2025 Matchguide: Addendum #3

 Sareee & Takumi Iroha vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe, Ito Dojo 10/16

Oh look it's an Ito Dojo match! This is so unlikely but it's a ton of fun. Ito and Watanabe are way over the hill, but they still have enough energy to go all the way with Sareee and Iroha. A big part of the fascination of this match is 'Will they..?' and yes they totally will. Ito and Watanabe are still bumping and taking all of the hot young guns big offense. We do get to see Ito crush people with her big uranage and double stomp. In some ways you can see a wrestlers true talent when they are fat and old and Watanabe and especially Ito were still able to work entertaining exchanges. I would've liked the match to have a bit more of Ito/Watanabe clobbering the smaller two and working like the Twin Towers/Nigerian Nightmares but as it is this a ton of fun.

Mad Dog Connelly vs Isaiah Broner, NAP 1/12

You know maybe I should just watch as much Mad Dog Connelly as possible. To me the best of US wrestling is that Wahoo McDaniel, Buzz Sawyer, Dick Murdoch, Johnny Valentine gritty brawling stuff, and the Mad Dog Connelly is probably the closest you get to that vibe in the modern scene. This was just two mean tough looking dudes wailing on each other and throwing each other around. The bumps on the floor were pretty insane and felt very bar fight-esque. Very little fancy just straight up punishment. I loved how gnarly the last few strike exchanges felt, and the unhinged doctor bomb from Connelly. Could have done with out  the distraction finish but sometimes it just goes like that. No moment wasted here, a starkly straight forward affair without much fancydoings or obvious showmanship making this stuff a cool standout in the modern landscape.

Ali Najima vs Kazuhiro Tamura, HEAT UP 11/15

This looks like a good match up, and fuck yeah it is a good matchup. Najima is pretty much on top when it comes to being a reliable worker in 2025, for a rookie with a little over a year of experience he can do no wrong and he works this main event like a piece of cake. I would have liked them to go full on shootstyle but we just get a bit of shootstyle tinge in an indy match. The matwork is fun, Tamura is kind of a U-Style guy that never was in U-Style and he would not let himself be shown up easily. The match has lots of fun tricked out stuff, cool limbwork and neat pin combos. It's really enjoyable without overstaying its welcome. The beginning was kind of filmed like it was a 2009 livestream and they changed the camera settings midway into it so we don't get to see the transition to Tamuras legwork, which is a bit regrettable, but otherwise this is good all around.

Jun Kasai vs El Desperado, NJPW 6/24

A deathmatch that has amassed quite a lot of praise, even getting a **** 3/4 rating from pro wrestlings #1 authority on what's good and what isn't.  How so? My guess is because it's a) in NJPW, so more people watched it and b) it's absurdly long and delivers spots, spots and more spots at a consistent pace. Don't get me wrong, it's a well worked and entertaining match with most of the big bumps feeling like important transitions, but it definitely feels like something that I've seen Jun Kasai do a million times. All the respect in the world to the man that he can still do this kind of gorefest without problem at the age of 50, and there's definitely an allure to watching him do his thing, but there was 0 element of surprise in this. Desperado is rocking the Yamakawa pants and technically he should act like this kind of bloody spectacle is beneath him as an NJPW guy, but that element is not really felt at all. So you get your forgettable brawling segment, your lighttube carvings, your moves into broken glass, all feeling entirely predictable. Deathmatches used to feel dangerous - with fans genuinely not wanting to see their favourite wrestlers fall into barbedwire and such - and Jun Kasai taking a broken lighttube to someones face feels about as expected and welcome as a politician picking up and kissing a baby at a rally. There were still a few deathmatches even in 2025 that felt ghoulish, visceral, repulsive, hate filled and demented, but this was not quite that, it was pretty much the Jun Kasai 'can he stll do it -yes he can' rally for me. If you've never seen Jun Kasai before it's probably mindblowing for you so you can just take this review as the pointless musings of an out of touch old man. All that said I mainly didn't need this to be 30 fucking minutes long.

Tachishon Crazy vs Hinjaku Ningen Casshern, AZW 10/13

AZW delivers - better late than never! This was refreshing and a ton of fun. Almost like a mat spotfest as both guys seemed to try to outdo each other with nifty reversals and entries into submissions or pin attempts. Early scientific wrestling exchanges were really fun, they even seemed to knick some things from French Catch.Made me think maybe we should see Casshern in a promotion like Mutoha, locking up with someone like Dekai Ichimotsu or Yasushi Sato? Maybe I'm seeing things but I thought he has gotten quiet good by now, the execution problems he's had in the past not being there anymore and his selling in this being really good. And he's really one of the better octopus hold users still around. This Tachishon Crazy guy was also quite decent and a good antagonist. Really liked how he stayed on Casshern early on working him over with quick attacks on the ground and he had a few cool ways to get out of Cassherns octopus hold attempts. AZW guys when they're on will deliver some of the funnest wrestling you can imagine and this was another nifty match in their catalogue.

Dekai Ichimotsu & Great Zako vs MAD APE & Insect #2, XGF 11/23

Our heros Ichimotsu and Zako gather in the hellish battlefield of XGF to be attacked by two weird monsters. So it's everything that's right with pro wrestling by default. Ichimotsu is a lot of fun here, putting on wrestling holds on the freakish insect and bare knuckle punching him from mount. Besides Ichimotsu the other guys don't do a ton, Insect #2 didn't do any of the freakish antics that made him kinda fun before, and Mad Ape feels very much like just a guy. Still there's a few fun moments throughout, at one point they set off some firecrackers with Zako doing a heroic job rolling around in the tiny explosion like he was a guy getting turned into cheese in a vietnam movie. There's also things like a giant swing on the pavement, and Ichimotsus piledriver on the concrete was plenty sick. It went a little long but it's worth watching if you are into the griminess of XGF.

