Over the Future 4: Kotaru Nasus Return Match 3/6/2022

 Raito Shimizu vs. Super Macho Monkey

I've enjoyed these two before. I was hoping they would do a quasi shootstyle match since that is where Monkey seems most comfortable, but they just kind of did a very basic undercard indy match. I would've liked this with some matwork, I still enjoy Shimizu doing his thing, any guy with a nice gutwrench suplex and torture rack is on my good side in 2022, but Monkey isn't that kind of pro wrestler yet.

Keisuke Goto vs. Gabai-jichan

I was hoping to see Goto do more serious stuff after his CAPTURE outing, but he is stuck with Gabai-jichan here. Gabai-jichan is doing an old man with a walking cane gmmick. Amazing how much silly shit you can do with a walking cane in a wrestling match, but the joke gets old fast. I would've preferred them to run Goto vs. Shimizu instead and put Monkey in the skippable match.

Rikiya Fudo vs. Daisaku Shimoda

Fudo is must watch in 2022 as far as I'm concerned simply for working every match in insanely violent fashion. And Shimoda is his twin brother. This was pretty much the sleazier 2022 version of a WAR heavyweight match, two lumpy dudes cracking each other with really violent shots. Once again Fudos ground attacks were brutal as hell, just chest crushing elbow drops and splashes. The pace was slow and both these guys are clearly really beaten up but they had their working boots on. I like how they never resorted to stupid I hit you-you hit me stuff but also kept cracking each other. The missed vader hammer into backslide was also a surprisingly nice spot. The ending was just them standing on the floor stubbornly cracking each other while the ref counted them out and you have to respect this kind of brotherly rivalry. I enjoyed this a lot.

2/3 Falls: Manabu Hara & Hayato Mashita vs. Kotaru Nasu & Tatsuhito Takaiwa

Takaiwa is almost 50 and still doing these kind of hard hitting matches, god bless him. This was a lot of fun, had a good pace and everyone was hitting hard. I wanted some shootstyle exchanges but you can't have it all I guess. Still really enjoyed all these guys kicking the snot out of each other. Hara is ever solid, and Nasu and Mashita looked pretty decent too for two guys who never impressed me much in their youth, but they are older and lumpier now and really lay in their kicks. 2/3 falls rule made for some fun psychology and in-peril sections. Someone really needs to restart BattlARTS and consistently book all these indy shooters so they can find their groove again and do matches like this on the regular.

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.

Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

2/3 Falls: GENTARO vs. Masamune, VKF 9/23/2008

Borderline modern classic where they go balls deep going 60 minutes, and succeed. Who knew GENTARO would be the modern day Jack Briscoe having all these 60 minute epics? This starts with both guys doing some fun matwork before they settle into the main groove of the match: both guys doing gruelling body part work and struggling over basic holds. Gentaro starts the fun by working over Masamunes arm and Masamune defends himself by cinching tight headlocks and working his neck. Gentaro kept trying to force a tap with armbars while some of Masamunes holds damn near seemed to pull his head off so the work never got stale. They end the first fall on a cool note and then settle into doing some dueling legwork. The transition from armwork/neckwork into the legwork was pretty impeccable as they didn‘t just move on to do another thing, there was a logical shift in necessary strategies. Duelling legwork was also pretty intense and bordered on a Destroyer classic. Gentaro sunk in some Figure 4s and there was a great moment where Masamune countered one of them by grabbing Gentaros leg and trying to twist it off. There‘s also some absolutely stellar work around Gentaros Sharpshooter. I was expecting them to keep grinding it out on the mat, but they settle into a cool finishing run with some great pin attempts, nearfalls and choice counters, while keeping the focus on the leg stuff. Last move was just a thing of beauty. Yes this was slow and a bit repetitive in parts, but both guys did a phenomenal job struggling in and out of holds, and it all felt spontanteous. Really a gem of a match, if you are the kind of purist who can get into a cool 40 minutes of brainy duelling limbwork.

