More Joshi

 Mariko Yoshida vs Momoe Nakanishi, AtoZ 11/9/2003

Cool match. I’m surprised it’s not that well known since Nakanishi is generally well liked by joshi fans and Yoshida is well liked by, well, how can anyone not like Yoshida. This was Nakanishis go go style vs Yoshida booting her in the face and punching her and tying her up in submissions. It makes for a cool match because all Nakanishi knows is to go hard and she just keeps flying into the spiders web. Eventually she figures it out by going for chairs and trashing her opponent. Yoshida was really good as always, doing a good job using Nakanishi as a punching bag as well as not letting her get her spots in and giving her just the right hope spots. You know it’s good when there is actual build to Momoes spots. At 13 minute it was just right, too. Very good sprint.

GAMI vs Kumiko Maekawa, AtoZ 5/4/2004

I just love this match up. Maekawa is one of the most high end pro wrestlers you’ve ever seen, she just has some of the most ridiculously sharp kick based offense and does 30 minute matches in her sleep. And GAMI is, well, GAMI. This is just a super fun match built around GAMI annoying Maekawa in her unique ways, tying her up in holds, spraying mist in her face etc. There is one moment where GAMI fakes an injury and they treat it super serious and pause the match just for GAMI to get up and clock Maekawa with a paper fan that Maekawa of course treats like the joke it is. GAMI then uses Maekawas rage to mist her in the face with out even blinking. Maekawa spending the rest of the match with that pissed off look in her green face was gold. GAMIs few big spots (rolling kick landing in Maekawas face, big palm strike) were also spectacular. Now don’t get me wrong if this was 1998 shooter GAMI it would have been next level, but for this kind of neat character clash it was really cool. GAMI~!

Kana vs Tsubasa Kuragaki, JWP 3/31/2013

Very cool match up, I’m surprised this eluded me because both these two are among my favourites. Kana has a reputation for being a bit of a crowbar but there was little striking from her early on and instead she focussed on catching Kuragaki in submissions. Kana using Fujiwara-ish counters to contain the beastly Kuragaki was great. Kuragaki had some nice moments of her own using her power, including hitting an absolutely awesome out of nowhere deadlift suplexes. Second half has more stiff including a few gnarly backfists from Kana and Kuragaki busting out her trademark big offense. I liked that they didn’t overdo it considering this was a midcard match even though they were going well over 10 minutes. They could’ve just gone braindead and hit their spots but instead they told a story and delivered some cool wrestling.

Assorted JWP

 

Kaori Yoneyama vs. Masa Takanashi, JWP/Yoneyama Produce 12/13/2011

This was excellent, basically a 30 minute epic that had everything and told a great story. The match works because the size difference between Takanashi and Yoneyama isn’t huge, and Yoneyama can be really vicious. They start with 10 minutes of opening grappling before they morph into a story about Yoneyama having to work hard to overcome Takanashi. Takanashi is a really good grappler and they go through some nice smooth armrolls and fast switches. At one point Yoneyama had enough and started raining some really vicious looking ground and pound, but Takanashi took her down again with a crafty drop toe hold. Takanashi starts gaining control and working the arm with Yoneyama making some really great comebacks. It was awesome to see Takanashi going along with Yoneyamas high speed athletic joshi stuff, and Yoneyama in turn having no problem meshing with Takanashis tricky technical style. Lots of cool pin attempts, and eventually Yoneyama deals some damage to Takanashis arm to even things out. The arm work doesn’t take center stage but whenver they go back to it it’s really good and it makes sense because it sets up Takanashis Yoshi-Tonic finisher. The big strike exchange with Takanashi connecting a sick headbutt before Yoneyama hit some brutal knees to his head was by far the highlight of the match. Yoneyama trying to catch up to Takanashi was really fascinating as they spent the second half to Yoneyama finally getting that big pinfall. Really tremendous match, it had the kind of relentless pace and big moves you expect from a big match but with an engrossing story cool technical stuff and some brutal strikes. One of the best matches of the year, maybe even of the decade.