2025 Matchguide 

2025 Matchguide Week 50

 
Kotaro Nasu vs Yukito, Heat-Up 5/25

A very good little quasi-shootstyle match. Reminded me a lot of a Fu-Ten undercard match which is a very good thing in 2025. Yukito continues to be decent while Nasu continues to elevate things by being really vicious. He had some of the most vicious kicks and open hands I've seen all year in this. Him looking in a cool calf slicer and then going in further on Yukitos leg with brutal low kicks was quite good, poignant shootstyle action. There was also a nice punishing aspect since Nasu is the veteran so he is obligated to try and kick right though Yukito. It's really really fun and if it hadn't been for the somewhat awkward insertion of a few irish whip moves it would've been one of my favourite singles matches of the year. My man Nasu deserves more recognition (and more bookings so I can watch him more, dammit).

Sareee vs Chihiro Hashimoto, Sendai Girls 11/16

A no-brainer great match up that delivers pretty much what you expect. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the opening half of this which was really good, smart pro wrestling. We get some cool matwork where Hashimoto shows off her Alexander Otsuka-ish cartwheels and granby rolls and what not, dominating Sareee in cool ways, then cutting her of with those massive body checks. It was great stuff. Sareee was fighting against a wall here, and she had to figure out how to get by and start bombing her with her signature crowbar dropkicks and stomps. Sareee then trying to break Hashimoto leg with nasty twisting legbars and diving stomps was quite great. Of course, that legwork was pretty much forgotten as soon as Hashimoto got back on offense. They have their obligatory 'we both no sell a suplex' moment and the match is a lot less interesting suddenly. Some Takaiwa-ish crowbar strikes, headbutts, bombs and lariats happen to get me back into the match. After some more trite no-selling we get at least a graceful finish. I really wonder if it's possible for a Japanese big match to exist these days without a bunch of suplex no-selling. Even the crowd seems bored of that stuff at this point. It's a slight let down because there was a bunch of objectively really great work here.


Shinya Aoki vs T-Hawk, GLEAT 10/9

As usual, Aoki provides plenty of entertainment toying with his opponent on the mat and trying to force his shoulders down for the pin in painful looking ways. T-Hawk knocking him off the top rope and then proceeding to bitch slap him around on the floor was some surprisingly adept brawling considering T-Hawk is a Dragon Gate guy. Still, I thought Aoki needs to learn how to sell. I get that he's supposed to be a monster but he shouldn't be making stupid faces after getting punched in the face. As such the end of the match was a bit underwhelming. Fair play to T-Hawk as throwing Shinya Aoki into a row of chairs and then bitchslapping him was probably the greatest thing he ever did.

 

AKARI vs Crea, PURE-J 5/16

Impressive 2/3 falls match between two skillful wrestlers. Crea is quite the fun hard hitting machine with her boots and chops and AKARI had lots of nifty lucha-esque takedowns and submissions attempts. Though Crea also had some good submission work of her own. There was some quite evil stomping and smacks to the face here. Really liked the struggle over the tarantula attempt. Creas jumping big boot thing that she does is awesome. The match felt gritty and most importantly, they fought really hard in all 3 falls and had an unpredictable match that had some thought put into everything down to how they built up things throughout all the 3 falls without going cookie cutter. Definitely felt like more people should have their eyes on these two. Admittedly, Crea could've done with a bit less slapping of the thigh, but other than this was great. 

2025 Matchguide 

2025 Matchguide Week 47

 Yu Shimizu & Yuta Oya vs Ali Najima & Hajime Enshu, Sportiva 11/19

Best Sportiva in a while, for 2 reasons: 1) we get some cool Najima/Oya matwork at the start and it's always awesome to see Oya grapple it out and b) an unusal level of disdain between Najima and Shimizu, and thankfully they settle out to deliver a hot finishing stretch between the two that is packed with everything you can ask for. Enshu very much exists in this match, apparently he's a 40-something year old guy who was briefly an AJPW rookie in 2010s and only came back to wrestling last year after a +10 year hiatus. Interesting backstory aside he is a not very impressive skinny old man wrestler, though he can lay it in here and there, and we do get to see Oya judo throwing his skinny ass, so that was cool, and then he doesn't get in the way anymore. Shimizu vs Najima is just great. Obviously these are two very straight forward hard hitting pro wrestlers and they do clock each other with their kicks and elbows good, but the really impressive finish is built around submissions. All year we've seen Shimizus rear naked choke and Najimas achilles hold built up as killing moves so seeing them scramble out of those here was a really sweet piece of long term wrestling storytelling, and the surrounding wrestling was impressive. Finish was actually great too. If Sportiva at some point ends up giving us a singles match between these two I'll be delighted but for now this was a really nice stand-in.

Tomoki Hatano vs Shota Marlon Miwa, HEAT-UP 5/25

This was unexpectedly good. I've only known Hatano as the less impressive, less scummy tag partner of Yu Shimizu. But in this match, he was breathing the spirit of the scum bastard as he basically made it a point to be as evil to his opponent as possible. Really uncooperative looking matwork where Hatana threw the skinnier Miwa around and scrambled for chokes, hard brain scrambling elbows, shrugging off his kicks and just being a total prick. Just the first half of this was like 20 times more interesting than the average indy match due to sheer uncooperativeness and a disdainful nature. Shota Marlon Miwa has the dubious fame of being the first German-Japanese pro wrestler, he is a kind of skinny lanky karateka, he sells his ass off and his kicks are really fun which is all you really want from a karateka. His axe kick and big jumping leg lariat are awesome, so when you have an awesome leg lariat you are an awesome wrestler in my book. Hatanos enzuigirs were also impressively hard kicking, catching Miwa right in his skinny neck. Really good uncooperative little match.

MARU & Ayano Irie vs Marino Saihara & Yukina Uehara, AWG 11/24

A lot of pretty badass wrestling here. MARU continues to look like a killer as she's constantly inflicting punishment, biting, pulling hair, waffling people with a chain and killing them with double stomps. The chain stuff is cheap but effective and the surprise chain attacks are fun, and I am even fine with the comical amount of ref distractions, and it always looks punishing. There was also some great stretch muffler work here. Initially Uehara scrambled right out of the hold, so later MARU goaded her into throwing kicks just to catch her leg and go for the move again. It's super simple stuff but it's a lot of fun and somehow very few wrestler are smart enough anymore to do things like that. Uehara and Saihara were also pretty great here dishing out punishment constantly barraging people with kicks. Uehara seems to be turning into a good wrestler now, even her somewhat goofy hip attack hit hard, and she's just a ton of fun, imagine Torrie Wilson blasting people with credible shoot kicks. One thing that stands out here was the smart use of transitions, it never felt like I was just watching people run through their offense. They settle into a Saihara vs Irie finishing run which is surprisingly white hot. Irie had some problems executing stuff early on, but she held up pretty well against Saiharas UWF style barraging her with big boots from every angle. Saihara is a super reliable wrestler too just constantly putting the heat on people with shoot kicks and submissions and her suplexes. It's simple, straight forward wrestling that hits hard. There were also some great dramatic saves including Uehara just running in and braining Nagai with a BattlARTS-worthy high kick. Just great action. The finish is Saihara nailing Irie with a jumping knee to the face and then throwing her with a huge deadlift German which is one hell of a finish in 2025. I have no explanation for the greatness of AWG, they draw small crowds, which mostly seem to be uncles that seem to be there to look at the pretty girls, yet they keep putting on these banger matches that are more straightforwardly enjoyable than almost anything else I'm seeing in 2025.  

Mari & Act vs Haruka Ishikawa & Kyoka Iwai, AWG 1/24

Great tag, which was refreshingly different. Basically, Mari and Act are the top heel act in AWG and Ishikawa and Iwai are a pair of lesser evils. Haruka Ishikawa was going after Mari like an absolute pitbull here, just an absolute demon, and in turn Mari would maul her with some really violent kicks. Iwai likes to hit people with a gimmicked umbrella, so Mari shutting that down quickly and Act giving her a taste of her own medicine was good. Mari and Act toyed with their opponents for a bit before Ishikawa and Iwai gained control in a smart spot. After that it was just a relentless as they tried to take down Mari with Mari having great violent retaliations. Heck, there was a chair throw in this that felt like one of the most memorable things I've seen in a while. The one slight let down is the finish, since they were setting up the upcoming Mari/Ishikawa title match. But this is a great prelude to that, as convincing and intense as you can ask for any match to be mostly thanks to Haruka and Mari.

2025 Matchguide 

2025 Matchguide Week 45

 Shinya Ishida & Ali Najima & Masanori Watanabe vs Yu Shimizu & Yuta Oya & Ryutaro Ohno, Sportiva 11/12

Sportiva with an all star 6 man tag! And yeah this resembled one of those 90s AJPW 6 mans just in a sportsbar. A bit less grand in scope if you will, but everyone here got to do some fun wrestling and it ended up being a very well put together super enjoyable match. Starts out nice and basic. Shimizu always looks great in these tags, in this case by kicking things off booting people off the apron and putting effort into working an abdominal stretch. We do get touches of everyone doing what they do best and giving an impression of what has made Sportiva such a good promotion this year. We get a great Najima/Oya exchange, which made me think we're due for another singles match between them. Their progression continues as they keep going toe to toe, and the same goes for Najima standing up to higher ranked guys like Ishida in a bigger way now. Ohno is still in his rookie role, but we know he can be fun doing his thing. This was a lot of fun and a reminder that this crew is one of the best things going in 2025 altough I am thirsting after some singles matches between any two of these guys.

Yukito vs Bomber Okuno, HEAT-UP 9/13

I quite like Yukito. In a world full of guys with a shootstyle moveset, an actual Kiyoshi Tamura trainee is always a welcome change of pace. Even more interesting is the fact that he's a 47 year old rookie, although you don't really notice his age. This is not shootstyle or anything, but just the way Yukito would aggressively hook his boody into Okuno and take him down loos just legit enough for it to get my attention. The match soon becomes about Okunos toughness. Okuno is more of a Jun Izumida type guy: hard head, slow moving, doesn't do many things. He's often trite, but in this match Yukito gets just on his grill enough that everything becomes a bit more contemptful, making this match interesting. Okuno would keep shrugging of Yukitos kicks, laying back into him with really hard elbows and headbutts, and rattle him with cool outdated offense like Coconut Crushers or falling headbutts. It's compelling precisely because it's not your typical even steven match up. Okuno would absorb Yukitos kicks and then just grab him and slam him really hard again. It becomes about Yukito trying to crack a tough, stubborn opponent. When he finally starts gaining momentum and starts to get ahold of Okunos arm, it really feels like he was going for the kill rather than getting in some cute reversals. Some really nice desperation down the stretch here with those submissions, and you do get those kicks vs hard head spots and Bomber cracking Yukito really hard. Super simple but highly enjoyable match.

Mari & Haruka Ishikawa vs Yui Tensho & Sakura Mizushima, AWG 2/24

'nother good match from AWG. Aside from a few light hearted moments, this delivered plenty of good action. Yui Tensho was in goofball mode early, trying to hit the AXE BOMBA~, which lead to Mari and Haruka doing an Anderson Bros style job working over her arm. We got see some good armwork from both of them. When Mizushima tagged in, I thought she would be one of these idol types - you know, very skinny, hits flimsy dropkicks and rollups, but she tried to take out Maris leg with some pretty brutal double stomps. Her dropkicks aren't amazing but I thought she was pretty effective as she always knew what to do. Loved Mari putting her in her place with some hard kicks and then almost ripping her in half with a crazy submission. Second half was about Tensho vs Haruka Ishikawa. Tensho cut back the goofiness and I thought Ishikawa was quite efffective pouncing on Tensho with sentons over and over, she looked like a pitbull. They just build to the axe bomber and it's good stuff. I like that Tensho getting a win over Maris team was made to feel like a big deal.

Mari vs Sakura Mizushima, AWG 3/16

Their exchanges in the February tag hinted at a good match, and this pretty much delivered just that! This was pretty great overdog vs underdog stuff. Mari outclassed Mizushima initially, and the match quickly turned into a nasty trashing with Maris kicks and sadism. Mizushima took one of the hardest throws into a row of chairs I've ever seen (and think of the ground that covers in joshi). Mizushima was able to catch one of Maris kicks and hit this nasty move where she dropped her entire body weight on Maris leg. She then proceeded to drop some more nasty double stomps on Maris leg. That legwork is very brief and doesn't slow Mari down too hard, probably since they wanted to keep Mari being the overdog, but it gives Mizushima some breathing space to mount a comeback. Thought the match was pretty much perfectly laid out with Mizushima getting just the right amount of desperate and urgent hopespots and Maris cutoffs being hard and mean. Mind you, Sakura could be a bit better when it comes to footwork and the force of her execution, but for what her role is she does pretty well. Also loved Maris quick use of the Gory Special. Very good stuff and Mari continues to deliver. 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 36

 Shuji Ishikawa vs Hitamaru Sasaki, Kyushu Pro 8/24

Kyushu Pro once again delivers one of the best big matches of the year... it's more likely than you think! Ishikawa was quite impressive here dropping bombs on his much smaller opponent and basically acting like King Kong. He was absolutely cracking Sasaki with his elbows and knees here, as Shuji Ishikawa does. Some of Sasakis strikes were a bit feeble, but he also had a few kicks that caught Ishikawa pretty hard. The best thing about this was that it was pretty unpredictable. Nearly no going through the motions here. I loved how Sasaki would clutch his bad neck early on whenever he got whipped back. I would've liked them to go a bit deeper but for this kind of super dominant champ vs underdog challenger in an affair with lots of hard hits this was very good.

 

Daisuke Ikeda vs White Moriyama, HEAT-UP 8/17

Ikedas 1st match in like 20 months! Well, I love him, but maybe it's time to think about hanging up the boots. The first 7 minutes of this are just a below average NOAH match. Why are you doing rope running? Ikeda hits a cool russian leg sweep and starts kicking the hell out of Moriyama and it starts to get good. There are some brutal head kicks, headbutts and face punches. There's also some old man comedy with Moriyama hitting Mongolian Chops and Ikeda biting his foot. It's fun but it's a far cry from what things used to be. Moriyama looked really off here, hitting a weak second rope elbow drop of all things and some flimsy looking leg lariats. A far cry from his match against Najima. Some great brutality here which feels almost nostalgic, though. 

Kazunari Toi vs Shinigami vs Leatherface, Crazy Union 8/17

Oh it's Crazy Union. How old is Katsunari Toi? Oh, 60. He does not move or act like he's 60. I guess he loves hitting people with barbedwirebats and spin kicking them and it's keeping him young. Toi is so energetic and fun here, really a breath of life. I'm not sure when Shinigami last wrestled, but he is slower. But so what, he's a zombie and he puts the brain claw on Toi. Shinigami and Leatherface team up to beat on Toi until suddenly someone who looks like ICEMAN (from Puerto Rico and some Japanese indies in the 90s) comes in to help! Okay, I did not expect that. It turns into a tag team match somehow, and well, they just continue to brawl and throw each other into furniture. It's fun. I think Katsunari Toi would have been great in the WWF Hardcore Division. I like that here when kicks are thrown that don't land they are just ignored. And the match is completely chaotic. Whenever I watch Crazy Union it's so anarchic and befuddling and unapologetic in what these guys aim to do. It rarely ends up producing 'great matches' in the traditional sense but it's charming and I like it a lot and this was a good example of that fun befuddling anarchy. Nevermind: TOI~!
 

Sareee vs Ranna Yagami, Marigold 8/1

Continues from their very good match earlier in the year. Ranna was like an angry terrier trying to maul Sareee here. The result is actual scrappiness and violence coupled with the interpromotional angle. Ranna is a fun crowbar, I should probably watch more of her, she had a lot of fun ways to hit Sareee really hard. They did the spot where they no sell some soccer kicks which is one of the most trite spots in modern wrestling to me but Ranna resolves it by just pelting Sareee really hard with kicks. She was barraging Sareee so hard you buy there might be an actual upset. And Sareee is pretty impeccable as the higher ranked star destroying someone with double stomps and dropkicks while looking cold as hell.

Seri Yamaoka vs Utami Hayashishita, Marigold 8/16

Seri is obviously a hot prospect. Utami is one of the top women in Marigold. They start with some cool matwork which was nice to see from Utami. When Utami got the advantage, she made sure to punish Yamaoka with some body slams and boston crabs in typical veteran on rookie fashion, with Yamaoka having to progress through that. Some cool suplexes and moments and Utami was eventually forced to bust out the bigger bombs to put Yamaoka down. Last few minutes were very good. Nothing mindblowing but it's a solid match and Yamaokas progression is coming along nicely. 