 

DAISAKU & YUSAKU & Naoshi Sano & YOSHIYA & Ishinriki vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Hirofumi Miura & Shinigami & Fukumentaro & Shigeo Kato, NMC Pro 10/21/2001

Fun sleazy brawl with zombies, karatekas and wrestlers brawling all over the building, bleeding, and taking mean bumps. There is a car at ring side and a good chunk of time is spent with guys taking nasty bumps into the car. Sano was quite the whipping boy here, taking a fisherman buster on top of the car, and another one on top of a truck, before getting carved open with a hatchet. These guys all have no problem working stiff and throwing big suplexes so the non brawling portions were cool too although the match suffered a bit from having only one camera.

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.

Koki Kitahara Documentation #3

 Koki Kitahara & Johta vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima & Masayuki Mineno  (CAPTURE 12/8/2002) - GREAT

Exactly what Capture promises, 4 guys just beating eachother silly in savage ways. The Mineno/Johta sections were really fun with both guys throwing fast hands and kicks, all ultra stiff of course. Then you had the heavyweights – both Kitahara and Kurashima looked like they were twice the size of either Johta or Mineno – bullying the little guys around. Kurashima is a MUGA boy and he mostly sticks to matwork here, altough he does punish opponents with some brutal throws and inventive submissions. At one point he did a Backlund lift from an armbar into almost a One Winged Angel. Kitahara was an absolute bastard once again, stomping on Minenos face and sucker punching him from behind. Match is really good shootstyle in parts but starts breaking down into chaos towards the end with the referee losing control over who is legal and who isn't, so you would get Kurashima tackling Kitahara while Mineno would try to kick him in the face. Still this is what Capture promise and each fall had a great finish.

Koki Kitahara vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima  (CAPTURE 3/8/2003) - GREAT

Nifty little battle considering Kitahara is Sayama trained and a Tenryu disciple while Kurashima is one of Fujinamis MUGA boys. Kurashima is naturally at home on the mat and Kitahara is actually willing to work the mat against him. However Kitahara has the advantage because he is a bastard. Kitahara brutally kicks him in the jaw while exchanging leglocks and follows with more boots to the face. Kurashima makes some desperation takedown attempts until Kitahara catches (captures) him for the tap. 

 Koki Kitahara vs. Daiyu Kawauchi (CAPTURE 3/8/2003) - EPIC

Really gritty violent streetfight, the kind of mix of shootstyle and back alley fight that you don't get anywhere else except maybe FUTEN. Kawauchi was more aggressive and overzealous here so Kitahara just absolutely beat his ass in between taunting him. I've learned that in CAPTURE, each wrestler only has 3 guardrail breaks so the submissions feel much more meaningful. The finish is just a slaughter a suplex on that thin mat that just feels nuts. Good stuff that the fans got really into and I hope this isn't the last I see of Capture International. 

Koki Kitahara & YUSAKU vs. Tomohiro Ishii & DAISAKU (Capture 5/30/2000) - EPIC

Oh but this match is a goodie. You have Tomohiro Ishii pre-Choshuism and CAPTURE boy since the beginning, aswell as the unseen should-have-been-a-star DAISAKU (Shimoda) and his twin brother YUSAKU (Shimoda and half a dozen other names) rocking the gloves and ready to throw down. I'll never understand what motivates these indy guys to get punched in the face in a basement in front of 70 people but I'll always enjoy watching. This goes about 6 minutes and it's basically all 4 guys kicking the crap out of eachother. Really liked the lumpy boys who like to kick hard sections between Ishii and YUSAKU and the attempted fraticide between YUSAKU and DAISAKU was pretty brutal aswell. Daisaku has some huge kicks and thai knees while Yusaku sticks to more traditional pro wrestling stuff punches and knees stuff executed with a CAPTURE sized vicious streak. Also really liked Ishii in his Kawada wannabe tights flying at Kitahara with huge kicks. And Kitahara is just a major asskicker spinkicking dudes in the face here. By no means is this intelligent or well rounded pro wrestling, it's arguably shootstyle in it's most primitive form, and that's why I love it and want to see every single match in this style ever done. So Kitahara if you're reading this there's someone who cares, and Kitahara's neighbours if you are reading this please break into his garage and steal all his VHS tapes for us and don't get spin kicked in the face doing that.

 KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST