Assorted 19 O Clock Girls Pro Wrestling

 Chii Tomiya vs Makoto, Ice Ribbon 12/10/2010

This is from the 19 O’Clock Girls Pro Wrestling era. Basically Ice Ribbon just livestreamed dojo matches every week. This was way way better than you’d expect a match like that to be, as they basically went all out to have a great 10 minute TV match with no audience. Starts out very good with both of them showing some slick mat wrestling. Tomiya has really fast ankle picking takedowns and Makoto also looked good exchanging holds and making fancy escapes. It’s just really solid, targetted wrestling with purpose. I always like when every move has a follow up, i.e. Makoto would target Tomiyas back further after locking in a boston crab. Cool transition where Makoto tries to do further damage to Tomiya outside of the ring, but Tomiya is able to hit a Dudley Dog into a chair. Tomiya then climbs onto a poll and hits a diving stomp to Makotos mid-section. Tomiya proceeded to further attack the mid section, with an angry Makoto in turn attacking her mid-section too in retaliation. Finishing run had some really awesome rewindworthy submissions and pin counters with both of them really sinking deep into Fujiwara armbars. There were cool transitions, unique spins on more standard move, good pace, believable offense from both of them. Great intro to the world of 19 O Clock Girls Pro Wrestling.

Nanae Takahashi vs Sayaka Obihiro, Ice Ribbon 12/10/2010

Yeah, another really good 10 minute match. By far the best I’ve seen Obihiro look – not that I’ve seen a ton of Obihiro. From what I know, she’s seemingly a comedy character in recent years, but she was fighting hard here. Starts great with Obihiro stopping Takahashis onslaught by latching onto her leg, leading to some cool stubborn grappling. The match story is simple: Takahashi would blow Obihiro a way, and Obihiro would desperately try to latch onto any kind of advantage. When Obihiro got a basic sleeper she really went for that sleeper like she wanted to choke out Takahashi more than anything else in her life. Takahashi is great here – putting a ton of force into basic moves like a dropkick, shoulder block or back suplex, and punishing Obihiros audacity. Even the blown spots kinda worked for the story of the match, and the Ice Ribbon complicated pin housestyle works pretty well for an underdog story. Yeah, I’m having a lot of fun here.

Chii Tomiya vs Hikari Minami, Ice Ribbon 6/1/2011

This was two talented wrestlers going really really hard and having a match that was just off the wall with unique ideas and some amazing wrestling. I’ve never seen Hikari Minami before, but she looked good – quite athletic in fact. She had no problem doing springboard dives, basing for Tomiya, doing slick counters and engaging in some wild shit outside the ring. I’ve no idea if her falling off the rope to the outside was intentional but they continued so seamlessly in their chaotic rhythm that I want to believe it was. They do some pretty fun stuff outside the ring, going into a full on lucha sequence with leapfrogs and legsweeps on the floor, which is pretty unique and worked really well. Tomiya ends up hitting a tornado DDT into the ring bell and then using the hammer in a unique spot. Tomiya is looking quite great in these old webcam matches, just relentless constantly going for flash pins, cool takedowns and submissions. Minami brings quite a bit to the table too. I love how they put a lot of gruesomeness into things as basic as a crabhold. Finishing run had so many unique and cool counters. Tomiyas Jungle Clutch has to be the greatest flash pin I’ve ever seen and then Minami reverses it and it’s real jaw dropping stuff. So good, I’m so happy this stuff survived the Ustream apocalypse because it’s tremendously fun.