Lee Moriarty vs Xelhua, RoH 8/29

Man, it can be jarring to go back and watch US workrate wrestling. So much stuff was thrown out here, just for the sake of it, with not much of it being allowed to breath or mean anything. Two things I liked a lot about this: Xelhua ripping Moriarty apart with submissions like a lucha Volk Han, and the finish. That was very cool. But on the way there, they just did a lot of meaningless stuff. I wasn't familiar with Moriarties act so I was a bit surprised when he went the heel route after trying to wrestle Xelhua straight on. Good in theory, but Xelhua was back on offense almost immediately. Moriarty dropkicks Xelhua while leapfrogging over the referee? Cool spot, looked great, but again didn't mean anything because Xelhua was back on offense seconds later. Moriarty giving Xelhua some dirty stomps in the corner? Again, didn't matter, Xelhua was back to beating him up seconds later! 5 minutes in they had thrown out and discarded so much stuff it was almost comical. The using of the Pure Title rules was also nonsensical. A flimsy punch gets Xelhua admonished, but bending the fingers or stomping someone in the corner is fine. Moriarty forces Xelhua to the ropes with the Border City Stretch, and the commentator points out Moriarty could easily lock in that dangerous hold again. He does not lock it in again, until its time to do the finish, because gotta do more stuff. At one point Moriarty the heel hits 2 suicide dives in a row. He goes for a 3rd, pauses as if to act like he's not gonna do it (After hitting 2 already), then goes for it anyways and that time Xelhua catches him and puts him in another meaningless submission on the floor. Because apparently you can just catch a man suicide diving on you if he makes a slight pause before. Just bafflingly stupid stuff. There was some good work here but man I do not like this kind of wrestling. 

2025 Matchguide 

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 29

 Tsuyoshi Michibata vs Tatsunori Oya, Kobe Meriken 5/23

No clue who this Oya guy is, but he tries to rush Michibata at the bell. Michibata proceeds to kick the absolute shit out of Oya. And slaps the shit out of him too for good measure. After taking a bunch of savage kicks Oya makes a somewhat crummy comeback hitting a flimsy X-Factor. He continues to get on track a bit locking in some submissions but is soon stopped dead in his straight when he runs into a Michibata knee to the face. Oya clumsily tries going for the arm but is soon put to sleep. Amazing the things that can happen in a tiny sportsbar.

Tanomusaku Toba & Tyson Maeguchi vs Takuya Wada & Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 6/1 - FUN

Kickboxers vs shooters! Pretty good action here. Even with a bunch of younger and faster guys around, I think Toba was probably the best guy in the match. He'd aggressively try to elbow people in the head, and sell vulnerability which made things interesting, then blast punch people in the face. That said Maeguchi was also pretty fun. He had some cool fast combos and good energy. Couple neat exchanges involving him down the stretch and a great finish. Wada and Katsumura don't leave a huge impression but they are solid enough. Good stuff.

Akito vs Yuya Koroku, DDT 6/1

Yuya Koroku is another wrestler from DDTs never ending supply wrestlers who are somewhat-competent-but-not-terribly-interesting-to-me. This was mostly WoS style chain wrestling and pretty fun. Akito is pretty good doing this stuff, not a master but it was fun watching him block Korokus basic escape attempts. Dug all the slick pin attempts. Koroku goes along fine and the veteran vs upstart aspect adds a bit of flavor. 

Ali Najima & Masanori Kanu Watanabe vs Shota Marlon Miwa & Yukito, HEAT UP 7/12

This was about 8 minutes long and pretty great. We get some fun shootstyle grappling between Watanabe and Yukito at the beginning with Yukito once again looking very capable. Once Najima gets in the ring the match immediately becomes really stiff. Najima is turning into the most exciting wrestler on earth with his hard kicks and crazy running headbutts. I am also digging his use of the firemans carry. Almost everything he hit in this match rattled people and it's really fun. Shota Marlon Miwa is this skinny guy in karate pants but he seemed capable and also hit a really great axe kick at one point. BattlARTS-style KO finish was really cool. A lot of great action in a very short time, this was a winner.

Utami Hayashishita vs Takumi Iroha, Marigold 7/16

A lot of really good work in this. Thought the build from Iroha being the (convincing) overdog to Utami taking her down a peg and levelling the field by doing some pretty fun legwork was really good. There were a few awesome touches and they did an excellent job building to the big bombs, like there was remarkably little move spam for such a long match. Thought they both did a pretty good job selling the work on the back and leg. That said, holy fuck 56 minutes is too long for these two at this point, just way too much bloat. The match already started out slow, and 20 minutes in they were already at a snails pace doing constant double downs and things like that to stretch out the match to the maximum. The finish wasn't exactly Kandori vs Hokuto either. Edit it down to like 30 or even 40 minutes and add a better ending and you'd have the match of the year.

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation 

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 27

 Ari Najima vs Masanori Watanabe, Sportiva 7/9

The U-Style-in-a-sportsbar-resurrgence continues. Some great grappling exchanges here, with Najima looking really good, he may be one of the best guys on earth right now, which is pretty crazy considering his debut was like a year ago, but I guess when you wrestle twice a week for a year you get good fast. Both guys deciding to do shootstyle grappling on the floor was a crazy moment and they actually continued to do grappling. Liked how Najima, after just getting entangled in an armbar by Watanabe continued to sell an arm/shoulder injury throughout. Back in the ring we get some more scrappy exchanges and Watanabe kicking Najima in the bad shoulder and hitting cool arm takeovers. Headbutt exchange leading to the running headbutt was pretty sick too. Ending felt premature, but I guess these two will fight each other a lot more, at least I hope so because this definitely made me excited to see these two develop a full on rivalry. Great stuff, more passion, skill and energy on display here than in a lot of matches on much bigger shows, Sportiva is on a roll.

Asuka Fujitaki vs Yuria Hime, STARDOM 6/4

This was good pro wrestling. Basically Yuria tries to hit fast and hard to take down the bigger Fujitaki. When Fujitaki tried to give Hime the rookie treatment with a boston crab (that Hime desperately tried to avoid), Hime came back with some quite vicious big boots. I also dug how they built to the bodyslam. Fujitaki doesn't do the cool submissions she showcased in the YuuRi match, but she is effective her putting down her opponent with basic lariats. Good basic all action match, the one let down was a somewhat awkward transitoin into Yurias skullsmasher move thing.

Utami Hayashishita & Mayu Iwatani & Seri Yamaoka vs Takumi Iroha & Senka Akatsuki & Sora Ayame, Marigold 6/17

Interpromotional joshi action! They put all these rookies in the main event so they know what kinda gold they have on their hands right now. And this largely delivers. First Yamaoka vs Senka exchange is a lot of fun. Then the intensity picks up a lot when Iroha tags in and starts waffling Seri. Iroha did a great job carrying herself like a badass in this and delivering character moments. Hayashishita is cool but I thought she could've carried herself as bigger considering she's the world champion of this promotion. I mean, her getting shoved around by the rookies is fun, but  I thought her later exchanges with Senka would've been a bigger deal if she had established herself as more of a badass earlier. Iwatani is hit and miss but was able to engage in some hot exchanges largely thanks to Iroha. But the match delivers the Senka moments that you want. Her testing herself against Utami is fun, she had a killer sleeper hold at one point and the SHOOT PIN~ is still strong. Also the match needed more Seri. Still, a really fun match that delivers more complex action than you'd expect going in and made me invested in this little Marigold/Marvelous feud.


Averno, Dr. Cerebro, Euforia, Volador Jr. & Xelhua vs. Blue Panther, Hologram, Neon, Valiente & Virus (ACTION 5/24/2025)

20 minutes of non-stop goodness. Your GOATS Blue Panther and Virus looked insane, and everyone else was a ton of fun. Match had a little bit of everything: cool lucha matwork, but they move on to standing exchanges pretty fast, lots of dives, complicated highspots from Neon and Hologram, and thankfully also plenty of rudo antics. Loved the rudo stuff honestly as it was just right to stop the match from becoming a total exhibition. Also loved Euforias little monster run, and Valientes highflying was really impressive considering he must be pretty old by now. Blue Panther continues to be the greatest plucky old man in wrestling, and Virus still looked like the best guy in the match. A lot of cool highspots but Holograms no brakes suicide dive probably took the cake. Finish looked too easy, but sometimes you just gotta take it home and give the fans a feel good moment.

White Moriyama vs Ari Najima, HEAT-UP 6/1

It's White Moriyama for real this time! Once again, this had the weird rules with 1st round being kickboxing, 2nd grappling and 3rd is straight forward everything goes. Kickboxing was alright, with a few punches landing pretty hard, grappling round was pretty intense where it seemed neither wanted to give up the advantage. And finally in the 3rd it's a pretty awesome breakdown with Najima really laying into Moriyama with hard shots. Moriyama seemed to have slowed down and looked like dead meat, but then started giving Najima back as good as he got. Last strike exchange was downright savage and the finish was rad. Seems Moriyama has only stepped a few times in the ring this year which is regrettable because he can clearly still go.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 26

Shinya Ishida & Yu Shimizu vs Ari Najima & Masanori Watanabe 7/2

Really good match from Sportiva this week. Solid no frills pro wrestling early on and a bunch of really good stuff in the second half. Once again, I was really impressed by Yu Shimizu. His brutal elbows rule and he's always doing something nifty. His boot that knocked Watanabe off the apron was straight out of 90s AJPW. Ishida stuck to his stuff, but he looked slick and did a bunch of awesome quick exchanges with Najima in the second half. Najima has also grown to the point where he now keeps up with more complicated stuff pretty well. Watanabe is still green-ish but he's really good when he's grappling or attacking someones arm. The finish was Shimizu mauling him with elbows and Watanabe trying to break Shimizus elbow with nasty kicks and elbows. Very good stuff, I can't wait to see another singles match between these guys.

Senka Akatsuki vs DASH Chisako, Tenryu Project 5/21

Great little match that brought some sick violence worthy of WAR. DASH just beat the hell out of young Senka here, some crazy violent slaps and dropkicks and stomps on display. Senka takes a big beating, but you know it all can change when she gets her opponents shoulders down and starts working for the pin. The shoot pin still rules. I liked when DASH did the 'okay, hit me' Senka was immediately right there and started to maul her with open hands, Senka is pretty big. Some great cutoffs from DASH here. I'm digging this 2025 joshi resurgence, you know the passion is back when a throwaway match on a mens show is this heated, and it all started with Senka.


Ari Najima vs Yukito, HEAT-UP 5/3

This had the rule  that it was a rounds match with the 1st round being kickboxing with gloves, 2nd round being grappling only and the 3rd just regular pro wrestling. Kickboxing part was alright, they were holding back a little. Grappling part was really good, Najima is clearly really good at this kind of slick shootstyle grappling and it was nice that he get to test himself like this. 3rd round was also really fun with both guys kicking and slapping each other in fun ways and developing good intensity, check out Aris arm selling. Good stuff but I'd like to see just a proper shootstyle match between them because at just 3 minute rounds this felt a little short.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

2024 MOTYC List #2

 
Kazushi Sakuraba vs Daisuke Sekimoto, NOAH 2/15/2014

Terrific match. Very Fujiwaraish performance from Sakuraba doing lots of really great submission entries and counters on Sekimoto. Sekimoto is really effective as a simpleton powerhouse here, he makes a great foil for Saku as his style is basic enough to make Sakuraba look spectacular, but also because of his freakish strength you buy that Sekimoto could just squeeze Sakuraba to death if he simply gets his arms around him.  A few really smart spots here. Sakuraba dropping a nasty knee on Sekimotos face, as well as deciding to later work him over with knees to the body and low kicks was unexpected. Also, because Sakuraba is so frail whenever Sekimoto actually starts doing damage it looks like he's just killing him.


Kazushi Sakuraba & Ulka Sasaki vs Hikaru Sato & Shuhei Taniguchi, NOAH 5/4

I'm liking this old man shooter division. Sakuraba is 54 years old now, but he is still pretty amazing on the mat. Ulka is an ex UFC guy and he shows promise. I thought Shuhei Taniguchi was pretty great here as outmatched but still dangerous old guy and if he wrestles like this more often I'd like to see more of him. Initially Sakuraba was tooling him by reversing Taniguchis greco roman style with his own unorthodox submissions. Just when Taniguchi seemed to not get anywhere, he threw Saku with a big head and arm throw and locked in a Honda-esque choke hold. He then dropped Sasaki with a nasty STO and tried to smash his head with an out of nowhere soccer kick. Sasaki and Hikaru Sato also had an awesome mat exchange. Taniguchi getting heated with Sakuraba and going for suplexes and more out of nowhere headkicks was pretty great. Finish was sudden but also pretty spectacular.


