Kakuto Tanteidan 4/8/2025

 Satsuki Nagao vs Shuji Ishikawa

It’s nice to see Ishikawa return to his Fu-Ten roots of just potatoeing the fuck out of people in quasi-shootstyle matches. This didn’t feel quite like a BattlARTS or Fu-Ten match, it had bit much of those back and forth elbow exchanges, but once in a while they would try to nuke each others brains with a sick headbott or knee and it was a spectacle. I’ve never seen or heard of Nagao, looking him up on Cagematch tells me he might be… sorta… a big deal on the small scales of Japanese indies? He’s with Tochigi Pro, challenged Akitoshi Saito for a title in NOAH last year, what ever that means nowadays. Having my first look at him in this match I thought he was a black trunks rookie, there to get mauled by the bigger Ishikawa, and it does feel a bit like that with Nagao eating a big beating and unable to get Ishikawa off his feet etc, but Nagao ends up surviving much longer than expected and getting bigger and bigger hits in on Ishikawa including just straight headbutting him in the face, maybe even to the point where I thought it was a little too much as he survived a sick dragon suplex and then the actual finish looked a little weak. Anyways I am nitpicking this match too much, they potatoed the fuck out of each other and it was a really fun opening match, end of story.

Masashi Takeda vs Kosuke Sato

Hey its Kosuke Sato. I enjoyed him when he was in CAPTURE for a hot minute. And look Takeda gets to do shootstyle! This starts with Takeda bullying Sato because Takeda iis a Tamura trainee even 12 years after Style-E so clearly the superior shooter. Sato comes back biting Takedas wrist because despite his chiselled body and boyish looks, he is a filthy BJW boy after all. Takeda ends up bleeding from his ear after grappling. I imagine sudden bleeding has to be a big problem for death match wrestlers in their daily lives. In this case it’s not even just a little smear of blood, its a full on gushing wound that keeps spilling blood. Sato manages to get some comebacks and when he does he hits these cool big leaping dropkicks where he makes sure to kick Takeda right in the head. He hits a lovable messily executed shootstyle bodyslam that is full of struggle and goes to choke Takeda out, with Takedas blood all over his body and even getting in his mouth. Sometimes you just gotta watch some filthy blood drenched gruesome pro wrestling like this. Started out just solid like a BJW or DDT undercard match with shoostyle elements but once they got to the bleeding and gritty fighting it got really great. Takeda is perfectly good as a shooter with cool submissions and sick suplexes, its a pity he gets to do this kind of match only once in a while.

Yuki Ishikawa & Tyson Maeguchi vs Super Tiger II & Tanomusaku Toba - FUN

A fun BattlARTS style midcard tag with some kickboxing mixed in. Ishikawa can still roll out and have cool exchanges with STII just like he did in from 2008-2011 all the time. I thought it was just gonna be a friendly grappling exchange with Ishikawa schooling his opponent and pulling out cool reversals, but then STII dropped a fucking Killer Kowalski level knee on Ishikawas face, making things more intense. Maeguchi basically was all kickboxing, and he does throw some fun combos, him sparring a little with the Tiger was fun, and Toba did his “I am too old for this shit but I can still dodge you and punch you in the face at any time” thing which entertains. The real money match up here is Ishikawa vs Toba which is a real sleazeball shootstyle dream match, unfortunately their exchange lasted only about 30 seconds but it was still nice we got to see that.

Brother Yasshi vs Dan Tamura

First few minutes had some very good amateur-style matwork with Yasshi once again busting out a cool Honda-ish arm takedown and Tamura throwing his opponent around, including hitting a pretty nutso German suplex. Unfortunately the match kind of turned into a mediocre indy match which looks really awkward on a show like this.

Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura vs Manabu Hara & Hikaru Sato

I’ll be honest, I thought this was hurt by being overly long, some goofy ropework and I dislike how Abe seems to turn everything into a joke. But fuck that, they decided to beat the fuck out of each other from the get go and the spirit was absolutely there. Lots of fun chaos and hard hitting. Sato coming in and looking like a badass was surprising and great. Hara also always looks great when it’s time kick ass. We get lots of fun chaos and plenty of violent exchanges with some great extended segments towards the end only slightly marred by the weird decision to include some rope running. Sato may have been the best guy in the match, he really comes into his own in this style, really feels like a late blooming for him. Thought the match needed a bit more Nomura and less Abe, Nomuras out of nowhere grittiness is great. This match was a blast, not mindblowingly great, but definitely a blast.

The Library

The Last of Nori da Funky Shibiresasu

 

Nori da Funky vs Kengo Takai, Sportiva 10/10/2018

Matches like this represent the classic dilemma of Japanese wrestling: there’s a lot of really good shit, but also lots of questionable shit. Opening chain wrestling was really well done. After that Takai does a really long comedy spot giving a super long speech on the floor and the briefly wrestle on the floor. Then they transition right back to epic heavyweight wrestling. There is some no selling and at one point the camera freezes for a minute or so , but holy fuck these guys are dropping mad bombs on each other and did a great job keeping things interesting. Stiffness was there as both guys were hitting blistering chops and jaw loosening elbows. The finish was absolutely brutal with Takai scrambling Noris brain with some knees to the head and then hitting an absolutely disgusting lariat to the back of the head that turned Noris lights out. Not a flawless match but worth checking out.

Nori da Funky vs Fuminori Abe, Sportiva 10/17/2018

Noris last match in the SPORTIVA Arena. Abe acts disrespectful early on, so Nori punishes him with an ultra tight headlock. Pretty fun shooter vs. traditional pro wrestler contrast here, Abe was constantly punishing Nori with nasty kicks and knuckle punches, and Nori responded by chopping the shit out of him and trying to boot his head off. Abes work on Funkys leg was really good as he used a variety of holds and transitioned from one to another in smart fashion. Leg work wasn’t super important in the 2^nd half but also wasn’t blatantly no sold. Second half was really good big match stuff with an injured Nori struggling to hit his signature offense, both guys battling it out in stiff strike battles and some cool counters. Most importantly, Noris backdrops, boots and chops came across as annihilating Abe, and both guys absorbed some stiff punishment. Nori retired 2 days later and I wish he kept going. He certainly was one of the most interesting acts going and his consistency in big matches like this was fantastic.

Continueing to go through Sportiva Twitcastings

 

Kazuhiro Tamura & Daisuke Kanehira vs Nori da Funky & Fuminori Abe, Sportiva 10/25/2017

Excellent long match that delivers in spades. I like that Sportiva often start with cool extended matwork and this case we get a very nice Kanehira vs. Nori section which was very deliberate, logical and cool to watch, and then a slick U-Style matwork section between Abe and Tamura. Tamura was showing off some cool shit, he did a really cool Honda-esque arm throw, and later a neat arm stretch reversal to get out of a sleeper. The cool thing about this match is we get extended segments between Kanehira and Nori and Abe and Tamura, it was like a mash up of two really cool singles matches with occasional tag team dynamic coming into play. This was maybe the best I’ve seen Kanehira look, for some reason he throws a ton of great looking knees in this, and he matches up super well with the more deliberate style of Nori da Funky. It’s weird that a hip hop guy would wrestler like a 70s/80s guy but it’s really cool. Abe and Tamura cranking up the stiffness and busting out some spectacular counters was pretty great. It was probably genuinely some of the greatest stuff I’ve seen either guy do as there was no comedy, no absurd kickouts and no overly long strike exchanges, I guess this environment really makes guys work smarter. Because there weren’t a ton of big moves, Nori running in to obliterate a guy with a big backdrop suplex looked devastating. This match overdelivered in spades considering the tiny stage they were working, excellent stuff.

Xevious vs. Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 11/22/2017

First Xevious singles match that I’ve found and it’s a banger. This was exactly what it needed to be, Ishida doing flying, and Xevious doing whacky submissions, pin combos and hitting Ishida with some really painful looking offense, giving this the feel of Black Terry or Negro Navarro carrying an indy luchadore match, which is high praise. I am pretty okay with Shinya Ishida at this point, he is decently athletic, doesn’t do anything too cute and he makes fine comebacks. He also hits a suicide dive into nothing which is a pretty insane thing to do in this tiny bar. Xevious was great, his weird submissions and pin combos were really good, and he had all this offense targetting Ishidas back, hitting really hurty looking sentons, splashes and double stomps etc, his kicks and knees are also on point. He stooges really well for Ishidas ranas and armdrags too. Cracking match, Xevious may very well be our lord and saviour.

Nori da Funky vs 801 Kenichi, Sportiva 4/25/2018

Kenichi is super limited, but Nori does the impossible here crafting a good match around him. Seriously impressive considering how dull Kenichi looked. Nori does a Bret Hart-like job working over Kenichis leg, and Kenichi to his credit puts some effort into selling that shit. I really liked how Nori after some legwork progressed to working over Kenichis neck to set up his backdrop finisher, but went back to cutting him off at the leg when Kenichi started coming back. Finishing stretch had a few nifty moments thanks to Nori and one admittedly impressive suplex from Kenichi. Nori needs to come back to wrestling, the guy could do no wrong.

Kakuto Tanteidan 10/12/2023

 

Hideki Suzuki vs Yu Iizuka

Nice little match to start the event. Mostly grappling, everytime Iizuka get a submission on Hideki was really cool. Iiizuka seemed to be the one pushing the pace while Suzuki mostly relied on his size and didn't do much, though he had one really neat counter to an Octopus Stretch attempt. Finish was Suzuki starting to hit elbows during the grappling and KOing Iizuka, I felt it would have been nice if we had got a bit of back and forth. I mean Iizuka has gone toe to toe with Masakazu Funaki, it wouldn't have been absurd to see him take it to Hideki a bit more.

Ikuto Hidaka & Tanomusaku Toba vs Brother Yasshi & Hikaru Sato - EPIC

Great super violent undercard tag. I wasn't sure how Yasshi would do in this, but he does pretty good and took some insane punishment. He was solid early on taking down Toba, before he tries some pro wrestling bullshit and immediately gets punched in the face HARD. Hidaka/Sato was good shootstyle stuff with Hidaka being really lively and aggressive. Match got great once Yasshi took a sick out of nowhere bump on a German suplex. Toba then turned into super violent mode and started dishing out incredibly stiff punches and kicks. Sato/Toba exchange was brief but pretty great, I definitely would've liked to see more of that. Toba/Yasshi was just awesome as Toba was brutalizing Yasshi and Yasshi started hitting these sick jumping shoot headbutts which were some of the sickest I've ever seen. Hidaka/Sato finish was excellent BattlARTS stuff with some big strikes neck crunching moves and cool submission counters. Really good quasi shootstyle undercard tag that left me wanting more, just what we need in this day and age.

Keita Yano vs Super Tiger II - GREAT

I was curious to see Yano doing shootstyle matwork, but he stuck to his british style grappling even in this context. He was pretty good, though. He did things like leaning into a shoulder pin really slowly to emphasize he was stretching his opponent in painful ways. Keita controlled about 80% of the match. Tiger sold the fuck out of that armwork and hit some ultarsharp kicks when he got fed up with being toyed with. Tigers kicks looked great and he seemed to have a lot of spark in him, I would definitely like to see more of his modern day work. He looked like a badass when he finished Keita with a couple of brutal kicks.

Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Minoru Fujita

Ishikawa pretty much carried the match, always doing neat maestroish things when he was in the ring. I haven't seen Fujita in years but he looked fine doing serious wrestling here. He did the right thing immediately going for his finisher during a brief grappling section with Ishikawa. He was also fun looking out of his depth against Sekimoto and trying to pull off a counter. Sekimoto didn't really do do Bati-Bati style here, just his pro style stuff with things like Irish Whips cut out, but the random touches like his big cross body were fun. I thought the final Ishikawa/Ikeda exchange underdelivered as Ikeda looked blown up after eating some slams from Sekimoto and nearly KO'ing himself with a big running headbutt. He didn't put up much fight against Ishikawa besides some Baba chops. Slightly disappointing outing from the two though I understand Ikeda is probably on his last legs.

Fuminori Abe vs. Takuya Nomura

Sick, blood-drenched fight. I was worried Abe would bring a goofy vibe, and while there was a bit of that early on, they stuck to doing serious pro wrestling. Nomura looked really great whenever he was doing Hashimoto-like beatdowns to his goofy opponent. After getting stomped in the corner, Abe finally decided to quit the silliness and just started knuckle punching his opponent in the face. After that the match got pretty great as both guys were just violently pummeling each other. Tons of sick headbutts, at one point Abe started bleeding from the crown of his head and it was just grizzly. Abes knee to the side of Nomuras face was by far the highlight of the match. Nasty nasty finish where a bleeding and beaten down Abe was stuck in a submission like Austin in the sharpshooter. Really good shit, no downtime and both guys just punished each other, really hope they keep doing this stuff as the whole show was great from top to bottom, and this was one hell of a fight to cap it off.

The Library 

2023 MOTY List

More Sportiva Twitcastings

 Fuminoru Abe & Nori da Funky Shibiresasu vs. Shinya Ishida & Yusaku Ito, Sportiva 11/30/2016

Nice match that had structure in place and all 4 guys doing a bunch of cool shit. Starts with some cool matwork, I was surprised that Yusaku Ito was a kickpadded shooter at this point, he and Abe do some nice slick shooty matwork and then we get some equally nifty traditional pro style chain wrestling between Nori and Shinya Ishida. The recent Ishida I’ve seen wasn’t good, but he was perfectly servicable here, he had a nice dive, acted like a scummy heel and was never loose or dragging the action. I once again dug Nori, he had an awesome big boot that turned Ishida inside out, and a big guy who boots peoples heads off hits different in an indy tag with a bunch of juniors. The ending is Abe vs. Ito and it’s cool sleaze shooter stuff with both guys blasting each other with cool kicks. I was amazed this match had absolutely no comedy, what happened to the indy scene, why did they all decide they wanted to be clowns at some point?

Fuminoru Abe & Yusaku Ito vs. Nori da Funky & Xevious, Sportiva 1/25/2017

Hell yeah, it’s XEVIOUS. Xevious is this fat looking dude in a mask who does all kinds of random things on offense, but it all looks hurty. He has a stiff solebutt, nasty kneedrop to the back of the head, really painful looking stretches etc. He’s really fun to watch. Not much happens in the first few minutes of his, but it turns into a good little match when Abe eats a DDT on the floor and Nori and Xev work over his neck. Neck work was really good, Ito makes a nice hot tag and has a cool exchange with Xevious leading to Ito hitting a big punch to the face. Abe vs. Nori finishing stretch was brief but pretty neat as Nori kept hitting violent offense to Abes neck. Nice little match, why is this stuff more energetic and serious than any undercard match now? This was in front of like 15 fans for crying out loud.

Yasu Kubota vs. Fuminori Abe, Sportiva 4/5/2017

This was a fun match where they do some unlikely fun matwork. Kubota is a sleazy looking guy who has been around for a really long time, and this is the best I’ve seen him look. Abe does some fun submissions and kicks targetting Kubotas arm, and Kubota comes back working Abes leg with cool stretches, ramming a bar stool into his knee etc. I also liked the weird standing stretch he busted out. All the Arn Anderson style body part targetting work was really good, and the second half where they busted out their bombs with Abe hitting spin kicks and Kubota hitting big dropkicks and drivers was a lot of fun. Limb selling wasn’t super consistant though both guys acknowledged that they were hurting and had to figure out how to transition from there. Kubota only being able to lock in his submission hold with one arm was a cool touch. It’s weird how guys like Kubota can have their best performances on the smallest shows like this.