Tsukushi vs Emi Sakura, Ice Ribbon 4/10/2011

Hey – it’s a no ring match! It seems to be held in an elementar school… maybe an amateur wrestling room, but there’s also a blackboard on the wall. Anyways! This match is great shit! It’s another for the category of ‘how hard can you go when you have no ring’. They do it all here. And the match had a good teacher vs student story, too. You may hate Emi Sakura, but when she wants to go she’s pretty undeniable. This had a ton of good wrestling, cool submission work, and it was almost an entirely serious and hard fought match. They put considerable struggle into things like Tsukushis bow and arrow hold, nifty things like Tsukushi using the Pallo Special to get into a Tiger Suplex, and lots of cool counters and moments and both of them waffling each other pretty hard. The atmosphere with all the schoolkids watching is pretty fun and this is really a breathless match. All serious, with the exception of one moment where Tsukushi lead an army of school children to roll over Emi Sakura, and even that was kind of fitting.

Random Joshi

Yoshiko Tamura vs Emi Sakura, NEO 5/5/2009

Nearly perfect 15 minute war, I know both these two can be pretty great when they’re inspired, and they still surprised me with how great they were. A big part of why the match rocks is Emi Sakura, who brings a ton of spunk and clever spots outsmarting Tamura and doing damage to her higher ranked opponent. Tamura cutting off Sakura by viciously strangling her with a cobra clutch was pretty perfect. There isn’t a ton of groundwork but they do a few neat inventive holds that are well worked. Sakura working the back was brisk, pretty violent with Sakura dropping her body weight on Tamuras spine in nasty ways and sold very well by Tamura. Final minutes were really good high end workrate stuff with Sakura desperately trying to pull off a flash pin, some really good dodge and counter move stuff and Tamura just demolishing her with her awesome pummeling elbows, I think her spin kick also gave Sakura a bloody lip. Do yourself a favour and go out of your way to watch this match.

 

Dynamite Kansai vs Sonoko Kato, Oz Academy 9/11/2016

This is definitely something I should have checked out in 2016, because this was pretty awesome, hard hitting pro wrestling with no padding. It’s one of Kansais last singles matches, but she goes all out here and still has her moments where she looks like a monster and kicks her opponent in the face. Thought Kato was pretty great here, really giving Kansai a working over with badass kicks and staying on her with submissions. What was best about this was that they went out and delivered 20 minutes of straight up non-formulaic pro wrestling. Loved the opening second as Kato kept stubbornly going for a waistlock to hit the German Suplex on Kansai. Build to the big bombs was really good as there was plenty of facekicking and struggle. I loved how even with the bigger moves, a basic kick to the face from Kansai could be a near finish. Great match, made me think I should go back and watch like 200 Sonoko Kato matches.

 

Azumi Hyuga & Command Bolshoi & Ran Yu Yu vs Misae Genki & Yoshiko Tamura & Carlos Amano, JWP 10/13/2002

Insane 45 minute iron woman match with everyone going insanely hard right from the start and never really letting up, just busting out one great exchange after another. The stiffness her was outstanding, they all decided to put some extra oomph and hatred into every blow, things like a headstomp or dropkick were really cracking people her. They mostly stuck to your classic match ups of Hyuga/Tamura, Genki/Ran and Bolshoi/Amano, although they cycle through here and there so you get a little bit of everything. Hyuga is a reliable tireless dynamo as always and her jumping knees and face kicks were sick, Tamura hits some of the hardest elbows as always and it seems she had gotten the hang out of how to work a more meaningful pace. Yu Yu vs Genki is always reliable and gritty, just two tanks with awesome offense barraging each other. Bolshoi/Amano is an all time great match up and they were going hard as fuck here. Tons of slick grappling, at one point they both were in a leg ride and twisting each others legs up in ridiculous ways. Their later exchange in the match was completely awesome with amazing submission counters, Amano hitting a Honda-style deadlift German with Bolshoi desperately trying to resist, incredible stuff. For a long match I think they did a great job mixing up the offense without repeating their moves too often, everything still felt meaningful, and because of the rules and the length of the match you buy something random like a dragon sleeper counter 40 minutes in as a potential finish. For that they did a great job, and like I said holy fuck did they go all out guns blazing in this, just ridiculous wrestling. Crazy this was done for 200 fans and a shitty one camera production. The business may have been nosediving but these women were still pushing the envelope when it comes to in-ring action. Great shit, really a bit of a hidden all timer in the rubble.