Outsider Negishi vs Dekai Ichimotsu, Health Pro Wrestling 4/14

Great little match. Negishi is gray and old and kind of gangly and Ichimotsu is rocking the wrestling shoes black t-shirt and slicked back hair like a sleazy Osamu Kido. Almost all on the mat. After some cool opening grappling with both guys displaying cool indian deathlock entries, Negishi starts going for the leg. Negishi has a kind of frail old man vibe but he is fun yanking at Ichimotsus leg. Ichimotsu was pretty great selling the legwork and making comeback attempts by going after the arm. Highlights include some great work around a body slam, and Ichimotsus leg giving out when he attempted his finisher.

Bryan Danielson vs. Blue Panther, CMLL 4/5/24

Thankfully Arena Mexico saved this match from being another boring dream match by booing Danielson and rallying behind Panther. Danielson was clever enough to lean into it and Panther was pretty damn awesome here. Opening grappling wasn't anything mindblowing but it's fun to see Danielson go at it with a genuine maestro. I actually thought they could have done a little more on the mat, tho Bryan going into scarecrow position and twisting Panthers head was cool. Panther then taking all this stiff offense and a big dive and suplex on the floor was pretty sick. Initially I liked Danielson selling his leg being damaged by Panthers Tapatia, but him just popping up to hit a dropkick pissed me off a little. Panther desperately avoiding the submission was great and so much better than the usual reversal fest. He also took another big bump off the top, why is this 63 year old man taking all the huge bumps in the match?? Danielson retaliating to the flubbed submission with head stomps was great and probably the best moment of the match. I'm not sure why Panther was the first one to get up after Danielsons 2nd dive and simply hit a dive on his own. The running knee in the ring was a bit lost on me. I get that Danielson was trying to lean into his arrogant outsider act by smiling and not following up, but it still took me out of it a bit before they followed with the cheap finish. Tho Panthers super fast armbar was awesome. Good to very good match with a very impressive performance by Panther overall.

Kazuhiro Tamura vs Akira Jo, HEAT UP 4/7

Very good big match I thought. Jo has roots tracing to IGF, but he has turned into a complete sleazeball now. He really has the vibe that he is a capable wrestler, as evidenced by him doing some grappling and throwing Tamura with a really nice belly to belly early on, but he would rather rake eyes and be a scumbag than continue on that path. The main reason I liked this was a) the selling throughout was very good, and b) they mixed in a lot of cool stuff to keep my attention. Highlights include Jos amazing Rikishi bump that was really well timed, as well as some choice counters that they mixed in. Tamuras armwork was really good throughout the match, lots of nasty kicks to Jos shoulder, and the selling was good. Both guys end up taking big bumps that are important in the scheme of the match. They also ended the match on just the right note with one of the nastiest finishes I've seen in a while. They lose some points because the early goings were noticably lacking fire and engagement from both guys when it comes to their body language, as well as Kazuhiro Tamuras tendency to do moves like a shitty NJPW main eventer instead of embracing his U-File origins. That said, I was positively surprised by this.

 

2024 MOTY Master List

2022 MOTY List Update #6

Akira Jo & Yusaku Ito vs. White Moriyama & Kyosuke Sasaki, HEAT-UP 12/25/2022

Fun sleazeballs vs. shooters type match. Akira Jo used to be an Inoki guy, but he's really lost his way and become something that crawled out of a Masao Orihara type primordial soup. Lots of Jo/Ito trying to rake eyes and getting punished by stiff kicks and entangled in submissions. They worked had and worked an unusual structure with the outmatched heels being almost the underdogs. Ex-Futen guys were quite good, with Moriyama maybe being the best guy in the match. The main reason I am adding this though is the finish, where Moriyama and Ito were absolutely annihilating each other with FUTEN level headbutts and kicks. Didn't know that schlub Ito had that in him. Maybe the best finish of 2022

CHANGO vs. TORU, TTT 10/15/2022

Surprisingly good match. CHANGO reminded me a bit of a guy like AKIRA or Eddie Guerrero, a scuzzy technical heel who was willing to do whatever it takes to win. This includes lots of clever cheating and use of foreign objects, faking an injury, some gritty legwork on TORU’s leg, bailing cowardly, even using the apron to tie up his opponent. He also had a pretty violent looking diving knee to TORUs head, and some cool looking jumping axe kicks. Both guys trading stiff shots while fighting over a superplex reminded me of one of those stubborn 90s NJPW junior title matches, and the culmination was a sick headbutt that draw hardway blood. CHANGOs big dive was also pretty spectacular and felt epic due to happening late in the match at a critical point. The spray was a visually impressive foreign object to use and looked gnarly in combination with the blood. Toru was a bit subdued in the first half of the match, but his jaw-cracking elbows to put down the annoying CHANGO were great, I also loved his big dropkick which landed flush in CHANGOs face and he carried himself like Chango was not on his level the whole time and Changos counter tactics felt desperate in the process. Excellent big match in total.

2022 MOTY List

Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

Kazuhiro Tamura vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, Heat-Up 6/18/2014

 

I had no idea what to expect from this. Fujinami is old but can always go, but his opponent is a blip even on the indy radar. It easily could‘ve been a throwaway feelgood exhibition, but what we get is a really good little match! Fujinami grapples Tamura and looks really spry and motivated. There is some really cool MUGA vs. U-Style grappling with Fujinami busting out slick reversals of Tamuras armbars and Tamura trying to sink into his shootstyle holds. You actually don‘t see Fujinami stretch out and grapple often in his prime but he is a really cool maestro as an old man. When they stand up Fujinami gives Tamura a lot, even catching a dive from him and eating some hard kicks! The ending is inevitable, but this left me wholly pleased. Definitely one of the better Fujinami matches of the 21th century. 

 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Shinjuku Shark, Fuyuki Army 4/8/2004

As a fan of both BattlARTs and sleazy indy martial artists, this match was sort of a dream match to me. And this was a really fun 7 minute match. I was delighted how well these two matched up. Ishikawa made it clear he wasn’t taking Shark seriously, but Shark caught him with some hard punches and unusual moves, including an abdominal stretch. Shark also did some really cool dodging and head bobbing which surprised even Ishikawa. Cool finish with Shark trying to block the Octopus Hold only to get pulled into a nifty rolling armbar.

Genichiro Tenryu & Masao Orihara vs. Riki Senshu & Masahiko Kochi, ?? 5/5/2010

Riki Senshu is a tiny guy doing a Riki Choshu impression, but playing it straight. Amusing little match which may have been better than some actual Tenryu/Choshu tags from the time due to Senshu and Kochi being more willing to take punishment. Orihara had his working boots on, Tenryu did the bare minimum which is still fun. Worth checking out.

White Moriyamas Return to Pro Wrestling Part 2

 

White Moriyama & Takafumi Ito vs. Raito Shimitsu & Tetsuya Ido, Heat-Up 2/19/2021

This was probably the best Heat-Up match I’ve seen so far. It had the smooth matwork and stiffness of the previous matches, plus a story, and they worked a breathless pace. Moriyama and Shimitsu have heat now, and all their exchanges felt heated, even tho there was no crowd. We start right with Moriyama taking Shimitsu down and going for the kill with an armbar, before Shimitsu throws him off. We get a cool slick Ito/Ido matwork section  before they move into Shimitsu and Ido working over Moriyama mostly involving Shimitsu throwing Moriyama around. Really good comeback tease spot where Moriyama takes out Shimitsus bad leg. His actual comeback ends up being great too as he just catches Ido flush in the face with a spin kick. Extended finishing stretch built around Shimitsu uncorking all of his great looking throws and Moriyama rolling out a dozen submission reversals (with Shimitsu once again doing a really good job selling those submissions) was really good. At one point, Shimitsu got out of a triangle choke by just spinning Moriyama around, which was something I had never seen before. Heat Up is looking really promising right now putting out some of the best neo-shootstyle work.

White Moriyama vs. Takafumi Ito, HEAT-UP 10/22/2020

Man, promotions really missed the boat not giving Takafumi Ito more to do in the 10s. I really liked this match, they did some cagey defensive work early trying to crack each other, before Moriyama cranked up the pace just trying to catch a hold later. Ito looks crafty and the finish with him trapping both of Moriyamas arms before sinking in a choke was great.

White Moriyama vs. Hiroshi Watanabe, Heat-Up 12/24/2020

Ridiculously fun match built around Moriyama trying to use his shootstyle and Watanabe catching him in side headlocks, abdominal stretches and O’Connor roles. Great finish with Moriyama spinning around and into a heel hook that nearly twisted Watanabes foot off. I wish it had gone longer. It seems Watanabe considers himself over the hill at this point which is said because I love the guy.

White Moriyamas Return to Pro-Wrestling

Man, White Moriyamas return to pro wrestling completely flew under my radar. He was never the 5th best guy in FUTEN or U-Style, but by 2021 standards he's basically Tamura. 

 White Moriyama vs. Tetsuya Ido, Heat-Up 2/28/21

 This was a really fun, unpredictable 10 minute match with a surprising amount of hate. Ido is a kick padded kid who acts all cocky towards veteran Moriyama. Moriyama puts him in his place with some slick, fast grappling, so Ido retaliates with an awesome stomp to Moriyamas face. Ido kicks hard and his spinning choke is a fun false finish, so I am completely fine. Finishing run was really cool with Moriyama giving Ido the business with his kicks, including throwing these cool Tamura style leaping kicks, and some slick U-Style grappling. You can tell Moriyamas grappling is a class above what most guys can do these days the way he would move in and out of submissions. Dug all the slick leg locks.

White Moriyama & Takafumi Ito vs. Raito Shimitsu & Tetsuya Ido, Head-Up 1/29/2021

Really good little match. We get some really good U-STYLE opening grappling to start. Most of the Japanese wrestlers we’ve seen in the last 10 years doing that kind of wrestling have been old veterans, so it was nice to see Shimitsu and Ido step up and show they have no problem doing that kind of wrestling. I haven’t seen Takafumi Ito in a while, but he looked good here. He had some cool leg stretches, and this really cool cravate choke that nearly popped Shimitsus head off. Shimitsus head was turning really blue and pale while in that. Shimitsu came in with a bandage on his leg, and Moriyama and Ito work over it a bit. Really cool spot where Shimitsu tries using his typical idiot strength but fails due to his leg. Shimitsus selling in general down the stretch was really good. The finish was built around Shimitsu trying to hit his power moves with Moriyama countering them. It wasn’t as grand as the stuff we saw in other matches but it was cool. I am pleasantly surprised by Heat-Up delivering the goods with these matches, why is GLEAT not using these boys?

White Moriyama vs. Raito Shimitsu, Heat-Up 2/25/2021

Fun 5 minute sprint built around Shimitsu trying to crush Moriyama with his throws and Moriyama countering him and kicking him in the head. Shimitsu acted a bit like a Sekimoto clone here, but in the end Moriyama put him to sleep, so I wasn’t bothered. Moriyama had some slick counters and surprisingly violent kicks.

White Moriyama vs. Yu Iizuka, Heat-Up 11/26/2020

7 minute sprint where they hit the mat and don’t slow down, grabbing holds left and right. Very nice to see this kind of slick matwork again. At this point I’m used to seeing wrestling where there’s always at least one guy in a match who really sucks, but Iizuka looks like the real deal here and holds up very well. Very promising young wrestler.