Fuminori Abe & Kazuhiro Tamura vs. Yusaku Ito & Nori da Funky, Sportiva 5/31/2017

I’m amazed Abe was probably a more serious worker than he is now at this point. Seriously, these guys had all the reason to joke it up since they were wrestling in a sports bar, but instead they had a lengthy, serious no frills tag where everyone brought their A-game. I enjoyed Nori vs. Tamura, their grappling early on had a nice big vs little feel, and later on we get to see them really lay into each other. They have a fun dynamic going on with Noris traditional power offense and Tamuras jump kicks and flying moves. The heart and soul of this is Abe vs. Yusaku though. Both these guys were really scrappy, early on they had an exchange where Ito casually kicked Abe in the face, then later landed these really violent knee strikes to Abes head on the ground. Finishing run had both guys raining hell, hitting all their cool jumping face kicks. There were some cool moments such as Abe working a neat rolling arm scissor for a submission nearfall and Ito bumping big for a dropkick of all things. Itos punt kick was probably the highlight of the match for how out of nowhere it came and how violent it looked. Dare I say, these guys were really good at this stage.

Unseen Yuki Ishikawa

 

Yuki Ishikawa & Hornet vs Fuminori Abe & Kenji Takeshima, Battle Arts Canada  2/20/2016

A few years ago somebody made a documentary on Yuki Ishikawa and BattlARTS. It included a few matches including 2 from Ishikawas stint in Canada which I haven’t seen online before. This was just 1 year into Abes career and he and Takeshima are introduced as the POTATOE BROTHERS, which may be a one-time joke or the name of their actual team in Sportiva (yeah, Abe is another Sportiva guy!!). I like that most Japanese wrestlers coming to foreign lands will tweak their act a little, maybe slow it town, be paltable for Western audiences, but not Yuki. Yuki doesn’t give a fuck, he’s there to kick ass and do BattlARTS style matches. This was punishment style alright, just 4 guys smacking and stretching each other. No punches pulled, I think Takeshima gave Ishikawa a headbutt like 2 minutes into this and started bleeding. It wasn’t even a showy hard hitting match like you sometimes see on the US indies, where guys will hit each other hard in really showy ways, waiting for the other guy to come over, doing a sneering face, letting yourself get hit and selling it for the back row, this was guys cheapshotting each other in nasty ways and scrambling on the mat. I liked Abe and Takeshima a lot here, Abe all spunky and smacking people in the face, Takeshima hitting gnarly headbutts. Ishikawa was Ishikawa, he did a lot of falling elbows and knee drops which I dug, at one point he was dropping elbows and knees on Takeshimas head as if Greg Valentine had absorbed Khabib. Hornet is a guy who comes in with this really tassely neon outfit but he is really game to roll with this, he was pretty good at scrambling on the mat, locking peoples legs up in cool ways, and trading hits. At one point he hit a fist drop and then started working an armlock which is totally cool with me, because it was a decent fist drop and that’s something junji.com would do. It’s really fun to see a Western audience react to this stuff, like they don’t react to this unstructured brawl in the same way they would to a face vs. heel match or a spotfest or whatever, but they clearly react and all these guys got over. People are clearly way into Yuki Ishikawa, they are into Hornet, they are into Abe and Takeshima as a pair of goofy pricks, they are clearly in shock whenever someone would land a particularily gruesome smack, and even with the complete absence of high spots (I think the biggest move was a double suplex) they enjoyed the match. And this was just a bunch of guys hitting each other and scrambling on the mat and trying to twist each others legs off. This was just a really good time.