Ice Ribbon ADVERSITY NINE 6/25/2011

 

Adversity Nine Match: Emi Sakura vs Hikaru Shida vs Chii Tomiya vs Tsukushi vs Kurumi vs Mochi Miyagi vs Mary Naito vs Maki Narumiya vs Dorami Nagano

This match had an insane stipulation. It was a gauntlet of double round robin singles matches with a 1 minute time limit, with everybody facing everybody for 1 minute each, two times. So that means what you get here is 72 consecutive singles matches in a bit over an hour. That is the kind of insane thing that I absolutely have to check out, and it was absolutely worth it because this ruled and absolutely worked in every way.

A big part of why the match works so well is the set hierarchy and entry order. The wrestlers are ordered from strongest (Sakura) to weakest (Nagano). The clue is that everybody faces each other twice. So, Nagano has to start facing the strongest wrestlers, but after surviving that, the following round the weakest wrestlers are added back to the end of the gauntlet. That means even the high ranked wrestlers would get in trouble, because after facing 8 opponents in a row not getting beaten by the weakest wrestler in the group would be challenging even for them. After going through so many opponents it becomes challenging to not get tapped by even a basic Boston Crab, and that is really compelling.

Another reason for why this match works so well is that everybody here had a character and they were all working their own separate stories. The main goal was clear – for the weaker wrestlers, survive the gauntlet taking as few Ls as possible, and then try to beat the stronger wrestlers later when they have to face you at the end of the gauntlet. For the stronger wrestlers, pick up as many Ws as possible and then try not to lose to weak ass Maki Narumiya or Dorami Nagano. Before watching this I was not familiar with the 2011 Ice Ribbon roster at all. I know Emi Sakura, I vaguely know about Shida and Tsukushi, I didn’t really know anyone else, but watching the match I got really into almost everybody here. You had someone like Shida, who is a badass who can tap out everybody and drop bombs, and then you had the likes of Maki Narumiya with nothing except a good overhand chop and a torture rack. Watching someone like Narumiya fight really hard and try to get a W despite her limitations was really cool. Everybody here brought something unique to the table, and because of the 1 minute format everyone could just get in, try to win, and get out before getting exposed. There was also plenty of stylistic variety - you had the surely badass Shida with her straight forward armbars and knee strikes, the slick technician Chii, the explosive rookie Tsukushi, the more surely power moves of Kurumi or Miyagi, the basic rookie moves of Dorami Nagano etc. I’m not sure if I would want to watch someone like Mochi Miyagi or Dorami Nagano in a normal match but in this setting they were really cool because they played part in a bigger story and freshened things up. The only wrestler who looked downright shitty was Mary Naito, even that can be kind of forgiven because she was never in the ring very long and in some case just got in to lose in 10 seconds.

Because of the 1 minute format, flash pins and submissions became important, which is always nice because it means you get more than just bomb dropping. Ice Ribbon is kind of flash pin central, and there were some really cool ones. Hikaru Shida was by far the biggest badass in the match, she was acing this thing tapping everybody out with cool out of nowhere armbars. I was also surprised by Chii Tomiya, who looked like a really slick wrestler with cool flash pins and a variety of ways to finish her opponents. Emi Sakura is of course the big boss and she played that role to perfection, and when it was time to go hard she did go hard. The first few gauntlets here were compelling due to the story being told with a few great moments and payoffs, but the last couple rounds when it was Tomiya, Shida and Sakura going through the gauntlet were some of the finest wrestling I’ve ever seen. The ‘any move can finish’ factor really made this edge of your seat stuff and there were some awesome counters and upsets, without going overboard. Watching the top ranked wrestlers try to survive the weakest opponents was fascinating. Tsukushi was really young here, and while her execution wasn’t perfect she’s a cool wildcard with her slick flash pins and high energy, also kicked Sakura flash in the face at one point. After the gauntlet is done the two wrestlers with the best score face off for another round to settle it and it’s a really cool ‘throw the kitchen sink and try to win’ scrap. Really one of the most unique matches I’ve ever seen, it was shockingly well put together, told a great story with wide cast of characters and delivered some awesome wrestling while the match time flew by. It’s the kind of insane thing that I would like to see tried again, although I think it can only really work in joshi. Emi Sakura, you are a whacky genius.

