

Another week, another quality match from Sportiva. These 4 guys are some of my favourites in the world to watch so it's really nice to see them all square off in a tag match. First half is really solid, we get to see Konaka grappling with Najima which is always cool, while Najimas skillset is stil basic he will only get better wrestling guys like Konaka on the regular. I like how Shinya Ishida is always a total dick to Oya, fully taking advantage of his blindness to attack him. The 2nd half is really really good - I don't know what got into them, but Ishida suddenly starts wrestling like Yasushi Sato and busting out a bunch of awesome Russian Leg Sweep variations, even a cool Russian Leg Sweep into a submission hold. Konaka would join he madness with some Russian Leg Sweeps of his own and even a Russian Leg Sweep into a pin. Both these guys wrestled Sato a lot, and sadly I don't think we have any of the Sato vs Ishida and only a few Sato vs Konaka matches, but if that was not a distant homage to the Russian Leg Sweep god then I don't know. Some really nifty counters in this, especially those around Oyas signature sidewalk slam and harai goshi. Those are two cool moves to build nifty counters around. Really cool, really unique stuff that would absolutely recommend everyone to check out, don't sleep on this just because it happens in a tiny sportsbar, it's easily some of the best wrestling around.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

2025 Wrestling Week 10

 Crea vs AKARI, Pure-J 3/2

Never seen these two before, based on this they are pretty cool. Lots of slick transitions and submissions here, especially from AKARI who seems like a really cool wrestler. Creas offense was more straight forward and punishing, lots of boots to the face, I dug her, she also had a really cool wristlock suplex. The pace and energy here is really good for a mid card match. I didn't like some of the no selling, I think that is unnecessary for a match in the middle of the card, but the finish was pretty nice.


Rydeen Hagane vs Crea, Pure-J 2/2

Really good title match, nice to see that Pure-J is still putting on the real thing. Basically Rydeen Hagane is a big monster and Crea comes at her with all her might. Thought Crea looked really good here, her stiff elbows and boots looked great, and those almost-deadweight suplex on her much bigger opponent were damn impressive. I cared more about that build to a basic German Suplex than pretty much anything in any other joshi big match I've seen so far. Hagane is a credible monster, this is mostly the Crea show but Hagane just nuked her at the end. I didn't like the superkicks, that move is just overused to death, but it's a minor complaint since everything else was good.

Oleg Boltin vs Konosuke Takeshita, NJPW 2/11

Boltin is this beastly Kazakh wrestler. I made the mistake of assuming that he would be like a soviet shooter in  New Japan, but this isn't 1989 anymore and he just wrestles a more generic style with some power spots thrown in, like 2002 Brock Lesnar. This was a bit like something that could be a Smackdown! main event. Boltin knocks him down with a shoulderblock and then Takeshita soon works his arm for a bit to slow him down. Boltins arm hurts so he can't hit all his crazy throws, then his arm doesn't hurt and he hits all his crazy throws. They go into this really trite elbow exchange and some more. There's some fun to be had here with Boltin manhandling Takeshita in riduculous ways. Takeshita is solid but never seems to leave a huge impression on me. His elbows looked off. He's not as good as Crea when it comes to fighting a monster. I think Boltin vs 2006 Fit Finlay would be awesome.

2025 Wrestling Roundup