Yuki Ishikawa & D-Man Parker vs Freedom Wallace & Bradford Montague, Battle Arts Canada 10/7/2016

It’s Ishikawa working a parking lot indy show, baby. This is Ishikawas “Hashimoto stiffing Dylan Night in Pennsylvania” or “Negro Navarro stretching Quackenbush in a bar in delaware” moment, he is just there to kick ass and punish these guys. Like seriously anytime someone was down he would punch them in the kidney, kneedrop their head/throat, stomp them, punch them in the head some more etc. It was a total uninterrupted, messy asskicking that the crowd didn’t know what to make of. The other guys fuck up a lot, although Ishikawa working his signature reversals and submissions is a lot of fun, there are at least some tentative attempts at BattlARTS style where a scrub would try to work a leglock or armlock and that is enough for Yuki Ishikawa to carry you. The big spot of the match was some guy hitting an elbow drop off the second rope on Yuki. D-Man Parker is some skinny kid with kickpads and he was barely in this. The ending has both scrubs working segments against Ishikawa and they seemed to find their groove a bit there. Crowd mostly has no idea what to make of this as they are not sure who to cheer and who to boo but they pop for the Octopus Hold finish and you have to love that.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #18

 Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba vs Tomohiro Ishii & Issei Fujisawa (DDT 06/09/2001) - GREAT

We only get the last 10 minutes of a 20 minute draw, but what we get looks like a very good match. Toba being used as a human projectile was fun, I loved how Ishii turned the knife against his opponents by gorilla pressing Toba into Sasaki too. Then we get some fun Sasaki/Ishii exchanges and some awesome Toba/Fujisawa exchanges. Fujisawa was doing a Fake Kensuke Sasaki gimmick but he had no problem taking ultra stiff punches and kicks from Toba, getting fired up and dropping him him with reckless power moves. It was better than any comparable Kensuke Sasaki faceoff (maybe against Kazunari Murakami) that I‘ve seen. The build to the time limit draw was cool too and they never slowed down without just doing brainless kickouts left and right.

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI & Sanshiro Takagi vs. Takashi Sasaki & Asian Cougar & Asian Condor, Onita Pro 9/23/2001 - GREAT

Probably the best match I‘ve seen the DDT crew do in Onita Pro so far. They went 13 minutes so stretched out a bit and did some fun opening exchanges before the Asian Cougars in the match whip out their cool highspots for a frenzy in the second half. Toba/Sasaki exchanges were pretty boss as usual, kicks and punches landing with full force, and you also get to see Toba in peril as he gets ragdolled by triple team moves. Toba really is great at timing his more spectacular kicks for comebacks. The finishing stretch with Cougar hitting all his lunatic legdrops and then trying to tap out Toba was pretty exciting and even though Takagi isn‘t the greatest guy in the match he was fun too. A++ undercard material.

Tanomusaku Toba vs.  Fuminori Abe vs. Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 1/8/2022 - FUN

3 ways are usually gonna be stupid so they can almost never be great matches, but this was one had enough fun action and they seemed to be aware of the stupidity so they just brutalized each other like it was a chaotic fight. Toba is the oldest and most broken guy here but for some reason does the most sections, and he looks pretty good. Made me think he would still be good in NOAH undercards working in the Aoyagi role of old guy who doesn't pull punches. He was really landing some face shattering punches to Abe, who did this amusing psycho laughing. The section where they all beat on each other could have been silly but ended up looking crazy. Even the finish seemed to make fun of the concept of 3 ways. Enjoyable match overall.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