 

The Library

Hopping Vampires and Monkey Men

 Tanny Mouse & Yuki Miyazaki vs. Chon Shiryu & Tottyann Ziyi, NEO 3/18/2007

Unreal match. Ziyi(?) is Toshie Uematsu doing a Chinese hopping vampire gimmick, and holy fuck she is amazing in that role. Just totally giving her all into every crazy pose, every throat thrust, every kung fu kick, just a face painted whirlwind with that outfit. This was basically a crazy Hong Kong movie as an under 10 minute pro wrestling match. Basically no comedy, just fun character work and cool kung fu kicks. Chon Shiryu if you ask me is absolutely one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time. If a major US company had picked him up I guarantee he’d be a megastar or at the very least a cult hero. The man simply put his everything into his character and made every little moment stand out, down to the weird scorpion kicks and flying at people with kung fu kicks from odd angles. Shiryu and Uematsu do a lot of awesome shit here. There is one moment where Tanny and Miyazaki put a seal on Uematsu, paralyzing her, but then Shiryu unseals her and she goes berserk again, pure evil unleashed. It’s played completely straight and that’s why it works for me. They work a breathless pace just busting out one rad exchange after another with Miyazaki and Tanny mostly stooging but also adding some cool touches of their own, it seems at this point they both really had their routine down as a team, cutting out the comedy and just doing cool wrestling. Shiryu also hits his insane kick diving kick to the floor. Badass finish too. I really enjoy this kind of stuff more than your typical by the numbers epic match at this point. This was a great sub 10 minute match.

 

Chon Shiryu vs. HAJIME, Choco Pro 3/3/2024

This is in that no-ring dentist office space that Emi Sakura has been running shows in for like 18 years now. Really cool little match with Shiryu doing a bunch of great armwork, including hitting a really cool fist drop to HAJIMES joint and a few kung fu armlocks. All the environment stuff with Shiryu going for a 619 on the window, flying off the wall etc was great. Shiryu also based very well for HAJIMES lucharesu moves which I imagine is hard to do on a soft mat that looks to be 2 meters by 2 meters. Finish is completely awesome as HAJIME goes for the pin but Shiryu does a Negro Navarro style leg hock and  locks in a crazy llave for the tap.

Chon Shiryu & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Emi Sakura & Masa Takanashi, Gatoh Move 2/12/2024

Shiryu once again looked great in this match. His kung fu-stuff is so awesome, and he does a really nice job integrating it into a lengthy pro wrestling match structure. His opening technico exchange with Takanashi is really nice, and his hot tag is really great too. He just comes at people with odd kicks from weird directions and slick counters and it's great. The stuff he does between the big moves and set ups is great too, like randomly busting out a scorpion  kick or spin kick flush in the face.  If you liked that Ki/Amazing Red match I don't see why you wouldn't enjoy Shiryu since he goes hard all the time despite being 45 now. I also like how he can make the 619 his own, instead of coming across like another Rey imitator. Rest of the match had some very creative high workrate stuff but there was also some cutesie shit typical of Emi Sakura feds and I disliked how Masa Takanashi no sold that one awesome jumping kick Shiryu did, which keeps the match out of MOTYC consideration for me (well, if you make it a requirement that a MOTYC has to be at minimum a great match). But really nice stuff from Shiryu and well worth watching.