Leon vs. Hanako Nakamori, JWP 6/12/2011

This was also really excellent and kind of felt like a major hidden gem. I mean joshi was flying off the cliff at this point, and this match was not just good for that period, you could have had this take place in the 90s and it would be a top match, I mean these two easily run circles around something like Otani vs. Ultimo. Just a really good longform juniors match. For a 2010s match the action was refreshingly no frills, from the opening groundwork which was smooth and tight, to the choice of offense that both had. Nakamori was really good here as the aggressive younger wrestler trying to push her more experienced opponent, her offense was mostly basic dropkicks and such but she would really amp up the aggression at key points, really waffling her opponent with nasty palms face stomps and scrapes. Leon is a pretty cool wrestler, who does some flying but mostly hits cool slams and makes really good use of the spear, and fires back against Nakamoris aggression nicely. There is some backwork which is integrated into the match in really organic ways and Nakamori sold the fuck out of it, which sets her above your typical Manami Toyota/Azumi Hyuga types. Match had great pace and ebb and flow to it, a few neat spot and felt like an intense struggle as they kept increasing the viciousness throwing harder and harder kicks and elbows. Dug all the build to Leons big spots and the way Nakamori kept surviving and countering her, especially the reversals of the spear. I had no real opinion of either of these two workers going into this but they just had an amazing match.

Kana vs. Hanako Nakamori, JWP 10/14/2013


It's clown shootstyle, baby. Nakamori has kickpads here and she's basically all kicks. Opening exchange felt like one of those Kansai/Yamada exchanges from the golden age, both them just absolutey whiping each other out and trying to kick heads off. There is a somewhat lackluster crowd brawling section somewhat upgraded by the general high level of violence in their kicks and stomp, before we move the match back on track with Kana doing a fun performance being the superior grappler and constantly reversin Nakamori in slick ways. Last couple minutes were excellent and reminescent of Futen - I didn't get the sense Nakamori was a generic kicker here, she had some greatly timed and accentuated moments such as clocking Kana with a hard open hand, clocking here with a nasty back headbutt or breaking out a huge Destiny Hammer. Kana is really good doing these quasi-BattlARTS matches, it's too bad she ended up retiring to WWE. Really good stiff match that should have been on my radar in 2013.

The Call of the Underground #2: Underground Wrestling EXIT 9/12/2010

 Watch

 

 Kazuhiko Ogasawara vs. Kenji Takeshima

Pretty cool opening match due to both guys not holding back. Ogasawara has really violent punches and kicks, and Takeshima would eat them, take him down and pepper him with stiff elbows of his own. It's a super simple match formula but they make it work by waffling the hell out of each other and working some cool Lawler/Mantell exhausted exchanges from their knees. Dug how Ogasawara would kick Takeshima in the face to break out of submissions. Almost felt too epic for an opener.

Knight King Jully & Bomber Iwata vs. Johta & Nichiryu

Bomber Iwata has boxing gloves and I goes does a thaiboxing thing. Jully is another thick guy with MMA shorts. Nichiryu is lumpy and balding. This was pretty fun when Jota was in the ring as he was energetically trading beatings with the two guys on the opposite team. The parts where Nichiryu were okay but nothing memorable. Unfortunately he ended up being in for most of the match. Still decent amount of stiffness and no stupid ideas in their wrestling.

Mohan Dragon vs. Nyudo

Mohan Dragon is a foreigner with boxing gloves. Nyudo is a pudgy guy who wears a Fugofugo style singlet. I wonder if he has Fugos boy? This was 3 minutes of guys doing stand up and hitting each other. Dragon clearly had the feel of a guy who couldn't make his punches and kicks look all that good as he wasn't used to throwing them in worked matches. Nothing to see here really.

Toshiya Kurenai vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi

Apparently Kurenai is the EXIT Underground champion. He has MMA gloves and seems to be doing an aggressive striker thing. Aside from some fun moments of said aggressive striking this was also forgettable. Things got a bit more intense towards the end but mediocre old Tsubakichi, after falling out of the ring which could have heated the match up just fizzled out.

Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Kana

Fun discovery. This was worked extremely logical, basically a near squash with Takaiwa dominating most of the way and Kana only getting in desperation stuff. Some really good matwork, and Kana is really good at working this kind of match as she knows exactly how to pick her spots. Takaiwa was devastating her, even something like an elbow drop he did looked super violent, and her one big comeback where she teed off with kicks and a big punch was cool before she got her lights put out.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Jaguar Rogovski vs. Kikujiro Umezawa & Onryo

It‘s pretty cool to see Onryo in this environment. He gave a really good performance, blowing radiation dust at people and then really laying in kicks and elbows. Rogovski was a fun guy in a mask with MMA gloves who liked to throw hard punches and spin kicks, kind of working like a Toba and stand in. And Umezawa and Yumeji mauled each other something fierce once again. Goodness gracious. EXIT Umezawa continues to impress me, as he is really credible as a tough monster and he also had some fun Sumo vs. MMA feeling exchanges against Rogovski. But the thing that will stay in your mind is that horrifying headbutt Fugo lands on Umezawa. Fun main event all around.

The Library