2025 Pro Wrestling Week 15

 Takumi Iroha vs Sora Ayame, Marvelous 4/6/2025

Sora Ayame is the other rookie of Marvelous, having had her debut just in December last year. And well Iroha is obviously a monster so you can imagine how this goes. Ayame only has forearms and dropkicks, neither of which phase Iroha, and Iroha very much treats this like she is playfighting her baby sister until she decides to crank up the violence and beat the shit out of Ayames chest with really nasty kicks and chops. Ayame has no chance in hell but she just keeps plugging away. You know exactly how this guys but this match is executed extremely well with Ayame getting a few great hope spots. There is plenty of awesome struggle, with Ayame unable to even get in a body slam or the basic slam off the top rope on Iroha. At one point Ayame went for the Senka Akatsuki style shoot pin and it got an awesome reaction. Way better than you expect your typically rote rookie squash to be.

Leo Isaka vs KAMIKAZE, Marvelous 4/6/2025

I did not expect to see KAMIKAZE main eventing a joshi show in 2025. This man has been around forever, and he comes out looking to have the body shape of Giant Baba, and kind of moving like Giant Baba. The match is pretty fun. Clearly KAMIKAZE is limited at this point, but they make the most out of it. Much of this is built around Kamikaze busting out cool reversals into the abdominal stretch, and Isaka having a few different ways to get out of the abdominal stretch. Isaka can't get the bigger man off of his feet etc. Isaka really sold this as a challenging bout agaist a tough old coot and that's what makes this really fun. KAMIKAZE even busts out some gnarly Jumbo esque backdrops was great and when he goes to the top rope for his moonsault it elicits and appropriately shocked reaction from the audience, and when the hits that moonsault perfectly still it's just awesome. Really just a cool match built around a guy with obvious limitations but still figuring out how to make it entertaining for 15 minutes. Everything here felt like it mattered and the match had a clear purpose and build and for that it was better than other more athletic matches.

 Meiko Satomura vs Takumi Iroha, Marvelous 4/10

Solid, hard hitting pro wrestling that delivers exactly what you expect. Satomura still looks close to on top of her game, knowing exactly how to hit her spots in an unpredictable manner. Iroha is probably the one woman on earth who is most poised to become Satomuras successor. She has style, she has the cool kicks, she has Chigusas blessings. Clearly she has the firepower too to take chunks out of Satomura, and Satomura still has the vigor to smack her back down, and that makes for a really fun dynamic. I think I would like Iroha more if she stopped slapping her thighs so damn  much but she was really laying her kicks in here. There are some cool moments - Satomura doing a nice job working a headlock, checking a low kick from Iroha, throwing open handed strikes etc and builds really nicely from Iroha looking like a bullied child to Iroha finding her confidence and finally flipping the fuck out and punching Satomura in the face. Very good and another nice entry in Satomuras great final run.

CHANGO vs Leo Isaka, Marvelous 4/10

Yeah nevermind all that, here's CHANGO! Fun showcase match for all the slick stuff CHANGO can do and some amusing heel tactics. That weird bodyscissor over the ropes he does is so cool, and I also liked his slick dive set up and odd angle kick from the ropes, for an 'do cool stuff all the time' guy I like him a lot because he paces his stuff well and everything is with purpose. Isaka is a perfectly fine technico. He is a generic somewhat pretty junior with a bowlcut, so there's probably a ceiling to how much I can like him as opposed to the ruggedness of a genuine character like CHANGO, but he can also bust out some slick stuff. It helps that he's facing a murderers row of really interesting wrestlers recently.

2025 Wrestling Master List

Digging into a mysterious library of obscure Japanese handheld footage

 
Headhunters vs. Shinichi Nakano & Hirofumi Miura, WYF 8/30/1995
 

The people behind the promotion known was Mutoha have also started putting up various old handhelds on their YouTube channel. Years ago WYF was the first obscure Japanese indy promotion that I fell in love with and I wished to see more of this unique fed, so I am stoked to see this stuff unveiled after decades. And this match was pretty beastly. Headhunters are awesome and extremely underrated. There's nothing like watching two face painted monsters waltz into Korakuen Hall throwing chairs around while March of the S.O.D. blares. This was almost a squash, as Headhunters dominated nearly the entire action. They have great offense so it was cool. Highlights include a brutal powerbomb that almost broke Nakanos neck, and a completely unexpected slow motion German Suplex. I loved the moment where Nakano crawled to his corner trying to make the hot tag only to find his partner was being butchered outside the ring by another Headhunter. It's such a logical thing to happen in a one sided, out of control massacre. Nakano only got in a desperation enzuigiri and some potatoe blows. Miuras brief run on offense was okay but he quickly got destroyed with the moonsault to end all moonsaults. The crowd was super hot for this and lived and died with their WYF heroes. I wish we had gotten to see a bit more of Nakano though it is remarkable that he did not die by that powerbomb. The Headhunters wreaking havoc was absolutely awesome, though.

Masaaki Mochizuki/TARU/Takashi Okamura vs Masakazu Fukuda/Kamikaze/Hiroyoshi Kotsubo WYF 3/20/1997
 

This was the first match between these 6 guys. All their matches are great, and this is in Korakuen Hall and feels especially wild because WYF fans hate the karate guys at this stage, so it feels ultra heated.  Match was pretty much the perfect mix of shootstyle and WAR-esque potatoes/scrappiness with that trademark WYF levels of unpolished, dirty fighting. Early goings were really good as WYF guys kept their opponents grounded in scrappy fashion. Even Kotsubo looked really good as he kept taking downs with explosive shooting takedowns, at one point even leading to both guys tumbling outside and brawling on the floor.  Kamikaze is impeccable in these matches, kicking people in the face, hammering a guy with punches and taunting the karatekas further. Fukuda also looked great - just hurling dudes with suplex that looked insanely forceful, and trying to crush peoples face with dropkicks and stomps. Buko Dojo guys started breaking out their kicks later and it's everything you can ask for. There's a pretty great dive sequence, Mochizuki flying at people with kicks, Buko guys breaking up pins and submissions with nasty kicks etc. Even the Kotsubo vs Taru matchup which is really shit on paper ends up being good. WYF was striking gold with  this feud in 1997, and I'm so happy we get the beginning of the feud, really heated and violent from the get go.

 

Hiroshi Watanabe & Hiroyuki Kondo vs. Crusher Takahashi & Hideya Iso (Bungee Takada Produce 11/6/2003)

Apparently this is from a show produced by Bungee Takada. It's not something I knew about or dreamed that I would see it but it's a strange and cool surprise. We love all these guys when they are old men, and they were still youngish here, so they moved a bit faster and smoother than later. They went 24 minutes without really slowing down, with lots of trying to stay on a guy, and it was a cool match. Lotta matwork, cool submissions and pin combos. Hideya Iso was looking quite unrecognizable here and did some athletic moves including a Kota Ibushi style backflip into a moonsault. Watanabe had a wild beard making him look like a Mad Dog and he was as slick and technically sound as in any other match you'll see him in. The star of the match was Crusher Takahashi, though. The man was on fire doing it all here, throwing really beautiful bridging suplex moves, his amazing Terry Funk punch combo and doing other odd stuff like busting out the Gibson leglock. You can tell he was stoked to be in a long match with a bunch of capable opponents and show off what he can do. It was one of those matches that show off what you can do even while wrestling a rather conservative wrestling style in front of a small audience. Must-watch if you are a fan of Crusher Takahashi, a really solid wrestlers-wrestler type match for everyone else too.

Catching up with French Catch

 

Gilbert Leduc vs. Bert Mychel 4/16/73

Gritty as hell grappling match between two guys who look like dock workers or pup owners. That is kind of the best kind of old school match, and this was a really great version of that. Mychel is a Belgian greco olympian. He‘s built like a bear and looks a bit like Dick Murdoch, with a mean scowl. I think I‘ve yet to see a Belgian wrestler who wasn‘t awesome and Mychel did his country proud. This was low on flash but high on slow, gruelling struggling in and out of holds. Sometimes smooth and slick can be cool but there‘s an art form to working a slow headscissor or headlock that makes these kind of matches really engrossing. Both guys legit skill came into play too, as there were some cool quarter nelsons and some more uncooperative than usual scrambles over pins and holds. Highlights include some really painful looking handwork, Leduc deciding to hit lightning fast takedowns 20+ minutes into the match and one of the most painful looking, shoulder popping struggles over a butterfly suplex attempt that i‘ve ever seen. The fallaway slam over the rope was also totally unexpected an an absolutely insane bump that really ramped up the drama for the finish. Also, while the match never broke out into a complete slugfest, but they do slug it out here and there, and when they do they just smash the shit out of each other like it‘s France or something. Insanely skillful match that was real engrossing and one hell of a match overall.

Maurice Dumez/Georges Cohen vs. Antonio Montoro/Anton Tejero 4/30/73

Another absolutely beautiful match from France. Chock full of wonderful exchanges. Yes, you‘ve heard it before, but the match had a few outstanding moments. I think Cohen is one of the best technicos on the French scene, but Dumez completely stole the show from him here. Dumez was this lithe, athletic stud who had amazing grace on all his stuff and threw the most brilliant armdrags in the universe. He threw one hell of a suplex, too. The Spaniards were excellent stooges as usual. They did a good 10 minutes of straight wrestling to open this which is always nice, and went back to competitive wrestling even after trying heel shenanigans. Montoro was this aged technico who wrestled like an old bastard who still knew a few nifty technical moves, which is a really cool character, and he threatened to steal the technicos thunder with some of his moves. He‘d come flying off the tope, even leaping at people, and busted out some ridiculously elaborate throws and a great version of that spinning backbreaker we all love. Tejero had grown out his hair at this point making him look pompous and he bumped and stooged as hard as he always does, what a truely dedicated professional wrestler. All falls had really good finishes and the ending was a hoot with Montoro getting pounced across the ring by a miscommunicated move and then Cohen doing a feverish exchange and just darting outside the ring. Another gem from the French trove, if you ask me.

Billy Catanzaro/Pierre Bernaert vs. Mr. Montreal/Vasilios Mantopolous 6/5/72

This was a swimming pool match. All these guys displayed some amazing footwork and timing considering they were wrestling in a shaky, floating ring. This was pretty much a 30 minute comedy squash, wrestled at the highest possible level, like you are watching a couple gods taking a night off and making jokes to put some smiles on their audiences faces. Can you imagine if All Japan had undercard comedy matches like this?! With this kind of obscene workrate and athleticism?!? I really enjoyed the contrast of the Montreal/Mantopolous team, having Mr. Montreal a big body builder type who specializes in freakish strength spots and Mantopolous who is a lightning quick junior. Heels were amazing stooges as you expect, with Catanzaro being brilliant as usual. The man really had all time chemistry with Mantopolous and they breezed through one brilliant exchanges after another. Mantopolous George Kidd style technical trickery looked good in this kind of match. I also really enjoyed how Catanzaro kept teasing the falls into the water, like he was really a master of just barely hanging on to the ropes by his toe, he teases that plunge for 20+ minutes while Bernaert just kept falling into it through miscommunication spots, these two had a fun dynamic. There were a few vicious bits of Catanzaro on offense but they made less than 10% of the match. Jokes were funny, and the match stayed interesting through out as they kept mixing up things to do. If you want to lean back and watch a light hearted 30+ minute workrate sprint, check this out.

Kamikaze vs. Nicolas Priore 5/22/72

Kamikaze (possibly Modesto Aledo, or some imitator) is a really cool character. The creepy look that kind of reminds me of Fantomas, the strange mannerisms coupled with the esoteric martial arts bullshit and unorthodox athletic moves, it makes for a really compelling package. I love martial arts bullshit, and this was some high grade martial arts bullshit. Loved his re-entry into the ring, as well as how quickly he would dive to and over the top rope to attack his opponent. Priore was a good straight man to this weird monster, and they got tremendous heat and drama for their stuff. Kamikaze took a huge bump to the ring apron and seemed done but Priore apparently ended up bleeding from Kamiakzes karate chop assault and the referee ended up stopping the match which is always a memorable ending. Nice introduction to the Kamikaze character.

WYF Endless Shout 1/8/1998

 Watch

Shigeo Kato vs. Raging Bull

Raging Bull is some foreigner who somehow ended up working a few WYF shows around this time. This was almost like a TV studio squash with Kato working over Bulls arm for 7 minutes before tapping him out with a carny hold. Bull only clubbed his way out of Katos holds a few times and went down pretty easily. I think Kato did his job well here so I thought it was a cool little match but nothing must watch.

 

Tadahiro Fujisaki vs. Makoto Saito

Really good match which leaves you with a few realisations: 1. these two kids were insanely talented to have a random indy sleaze undercard match this good 2. damn, that's actually Fugofugo Yumeji and some dork from Dragon Gate before he went to Dragon Gate? 3. These two totally could have and should have been the Yuki Ishikawa and Daisuke Ikeda of sleazy King's Road style, but it just ended up not happening. AAAAAHHHHH it's maddening!! All that squandered potential!!! It's even worse than watching the kids in GAEA!! But, atleast I can watch this match and fantasy book an ideal fed centered around these guy propagating their own vision of brutal & intricate junior wrestling.

This match is a lot like two NOAH heavies having a really fun undercard bombfest. It's not flawless, but the potential for this to grow into something beautiful was there. Fujisaki has the cool wrist clutch suplexes and submissions and Saito brings the stiff spin kicks and hurty looking junior offense. The build to the finish was especially cool as it was like a mix of an AJPW "super finisher" and NJPW "You keep blocking this move, so I will use that to set up another move" moment.

 

Masashi Aoyagi & Cosmo*Soldier vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Azteca

Solid long match. The thing with these guys is you want them to bust out reckless highspots and have scrappy exchanges, so when they churn out a more polished match you‘re almost a little disappointed. That said Motegi proved himself an intelligent worker here. While his initial exchange with Aoyagi was not as heated as it would‘ve been in a 1993 W*ING vs. NJPW match, it was clear Motegi was trying to give Aoyagi as little space as possible to unleash his dangerous striking. Later, he decided to do some really solid backwork on Soldier to set up some cool submission holds. Everyone else was solid here but the match wasn‘t crazy or weird enough for a WYF undercard bout. Soldier had 2 good dives but he really needed to botch some moves.

Shinichi Shino vs. The Wolf

This is the Wolfs retirement match (although he would come back to work for WWS a few years later), which adds some emotional connection and heat. Shino isn‘t very good, but he can work a hard hitting match, and The Wolf gets in some nice kick barrages on him. Frantic pace and the crowd was really into it. I liked Shinos spinning Dragon Sleeper and his big powerbombs.

Onryo & Shinigami & Hirofumi Miura vs. Masakazu Fukuda & Hiroyoshi Kotsubo & Kamikaze, WYF 1/8/1998

Up to a point this was a really good 6 man tag. Everyone here is not super polished, but willing to take and dish out some punishment, so you got a bunch of fun scrappy exchanges. For example, Onryo sandbacked a Fukuda suplex early, so Fukuda just dropped him on his head. I also enjoy these hybrid wrestlers taking on these whacky zombies. Even Shinigami was entertaining as you got moments like KAMIKAZE turning his Iron Claw into a Fujiwara Armbar and then Shinigami would work over his stomach to set up the stomach claw. Even the Kotsubo/Miura section was good as Miura punched him in the face and Kotsubo would spit on him and hit a stiff spinning backhand. Control section on KAMIKAZE was really good, he got a table thrown on his head, bled a bunch, ate chain punches etc. The segment where he backdropped Onryo on top of Shinigami and then hit his spectacular Spaceman Moonsault while bleeding was incredible and like something out of a high level CMLL trios. Unfortunately the match fell apart a little when they had Kotsubo and Onryo engage in a long segment, they really needed to tag in Fukuda instead. KAMIKAZE looked great though spiking Onryo on his head and the ghoul outgrappling the guy in the singlet was funny.

The Library

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #8

 Koki Kitahara vs. Koji Kitao, Kitao Pro 1/21/1994 - GREAT

Kitao Pro was this unique fed that was stylized like a martial arts movie tournament with matches usually going no longer than 5 minutes, and Koji Kitao would always destroy all comers quickly. It's quintessential weird 90s shootstyle crap. For some reason Kitao liked Kitahara enough to always give him some offense, and this was a really fun 4 minutes of tubby martial artists pummeling each other with Kitao even taking one of the craziest bumps I've ever seen as he gets dropped on his head by a Kitahara suplex. He 

Koki Kitahara vs. 150% Machine, UWFi 6/26/1996 - FUN

Supposedly 150% Machine is KAMIKAZE, but he looks to skinny for that. I read somewhere that this match turned into a shoot. I have no idea if that is the case, because Kitahara always works so stiff and like such an uncooperative dick that you really can’t tell. Here, after smothering Machine on the mat a bit, apparently he didn’t like Machines lack of technical skill, so Kitahara decides to just blast him with kicks to the face from left and right. Machine fights back a little and is actually able to clock Kitahara with some good looking high kicks, but Kitahara always pulls himself back up and goes back to trashing the poor guy. The finish is just about the nastiest open hand blow in wrestling history.

Koki Kitahara & Lance Storm & Nobutaka Araya vs Koji Kitao & Nobukazu Hirai & Tommy Dreamer, WAR 6/7/1997 - FUN

Well, this is about as random a WAR matchup as they can get, huh? And this was a pretty fun match. Everyone brought their stuff to the match. So you had Kitao and Kitahara stiffing each other, Araya and Hirai working stiff tubby guy exchanges, Dreamer bringing weapons into the mix, and Lance Storm having his rat tail. I am amused that Kitahara continues to be one of the few people Kitao will bump and sell for (minimally, mind you) and he and Storm even get to take Kitao out with a double team move. The ending is just Kitahara kicking Hirai in the face and Hirai eating a nasty doomsday device and that’s about all you can ask for.

 

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Wrestle Yume Factory 1/28/1996

This was very much a  mid 90s high school gym scum indy show.

Madness vs. The Wolf 

 THE MADNESS emanates the kind of terrible fascination typical of sleaze indy wrestling. He's just a big guy with a skull mask and a green flanel shirt. His entrance theme is just gurgling swamp sounds. The match was better than you'd expect. It was pretty basic, but The Wolf will kick you really hard and THE MADNESS has a nice powerslam. Being able to do 1 or 2 moves well will get you far enough in my book and this was decent like an approximation of a  good WWF Superstars match in a japanese high school gym.

Cosmo*Soldier vs. Azteca

Azteca is the most mediocre junior in all of Japanese wrestling history, but I'd say he was decent in WYF as opposed to KAGEKI where he just got really into being the poorest mans Liger. Cosmo*Soldier  had yet to reach his peak as a botchtastic wannabe hybrid shooter junior that he would become in 1997, but he flies way into my heart in this match by hitting hilariously miscalculated dive into nothing. This really wasn't good or anything but it made me laugh.

Hiroyoshi Kotsubo vs. Hirofumi Miura

This was Hiroyoshi Kotsubo actually being pretty good. Lord knows that guy sucks working BattlARTS and Futen, but will have a good performance on the most niche shows. This was like a scrappy BattlARTS match with Kotsubo being aggressive and working takedowns on suplexes. Miura is some karate gi wearing scum who tries kicking hard but Kotsubo just eats him. This ended up just a squash, although the finish with the GI choke was badass.
  

Onryo vs. Shinichi Shino

 Shinichi Shino is a W*ING guy who it seems was struggling to find his identity at this point. He looked like a mix of several different wrestlers. Onryo at this stage is really pretty useless outside of dives and taking nasty bumps. This was mostly Shino in control and only allowing Onryo to hit his spots which is how you carry Onryo. I wouldn't say Shino was particularily good here, but he kept things moving and the match ended up short enough to be alright.

Masayoshi Motegi vs. Shinigami

Bless our lord and saviour Motegi. He tries so, so hard to get a watchable match out of Shinigami. On the other hand, he is likely responsible for letting guys as shitty as Shinigami into the business. I will respect him for shouldering the burden, though. Shinigami is terrible, but there was one nifty moment where Motegi was working over his leg and put a Figure 4 on him. Shinigami then got up, seemingly no-selling the leg work but then his leg gave right out. It was a pretty cool bit of convincing zombie-like selling. Motegi ends the match with a cool submission that was like an STF without the face lock and Motegi leaning all the way on the zombies injured leg. Also Onryo hit a dive off the balconies during this, setting the Onryo dive count on this show to 4. The match still blew, though.

Arashi & Osamu Tachihikari vs. Shinichi Nakano & Kamikaze

Shinichi Nakano has to be like the japanese Black Terry, putting in subtle great performances in the most grimy unexpected places. Problem was that he barely was in the match. He is in a great opening section - where he gets his bandaged shoulder torn up - and a great end section though. Between that, there are way too many segments involving Kamikaze. The parts were Kamikaze was controlling were terrible as he was constantly calling spots in a really obvious manner. Arashi & Tachihikari may be the least of the WAR heavyweights but they are still OK delivering a beatdown. The end was great as Tachihikari ended up bloody. Nakano delivered some nasty as fuck stomps to the cut and a running punch that was Daisuke Ikeda levels of wild. There was also a great spot where Nakano, seemingly beaten, pulled Tachihikari in position for Kamikaze to hit a surprise flying move. Nakano smashing Tachihikari in the face with a chair repeatedly for the 10 count was also way more violent than I expected  for a high school gym main event.

THE LIBRARY