2021 MOTY Project Update #4 - New #1!

 1. Masa Takanashi vs. Fuminori Abe, Gatoh Move 7/13/2021

This is the kind of weirdo match that is right up my alley. Over 30 minutes of almost all inventive grappling on a mat in front of 10 people. I'm a big fan of Takanashi and he's the reason I checked this out, but Abe looked great too. Loved all the quirky holds and pins, especially Abes grovit to a small package or double armlock. Everything had just the right amount of struggle for it not to look like an exhibition. Takanashi just came back from a pretty bad leg injury and much of the early grappling is him trying to prevent Abe to get to the leg, and later Abe just demolishing him by twisting up the leg and working it over with punches and kicks. Abe looked really good both doing shootstyle rolling leg locks as well as making pro style moves like a spinning leg bar look painful. Loved Abe booting Takanashi through the window. Takanashi sold the fuck out of that leg work and then made an intelligent comeback working Abes arm. There was one extended full nelson sequence that felt a bit random but also like a struggle and Abe immediately landed another hard kick to Takanashi as soon as he got the advantage. Finishing run had the usual excellent counters and submissions from Takanashi and Abe landing more hard kicks and punches to his skull. A seemingly paralyzed Takanashi trying to make one last comeback was pretty epic and the double armlock nearfall was just amazing and the best shit I've seen in a wrestling match all year. I'm no expert on Gatoh Move but I'd wager this has to be the best match that group ever ran. I mean, run this back in a MUGA ring in 1999 or something and you'd have an obvious classic.

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #11

 

Tanomusaku Toba & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Touro Owashi & Yasu Urano, DDT 2/19/2021 - FUN

In 2021, Toba can be considered semi retiered. This is his sole appearance so far, and he did his thing. Match was semi-comedic and during the opening portions every move seemed to be followed by a joke, so it was never going to be a great match, but I was entertained due to everyone playing their role and some sense of hierarchy being displayed. Urano impressed me during his opening grappling with Shuji. Then, Owashi, who wrestles like an even lazier Akira Taue, employs some scummy tactics to avoid getting hit by Toba. I was starting to zone out during Uranos and Owashis standup routine but thankfully Toba salvaged things by punching Urano in the face hard. Ishikawa did the bare minimum. I mean, when Owashi is outworking you (by doing a forward roll, in this case) you really are just collecting your paycheck. Toba tagged in for the final segment and looked good potatoeing Urano as he always does. Match seemed to be building to a bigger ending stretch but in the end what we got was basically a working boots old man comedy tag and I had fun.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Takeshi Yamada, Nightmare Pro 2/2/2002 - GREAT

Two guys who have no problem beating the shit out of each other being given 5 minutes. Exactly what you want, no downtime, not much cooperation, and plenty of brutal hits and neat offense. Yamada is a Nightmare Pro/ex-WYF young boy with some fun hybrid powerhouse offense including an Oklahoma stampede and a nasty STO. And Toba just beats the shit out of him and dares him to shoot back. Really dug how the last KO was sold. I think Yamada was lost in the shuffle soon after or became a forgettable seedy brawler.

Added to 2002 MOTY list at #61.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Fuminori Abe, DDT/BASARA 4/20/2018 - EPIC

Toba is older and slower, but he can still bring it in a wild fight. This was Abe basically working a sleazy 90s West Japan or CAPTURE match, which is kind of the height of the artform for a guy like him. This was probably the best I‘ve seen Abe look, simply because he slotted right into Tobas style of wrestling, and busted out some slick submissions. Opening minutes were pretty damn stiff already. Toba looks old, fat, and kind of alcoholic, so him taking these blunt force kicks from Abe looked brutal. Then, Abe decided to put on boxing gloves too so he could punch Toba back. It made the match feel even more like a mixed rules match from a 90s sleaze card. Floor brawling with both guys basically eskimo boxing was pretty insane. Finishing run had both guys eating and dishing out some pretty brutal kicks and punches and a cool strap drop moment when Abe takes the gloves off again. Toba almost getting his foot snapped by an Abe Dragon Screw and then punching his way out of a figure was damn great. Brutal finish. Toba was a champion in this, and crazy as it sounds it ended up being Abes best match I‘ve seen too. There‘s just something about Tobas formula of compact, wild and violent matches that is so much better than the usual main events.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST