Footage mining: Actwres GirlZ

Tae Honma vs Miyuki Takase, AWG 11/3/2019

Straight-forward awesome match. Begins strong with solid lockups and some slick matwork. The match soon turns into an ARSION-like affair as Tae Honma is an armbar fiend and was constantly trying to snap Takases arm off. Honmas laser focus and variety of ways to lock in shoulder popping joint locks is really entertaining, and Takase constantly cutting her off with gritty lariats to the throat was great. Takase continueing to crowbar Honma throughout the match while selling the damage to her shoulders felt like something out of a grittier Choshu match. Even the chest forearms, which I’m not a huge fan of, where pretty vicious and hard hitting here. I was surprised at the greatness of Honmas selling too as she really sold being almost choked out by a modified triangle choke very well, and then taking more shots to the windpipe from Takases lariat. Second half of the match had quite a bit of unexpected brutality such as a vicious boot from Honma, and Honma cycling in on Takase to destroy her shoulders and face with dropkicks out of a Santo/Casas match. The insane headbutt was by far the highlight. I’ve seen my fair share of gritty headbutts in Japanese matches by now, this one stood out because it came completely out of nowhere. Takases sleeper attempts becoming ineffective due to her arms being shot was another neat detail. There is one kinda weak sling blade from Takase and they do overindulge a bit with nearfalls, though Honmas counters were great and Takase never let up with those lariats. Real sleeper great match, by far one of the best joshi matches of the decade if you ask me.

 Mari vs Yumiko Hotta, AWG 3/28/2019

This was something to remind you how magical pro wrestling can be. 2019 Hotta is really over the hill, but still has insane levels of aura, and she does actually wrestle in this. She has that Johnny Valentine-feeling where even a basic headlock or half crab from her feel like she’s brutalizing the other person. Hotta is basically like a wall of concrete in this. Mari struggles to do anything at all to her, and that makes this really compelling. Mari is still a ninja at this stage, but she does look like a great wrestler already. Really does a great job putting over the struggle of facing the ultra-tough veteran, and hitting lots of great kicks, which most importantly were all insanely well timed. It starts like a pretty fun match but the way Mari kept chopping away at Hotta and selling even mundane submissions like a surfboard stretch as an insane struggle it really starts to feel like a special match. Hottas performance here felt like a combination of nearly immobile Tenryu and Yoshiaki Fujiwara, she still kicks hard as hell but is vulnerable due to being so shot, and really tears into Mari with submissions. Then you have Mari getting her nose busted and the finish which felt legit as hell. Really starkly different match from pretty much anything else in the modern wrestling landscape, and to see it in a promotion like AWG is downright insane. Best post-prime Hotta match I’ve seen by a mile and Maris great performance was a big part of it.

 

Mari & Yumiko Hotta vs Tae Honma & Hikari Shimizu, AWG 4/7/2019

This was another winner. Hotta is so immobile and lethargic that conventional wrestling becomes impossible, so all her interactions become interesting by default. There is some really good stuff between her and Honma with Honma trying to damage her arm and Hotta snapping into armbars. I also loved Hotta nonchalantly breaking up an armbar attempt. The non-Hotta women her were working pretty hard. Shimizu is all hard kicks and she’s pretty fun. Mari was doing more athletic stuff than nowdays, lots of ninja kip ups and such that are cool mixed with also hard kicks. Honma continued to look good with her flash submissions and she does pull off a really cool finish against Mari. Seems these two never had a singles match which strikes me as a bit of a waste. Cool submission work, lots of stiff offense, grumpy old lady Hotta bonus, yeah this was pretty unique and enjoyable.

Mari vs Hikari Shimizu, AWG 3/17/2021

Impressive match that had well executed wrestling, great selling, a clear story, and they both absolutely bruised each other with brutal kicks. After some slick opening wrestling, Mari caught a Shimizu crossbody and slammed her hard in a great spot to establish the roles. It quickly turns into overdog Mari punishing Shimizu with her kicks and submissions, and Shimizu having to try to gut it out. Shimizu had multiple great comeback attempts that were extremely sharp. She is not quite as brutal as Mari, but she was kicking pretty hard too, and they both have effective straight forward offense. Mari clearly excels when she is trashing an underdog like this, and Shimizu had a few great hope spots. Really liked the struggle over a basic body slam towards the end. Leg kick battle towards the end was also quite intense. Most importantly, it was a modern Japanese big match that didn’t have anyone no-selling a suplex.

Hikari Shimizu vs Hiroyo Matsumoto, AWG 11/20/2021

Probably even better than the Mari match, which I nearly didn’t expect. This was just the 3^rd match on the card and honestly when was the last time you watched a card where match 3 out of 5 was fucking great? But this was pretty fucking great. Very similar to Shimizu vs Mari except Matsumoto is more of a big bruising monster. Matsumoto is really impressive beating the life out of Shimizu here with stiff chops and elbows and Shimizu was just as good as in the Mari match, kicking away at Matsumoto with hard kicks and selling pretty great. Just really effiecient. Once again I thought all of Shimizus comebacks/hopespots were insanely well timed and executed. Loved her desperate sleeper attempt towards the end, just trying to choke the beast out. Need more of that ‘just trying really hard to win’ energy. Matsumotos spinning back elbow was also a thing of beauty and timed just perfectly.

Yasushi Sato vs Konaka, AWG 6/24/2018

Yes, these two are also Actwres Girlz! It’s pretty cool that one of the greatest match ups in all of Japanese wrestling ever just so happened at a random joshi card. This was them pretty much doing the Velocity version of their match – very technically sound, but with a few jokes thrown in and made palatable for a more casual audience. They still mixed in lots of great stuff that you won’t see from any other two wrestlers. There’s this little sequence with both of them balancing on their heads and foot-wrestling which was pretty insane. Konaka does some great sleeper hold work, and Sato hits this hammerlock Russian legsweep that was just a thing of beauty. Sato busts out his big springboard dive which I always love, and even a perfect looking Victory Roll. Konaka has a really nifty counter to Satos attempted gutwrench. Really cool to watch. I still want to see their Ironman match, dammit.

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 37

 
Grand Passion Mask #4 vs Super Taira, Sportiva 8/27

Grand Passion Mask #4 has been one of those acts that has been kind of lost on me. But this was a pretty good match! No surprise since it has Super Taira in it. The most straight wrestling I've seen GP4 do, he brought a lot of cool holds to the table, and Taira is really cool to watch as always. This had a lot of quasi-lucha style work. Cool moment where GP turned a mishappen roll up attempt by Taira into a cool Full Nelsion hold, and then a facebuster to gain control. GP proceeded to work over Taira with cool lucha holds. The second half was cool mostly because Taira is established that he can win the match whenever he ties his opponent up, either with a llave or a pin combo. GP Mask even did an Hijo del Santo style tope into a camel clutch with Taira fighting out of the camel clutch. I think fighting out of submissions is cool. This was a fun creative 10 minute undercard match that felt competitive, which is just what I need, feels like a breath of fresh air.

Ali Najima & Super Taira vs Yuta Oya & Ryutaro Ohno, Sportiva 9/17/2025

Whenever I watch a Sportiva main event, its almost guaranteed to be one of the best matches of the match. That is remarkable, and it has probably made Sportiva my favourite promotion to watch this year just because of their incredible consistency and charming recurring cast of wrestlers. This had a dream team in Najima and Taira, the continuation of the rivalry between Oya and Najima, and greenhorn Ohno showing up in a main event tag. It was good as you expect. I wish the first Taira vs Oya exchange had gone longer as these two are always fascinating against each other. Ohno is as solid in the old businessman rookie role as you need him to be. He still has to fight to hit even a bodyslam on Najima, and that makes him compelling. He also adds some cool flavour with his kicks and his chunkiness. The real story of the match is Yuta Oya being the underdog teamed with the rookie against two higher ranked wrestlers. He takes an Anderson Bros-like beating from them. There was a great moment where Najima was hitting all kinds of nasty kicks to Oya, and Taira was also bending his leg pretty hard. Tairas 'dangerous lucha maestro who uses submissions and pins like a shooter' act is really cool. There are some quality exchanges between Ohno and Taira which is really fun to see because Taira is such a unique wrestler, and then we get Oya vs Najima. Both these guys were hitting really hard and doing good stuff. The saves were also really dramatic. There are so many modern tags where it feels like there's endless saves by the partner and it starts to feel meaningless. Here there were 2 or 3 crucial saves and they were really dramatic and important. And then you have the aspect of all these guys constantly adding new stuff to their skillset. Very good match, another good chapter in the Sportsbar Kings Road.

Ali Najima & Ryutaro Ono vs Yu Shimizu & Masanori Watanabe, Sportiva 9/3

Onos return match after a 2 month absence, glad he's back. This was a short match but really hard hitting and with some nifty wrestling. Watanabe was just destroying Onos leg here with nasty low kicks. Ono is in the role that he's mostly taking a beating but he can fire back with big crowbar elbows and the occasional hard kick of his own, he's a fun chubby hard hitter. Shimizu vs Najima sprint section was really good. Najima is still building up to things like a body slam or suplex and he's always compelling, and Shimizu continues to be reliable with his simple style of hard elbows and sleepers. At one point, Najima punched him square in the face. The finish had Watanabe just obliterating Ono with a brutal headkick. Watanabe is quickly becoming a guy who's must watch in my book, and everyone else here is realiably good even in a small dose.

Yusaku Ito & Michio Kageyama vs Shinya Ishida & Konaka, Sportiva 9/3

Yusaku Ito baby. With his gritty headbutts and general scumminess always make him a highlight when he shows up. The parts where he and Ishida were beating on each other were easily the selling point of the match. Not that anything else was bad here, but the match got a bit more heated when they faced off. First with Ito starting to bitchslap Ishida and then pulling him over and raining punches on him. Later they had another gritty exchange wailing on each other in the corner. Ishida is not afraid to hit back and stomp the shit out of a guy. Aside from that refreshing scrappiness there was also some fun methodical Konaka work. Kageyama is solid but won't set your world on fire here. He's not much in the match anyways. Ito on the other hand was working his ass off having some great exchanges with Konaka and Ishida. I love that the sleeper is always a plot point in Sportiva. Quality match with an interesting layout.

Ali Najima vs Konaka, Sportiva 9/24

When I saw this would be happening I thought it would be the main event. It was the opening match, I thought it could be an amazing main event but as an opening match it was still really good. It was a classic match that was nearly all grappling with Najima attacking Konakas arm and Konaka in turn going for his leg. Lots of nifty cerebral wrestling moments and it felt like every moment counted, which made it so good. Konaka is pretty much always doing something neat, and Najima is getting really good at making simple holds interesting. I loved his nasty hammerlock takedown, so simple but cool. Konakas counters were amazing. I love the hard hitting Ali Najima but it's cool to seem him do well in this kind of chess style mat wrestling match.

Yasu Kubota vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 9/10

The Scum Bastard challenges for the title! Yasu Kubota is a type of wrestler that is easily underrated. What he does is very simple, straight forward, basic - but he has a knack for mixing in a few cool touches that make him stand out. And most importantly, everything matters. He's also a 51 year old geezer, so he has to be smart about what he does. Shimizu is quite unrelenting with his hard elbows and sleepers. The result is a simple, but very enjoyable and compelling match that is built around Shimizu elbowing the champion really hard, and Kubota hitting back hard slowing him down by taking out his legs and locking in a few cool holds. Shimizus elbows and sleepers are awesome and there is some gritty leg selling. It's a very old school type match with the high spots being something like a reverse DDT or lariat. I could see some people finding this boring but I really enjoyed it and I was rooting hard for Shimizu to take the title. His chokes made me jump out of my seat and a match that can make me super excited about a chokehold in 2025 has to be a really well crafted piece of wrestling. 

2025 Wrestling Matchguide 

Sportiva Wednesday Curry Pro Wrestling 8/13/2025

 Watch

 Mikiya Sasaki vs Yacchae Seven, Sportiva 8/13

 A fun opening match between two fun wrestlers. It had some jokes, but enough serious wrestling for me to like it, and it made for a pretty entertaining mix. Yacchae Seven is this energetic masked wrestler, his springboard flip senton was pretty impressive, but a lot of this was him leaping into Sasakis atomic drops and getting rolled up in comical ways. Mikiya Sasaki is another guy who worships the Funk brothers. He won't make you forget Crusher Takahashi, but he is pretty solid at what he does, and he brings some fun character touches like how he loves the old school suplex over the ropes. His dropkick to the face was genuinely impressive and this was probably the most solid I've seen him look so far. At 7 minutes they move through it pretty fast. An enjoyable match that is worth a look if you want to have some fun.
 
 Super Taira & Yasu Kubota vs Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 8/13
 
 Pretty much 4 cool wrestlers having a cool match. I always look forward to seeing Super Taira, and he once again proved himself to be one of the best technicians around when he grappled with Shimizu. It wasn't showing off, it was Taira being pesky and dominating his opponent, and it was cool to watch. Kubota in the past has looked a little lazy but he was surprisingly on point, despite looking gray like your uncle. He was hitting really hard elbows, and while what he did was simple it never felt like there was a wasted moment when he was in the ring. Everyone who reads my blog should know by now that I really like Watanabe and Shimizu. Shimizu once again proved his salt hitting some of the hardest elbows and having a great exchange with Kubota. Watanabe continues to get better, he blasted Taira with some devastating knees and I really liked that russian legsweep into a heel hook thing he did. Pretty much a match where everyone looked good and was doing something interesting all the time, that didn't go to long but will probably surprise you with how hard they fought. I would look forward to seeing singles matches between any of them coming out of this.
 
Konaka vs Chon Shiryu, Sportiva 8/13
 
Two gods of the indy scene meeting in a match... and an SRS rules match no less! SRS means they have to fight on the wooden floor of the bar and entering the ring leads to a countout. Oh, and you can touch an audience member for a rope break. These are two all timers when it comes to fun creative wrestling, and the wrestling on the floor adds a nice dose of insanity. We get the usual cool kung fu kicks and flying around from Shiryu, and the high pitched yelling chops from Konaka, and then they start climbing on the ceiling and using the barstools and doing some crazy flying to the floor... apparently this was a rematch from 11 years prior. I had no idea how they got the idea to deliver this rematch now but it was a spectacle and really delivers everthing you wish. Painful bumps, both guys hanging upside down from the ceiling, Shiryu hitting a kung fu flying kick over a bar stool... I think these two even in a regular match against each other would be dynamite, but this was crazy and fun in the best way.
 
Ali Najima & Yuta Oya vs Michio Kageyama & Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 8/13

Ali Najima and Yuta Oya continue to be the best story on the Japanese scene this year. This was an incredibly compelling match, with Najima and Oya throwing everything they have trying to beat their more established opponents. After an explosive beginning the veterans were able to slow the pace down, only for things to get heated again when Najima and Oya got the upper hand again. Both Najima and Oya were great here as always. Najima looked like a killer when he was circling around Kageyama kicking him in his bad arm like a shark in the water smelling blood, and he did great job showing the pain in his leg after Kageyama caught him. Oya is such a unique wrestler, he is a powerhouse but also vulnerable, it feels extra mean when he gets blasted with a kick to the face or walks into a sneaky rollup. This was a really ambitious match with multiple layers, but they all stuck to what they do well. And Oya and Najima are making things like a firemans carry or hip throw look cool. I also liked Ishida a lot here, he got blitzed early on but after getting himself together he got pretty evil stomping the hell out of people and even mocking Najimas limp. The week to week progression of the rookies is so satisfying to watch as they keep adding new touches to their game, and the willingness of Najima and Oya to win this match was palpable like in a classic match from the 90s. It really felt like getting a pin on Ishida or Kageyama meant the world to them. It absolutely feels like the best thing going right now and they are just about a year into their career, if they keep progressing like this the next 1-2 years will be insane.

The Library

2025 Matchguide 

Pro Wrestling in 2025 Week 23

 Ranna Yagami vs Sareee (STARDOM 6/8)

This was good shit. Basically Sareee faces a spunky underdog who kicks really hard and they throw the kitchen sink. Sareee has great offense and because she was beating on someone who felt like an outmatched underdog that offense meant a lot more. Yagami looked good. She kicked hard, and had a few cool bits of offense. Seemed like one of the better talents on the current scene. The pop-up no selling annoyed me slightly, but its forgivable in this kind of high intensity affair. Most importantly this felt like a fight. Good contender for the best 10 minute match of the year.

Nanae Takahashi vs Miku Aono, Marigold 5/24

Nanae is the next in the 2025 competition of who can have the best retirement match. And this is a pretty respectable entry! It's perfectly fun pro wrestling for the opening minutes. Miku Aono is another name in the joshi scene who I know absolutely nothing about. Based on what I see here, she's solid. Has good solid offense, lots of kicks, doesn't kick as hard as Ranna Yagami, a little clumsy here and there, but a perfectly capable pro wrestler overall. She is smart enough to change the submission hold she's applying when Nanae starts making the ropes and that kind of thing goes a long way for me. Then Nanae gets some chairs in the ring and they do the Necro chair spot where they sit opposite each other and smack each other?! Is that a common spot in Japan now or did Nanae Takahashi watch some Necro Butcher tapes and decide 'Yeah, this is what I need to be doing'? Regardless, this turns really good in the ending portion with lots of nasty hard hitting, clobbering lariats, some sick headbutts, Aonos kicks getting more violent and Takahashi punching her in the face. Aonos big kick that swatted Nanae down was probably the highlight of the match. Struggle over the Styles Clash also felt pretty epic. Kinda awesome to see Nanae put it all together to go out in style like this, actually made me want to go back and watch more Nanae matches because this was really boss and stands up to Meikos retirement match.

Yuta Oya & Konaka vs Ali Najima & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 6/11

Usual good weekly action from Sportiva. Solid stuff in the first half, and lots of really nifty stuff in the 2nd. Konaka is always interesting to watch no matter what he does, even when its a basic arm drag exchange or a hot tag. There were some really good mat exchanges between him and Najima that made me long for a singles match between them. Yuta Oya is continueing his transformation into the best wrestler in all of Japan, it's really cool to watch him climb the ranks. So far Najima has been the overdog to his underdog so the almost All Japan style finish between them was a great piece of story. Really exciting stuff and another piece in Sportivas really good little 2025 run.

Masanori Kanu Watanabe vs Kazuhiro Tamura, Sportiva 6/11

More sportsbar shootstyle baby. I love that we have this now. Apparently Watanabe is actually an MMA guy so that explains why he hangs really well with Tamura on the mat. This starts with 5 minutes of slick U-Style grappling with both guys trying to lock in submissions but not quite succeeding, and its really cool to see that kind of thing in 2025. The non-matwork portion was really good too. I'm excited about Watanabe because it seems he really gets it, he sold a random leglock from Tamura like it nearly twisted out his knee and it made the second half of the match pretty intense. Tamura is odd, he's rarely great in his own promotion but for some reason often puts in really good little performance in this damn sportsbar. Exciting stuff, a genuinely really good 10 minute match.

 

2025  Wrestling Roundup

Konaka in the Sportiva Arena

 

Konaka vs. Sae, Sportiva 5/11/2022

Super good Konaka carryjob. Sae is kind of not very good, only having some bland offense and almost breaking her own neck when going for a Kamikaze roll, but Konaka pulls her through this 18 minute match just fine. Opening work is pretty solid with Konaka making things like taking a basic bump for a shoulder tackle satisfying by having it set up with a rope move. Soon we move on to the best part of the match, Konaka working a side headlock of Destroyer-esque greatness. Usually with side headlock segments it’s the guy stuck in the headlock making it interesting by trying different escapes, but in this case Konaka is the guy keeping things interesting by having a bunch of different ways to pull Sae back into the headlock. Later he keeps going for headlock crossfaces and neck attacks, at one point he was cranking a facelock like crazy and digging his fist into Saes face in brutal fashion, it was like something fucked up Ole Anderson or Tully Blanchard would do to a jobber in a 80s TV studio squash. Finishing stretch was really good with a bunch of cool moments centered around Sae going for a dragon sleeper of all things, a superplex bump that felt epic, Konaka missing a big attack off the top and a completely awesome finish. Real master performance from Konaka getting the most out of a limited opponent.

Konaka vs Shinya Ishida, 3/17/2021

For a white meat highflying babyface, I am pretty okay with Shinya Ishida. He has good offense, and he is capable of adding neat touches like connecting with a surprisingly punishing kick between moves, or doing some stubborn matwork. Most importantly is good enough to let Konaka do his thing and not interfere. This was a result very good. They start with some neat fast sequences before Konaka cuts off Ishida in a cool way and does some work on the arm. Ishida makes a solid comeback and then acknowledges said armwork by giving it back to Konaka in kind. Ishidas brutal stomp to Konakas ankle was probably the highlight, it looked just sick. The second half had a bunch more good stuff and neat moments that Konaka has a knack for, I also really liked the well worked chokehold segment they did, it shows Ishida is more capable than your usual spotty indy guy. Very decent stuff and anytime Konaka gets to stretch out and do his thing is a gem.

Konaka vs Kazuhiro Tamura, Sportiva 3/16/2022

I love Konaka and I know Tamura can be pretty great when he tries. Still, this slightly exceeded my expectations. Delivers exactly the kind of cool, unique matwork you hope for from the match up, and it delivers that in spades. What I love about Konaka is that because of his mysterious act, he is believable doing just about anything. I buy his weird reverse spinning toehold just as much as buy him locking in an achilles hold or rolling calf slicer. So him grappling with U-File guy Tamura is really cool. They settle for a work the arm vs work the leg story and they both have a bunch of really cool ways to attack a limb. Tamuras selling of the legwork wasn’t the greatest but our guy Konaka was stellar as always.

Assorted Mutoha

 As always, buy them on X or thebase!

Unicorn Rules: Yasushi Sato & Konaka & G Valion vs. Hiroshi Watanabe & Masamune & Super Crafter U, Mutoha 7/22/2021

35 minutes of sweet wrestling, like you expect from this killer lineup. This was Unicorn Road rules which means the 1^st fall was a singles between Konaka and Crafter, 2^nd a tag between Sato/Valion and Watanabe/Masamune and the 3^rd a 6 man between all participiants. Konaka/Crafter was really good, the shootstyle submissions of Crafter mesh very well with Konakas more esoteric pro style approach and it was awesome to watch Konaka figure his way out of Crafters shoot leglocks, really good little technical match and Crafter blasting his opponent with brutal looking kicks was awesome as always. 2^nd fall had some awesome grappling from Masamune and sweet exchanges between him and Yasushi Sato. Masamune is really good when he’s just grappling and not doing Kurt Angle shit, he had some amazing counters, honestly he may have been the best guy in the match, he looked like a grappling machine. I would’ve liked to see a bit more of Sato vs Masamune because these two just trying to put the other guys shoulders down for the 3 is always awesome to watch, but then again I always want to watch more Yasushi Sato. Valion is the weakest guy in the match, I was interested in what he would bring to the table but in this murderers row of fantastic grapplers he doesn’t stand out a ton but he was alright and I liked his series of quick DDTs and odd submission. 3^rd fall didn’t have as much grappling and some slightly odd moments such as a random ref bump that had no effect on the match, however both teams looked like they were trying to finish the match and Yasushi Sato held the ending run together with his cool submissions, russian leg sweeps and neat touches. This was kind of like a pro wrestling mixtape with 6 really unique wrestlers bringing a ton to the table, just really cool to watch.

Kenichiro Arai vs. Masamune, 3/19/2022

30 minutes of mostly matwork. Strictly for the technical wrestling freaks but if you can’t get into something like that, what the hell are you doing reading this? They started out basic but put some amazing details into their otherwise basic holds and transitions, and continued in that fashion throughout the match putting some gritty struggle into hings. Masamune is always game to just grapple it out and it was really cool watching him trying to put Arais shoulders down for the 3 with his more amateur style flourishes while Arai is just the king of grabbing a basic hold and cranking it to the maximum. Arai paying tribute to Giant Baba with an ultra tight full nelson into the leg nelson was a really nice moment. I really liked how Arai sold vulnerability by selling his leg after missing a knee drop and seemed to be close to self destruction when he went for a couple flying axe handles. I am a bit tired of ankle locks at this point but Masamune chess match approach to the hold worked for me. They meandered a bit on occasion but overall this was very good and fascinating to watch if you were a fan of GENTARO/Arai already this should definitely go on your watch list too.

 

Kenji Takeshima vs. Hikaru Sato Mutoha 11/14/2015

Pretty badass no-ring shootstyle match that exceeded expectations. This match is compelling because of their difference in ranking and because of how competitive they make it feel. They really put over the fact that Satos kicks are bombs, Takeshima was Fujiwaralike in catching them early on and taking Sato down, however as soon as Sato started landing the kicks Takeshima was getting destroyed. Takeshima comes back hitting a desperation headbutt and they go into this Lawler/Mantell style headbutt exchange while selling the accumulating brain trauma. Eventually they start shit talking each others promotions (causing the 20 people in attendance to start a “BattlARTS” chant). They move back into a straight shootstyle finish. I love how Takeshima laid on that Achilles Hold, he really looked like he wanted to force the tap more than anything else in his life. Good, really competitive feeling stuff, pretty unexpected from a match with no ring in front of 20 people.

PSYCHO vs Koju Takeda, Mutoha 1/14/2018

Bit of a different favour for Mutoha with this match. No extended technical wrestling section this is just PSYCHO putting a scumbag rudo beating on Takeda. A lot of really cool stuff from PSYCHO in this, trying to screw Takedas neck with some nasty moves, knees to the face, hard elbows, and his cool cross armbar variations. Takeda is a 666 guy who is ridiculously good looking, in terms of wrestling he does just basic stuff but all well executed and I guess that’s just fine, he is a good foil for scummy PSYCHO. Really fun match that serves as an excellent showcase for all the cool stuff PSYCHO can do.

 

2025 Wrestling Week 11

 Hanako Nakamori & Leon vs Crea & Moeka Haruhi, Pure-J 3/9

Really good go-go tag with lots of quality exchanges throughout. Everyone here is really fun to watch. Nakamori still has vicious kicks, Crea is a really fun energetic enforcer booting people in the face, and Leon hasn't lost anything in all these years. I wasn't familiar with Haruhi but she was pretty cool too, she had some really violent double stomps and cool ways to stretch opponents. They bust out some bigger spots than you'd expect from a dojo show and the finish is a damn finish. Real quality stuff, just all 4 of them going hard and it was really cool.

Chon Shiryu & Leon vs Mei Suruga & Baliyan Akki, Choco Pro 2/2/225

This was a MOVEZ~ match but it was a pretty fun one. Shiryu is still really awesome and can bust out awesome exchanges and nifty things like no tomorrow. Enjoyed Leon a lot as always, her team with Shiryu is really random but they have some cool moments together. The cutesy act of Akki and Suruga isn't for me, but they also did some cool stuff especially Suruga. The finish was really cool as the constant double team assisted moves blew back up in their face and it was the kind of nifty touch Shiryu is so damn good at pulling off.

Yuta Oya & Ali Najima vs Konaka & Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 2/26

Another week, another quality match from Sportiva. These 4 guys are some of my favourites in the world to watch so it's really nice to see them all square off in a tag match. First half is really solid, we get to see Konaka grappling with Najima which is always cool, while Najimas skillset is stil basic he will only get better wrestling guys like Konaka on the regular. I like how Shinya Ishida is always a total dick to Oya, fully taking advantage of his blindness to attack him. The 2nd half is really really good - I don't know what got into them, but Ishida suddenly starts wrestling like Yasushi Sato and busting out a bunch of awesome Russian Leg Sweep variations, even a cool Russian Leg Sweep into a submission hold. Konaka would join he madness with some Russian Leg Sweeps of his own and even a Russian Leg Sweep into a pin. Both these guys wrestled Sato a lot, and sadly I don't think we have any of the Sato vs Ishida and only a few Sato vs Konaka matches, but if that was not a distant homage to the Russian Leg Sweep god then I don't know. Some really nifty counters in this, especially those around Oyas signature sidewalk slam and harai goshi. Those are two cool moves to build nifty counters around. Really cool, really unique stuff that would absolutely recommend everyone to check out, don't sleep on this just because it happens in a tiny sportsbar, it's easily some of the best wrestling around.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

FU*CK Cool Pro Wrestling 1/2/2008

 Hideki Shioda & Lingerie Muto vs. Chief Shinigami & Konaka

This Chief Shinigami is NOT the Shinigami from Wrestle Yume Factory. This guy is some tubby pasty dude doing some kind of native american gimmick. It’s horribly poor taste, so just right for FIGHTING ULTIMATE CRAZY KINGS. Konaka is wearing a striped sweater and dungarees along with his usual facepaint. I think it may be a reference to a horror movie or something but its a very cool look. Chief Shinigami is a menace too immediately thwarting all attempts at wrestling by hitting guys with foreign objects. After like 30 seconds of in ring action they start brawling in the street. Really taking their time to explore this quiet Japanese neighbourhood to the fullest. Konaka almost gets thrown into a ravine. Sawa hits a Mutoh style elbow on the concrete. Konaka at one point vomits some green slime on the street. Then they find some dog poop in the street and try to shove someones face in it. They find what looks like a shrine with a Torii. They pray at the shrine. Then they brawl at the shrine. After deserating a holy site they move on to fighting on a playground. There’s piledrivers and backdrop suplexes and shining wizards on the sand. A slide is used. They move further on to brawling in the middle of a busy street with cars going by. Some ladies are waiting with their bikes, and Sawa goes and snatches a bike riding it away. Imagine just waiting for the bus or something and then a cross dressing wrestler with a bald cap shows up, takes your bike and rides it away. After getting off he kicks at one of the ladies too. The match ends when Sawa puts a figure 4 on Konaka (again, on the concrete) and Konaka reverses it. A fitting crafty technical ending to this fine opening match.

Shoichi Uchida & Takaku Fuke vs. Hideaki Sumi & Mexican 69

Mexican 69 is a fat guy in a mask. He’s a typical FU*CK style wrestler, meaning he tries to wrestle but the outcome just comes out as bizarre. It’s really its own genre of surreality. Sumi is great, he is a crazy karateka who wrestles like a modern day Masashi Aoyagi, and he does have some actually nice shooty exchanges with Fuke here. Uchida is also a good wrestler but saddled working opposite Mexican 69. At one point some women in the crowd  broke into a weird choir-like singing, so I guess they were in on it too. Then the wrestlers go for a stroll in the street again with Sumi and Fuke trading chest kicks and locking in shoot holds in the neighbourhood. At one point Uchida rides past them on a scooter, having Mexican69 on his back. I would take major TV stations hostage and broadcast this stuff to the masses if I could. The fight moves in front of the Torii shrine from the previous match, but Sumi and 69 will have none of it and they quietly walk back to the ring. There is probably some subtext there about the fans excitedly following the wrestlers outside and then having to walk awkwardly all the way back next to the elderly Pancrase legend Takaku Fuke. The match ends rather unceremoniously as Uchida tries and fails to wrestle Mexican 69.

Killer Master vs. Magnitude Kishiwada

Killer Master for some reason is dressed looking a lot like Badboy Hido. This match goes as such: Master touches Kishiwada, and immediately is thrown outside and eating stiff chairshots. Kishiwada then walks Master outside to the street, to the site of the Torii. There he chops Master some, puts on an abdominal stretch, throws him into a wire fence, and then walks him back to the ring. Wrestlers are like kittens – when you grab their scruff they are just paralyzed and have to go along with whatever you want to do. Anytime Master tries anything he gets waffled by Kishiwada in a way that indicates Kishiwada has little regard for his opponent. Back in the ring Master is eating more stiff offense from Kishiwada. Kishiwada puts a Figure 4 on Killer Master and Master gets a megapop from the 12 or so people watching when he actually reverses it. Master gets a brief comeback but quickly he gets blasted by a nasty lariat to his face, and then goes down to a basic back senton.

Hideki Shioda & Killer Master & Takaku Fuke vs. JAIL & Konaka &Magnitude Kishiwada

Kishiwada works the mic some, which I guess prompts this match. Konaka is still in the sweater and dungarees. They brawl briefly to start, before the Konaka/JAIL/Kishiwada trio quickly start isolating Killer Master. JAIL actually has a cool look wearing a mask and striped convict outfit. He also seems competent. Master actually gets some offense in but he flubs nearly everything he tries. Once again he takes some nasty hits from Kishiwada. And Konaka looks like a mighty competent wrestler too. He locks in a series of cool submissions on Master and a triangle choke gets the tap. Yes, Master lost the match before he could even make a tag. Things work differently in FU*CK.

Hideaki Sumi & Mexican 69 vs. Hideki Shioda & Munenori Sawa

Sumi and Sawa speed tagging each other was great, I’d love to see a singles match between them. Then they tagged the other 2 guys in and things got weird again. 69 did that weird comedy move where he super slowly rolled over his opponent. It seems that Shioda wants to try, even hitting some snug strikes and a nice spin kick which exaggerates the subsequent weirdness of the exchanges even more. Sawa and Sumi do another cool 30 second exchange. Then Sawa gets isolated, doesn’t even make the hot tag, just comes back and wins really quickly. The match last like 5 minutes. Baffling.

The Library

Continueing to watch Mutoha and being amazed

 

Ho Death Min vs. Diablo, 3^rd Brand 3/11/2023

This is from 3^rd Brand which is like a brawling-focussed Mutoha side brand. Decreasing the stunt show aspect of modern hardcore wrestling and increasing scrappiness is a really good aesthetic and they pulled off what they aimed at beautfully. Right at the go the match feels unhinged as Ho Death Min comes in with a fucking machete. He has to be held back and Diablo jumps him. They make use of a bunch of weapons that are laying around and they do a really good using them in unique hurty ways. Diablo at one point lands several nasty jabbing hits with a kendo stick to Mins leg, he also tries to behead him with a shovel horror movie style at one point. What really makes the match is the tumbling they do between shots. Often in brawls guys hit with a weapon, then lazily walk to the next location for another spot. That wasn’t the case here as both guys were always fighting, rolling on the floor punching each other, trying to sweep a leg or get in a bite when they were down etc. The laptop destruction is fun because that laptop is probably like half of Mutohas budget. for such a long brawl this never dragged and always kept my attention, I was really invested in some of the super simple things they did like the double clothesline exchange on the floor and they keep the crazy moments coming such as Diablo trying to stab Min with a piece of plastic or fucking Leatherface doing a run in with a running chainsaw. The stipulation of the match is that you have to put your opponent in a big bag to win and it kind of really works in its goofiness. After the match we get more sleaze characters brawling including fucking Katsunari Toi coming out to hit people with a kendo stick. Diablo really works in these kind of seedy brawls and almost 60 year old Poison Sawada worked his butt off. Super fun unique match, I love the technical stuff but I also love that they are doing this kind of brawling. People should pay attention to the art of this stuff just like to the art of something like Arai/GENTARO.

Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki, Mutoha 2/14/2016

Interesting match because Matsuzaki, while being “old school” is not exactly a technician who will do lengthy hold for hold stuff. And thankfully they worked the match just like that, resulting in a really cool contest. Matsuzaki works  this like an 80s or 90s New Japan heavyweight. He doesn’t want to play Watanabes game and instead tries to go the few impact moves that he has, clocking Watanabe with headbutts and kicks to break the holds. At one point he grabbed a tight headlock and then drove Watanabe hard into the mat with a big bulldog, which is something that pretty much nobody does anymore but it totally rules. Later, Matsuzaki would power out of an attempted Cobra Twist, sell how painful that hold was for his abdomen, then try to put the same hold on Watanabe only for sneaky technician to immediately reverse it and torque Matsuzaki some more. Matsuzakis kicks and headbutts don’t hit as hard as they did in 1993 but otherwise the man did very well. And Watanabe is perfect in this kind of match, too. This match didn’t have much mat wizardry, it was more about timing and struggle, and there was a complete lack of contrived sequences. Very nice stuff without trying to force an epic, this kind of wrestling is so good, give me a good story and a sense of struggle with some cool moments and I will be very happy.

 

Taro Yamada vs Konaka, Mutoha 7/5/2015

Terrific match, Mutoha at its very best. It’s a rounds match that begins in a fashion inspired by World of Sport matches, with both guys displaying slick counters and moving in and out of holds very swiftly, but it quickly becomes a tangled nightmare as both guys would tie each other up in increasingly esoteric ways. Yamada was an absolute monster here, he looked like a true master of the llave style, and he just does things that nobody else does. He was tying up Konaka in so many different ways here, but also putting lots of creativity into his set ups and escapes, it was an absolute onslaught. Yamada is very much the driving force for most of the match, just tying Konaka in knots, and it seems Konaka only survives because Konaka is a flexibility demon and he can be put into contortions that not many other wrestlers could stand being put in. Although Konaka has a few moments where he really catches Yamada and it feels like a big victory each time. Not only were the submissions mind blowing, but so were their escapes from them. It was a display of mat wizardry in the truest sense. They do 20 minutes of outstanding grappling before the fifth round of 5, at which point Yamada loses his cool and finally nails Konaka with that curb stomp he likes to use. After that the time was running out and each moment felt frantic. Really edge of your seat stuff with both guys displaying incredible technical proficiency and body control while maintaining a competitive aura. I have been watching technical matches from Europe, Japan, Mexico, America for 15 years now and this was as good as any that I’ve seen.

Aggressive Pro 3/25/2010

 Konaka vs. Naoshi Sano

This was a 1 match show that drew a whopping attendance of 0 fans. Ricky Fuji is there! This want a bit over 20 minutes and aside from the general bizareness of it, it was a serious match. Easily the most serious wrestling I've seen Sano do, and he looked good. Why doesn't Sano do more serious wrestling? He drops Konaka with some gnarly backdrops and stretches him with a nasty abdominal hold like Sano is Jumbo now. Sano hits lots of nice punches to the mid section. Konaka mostly takes a beating. At one point he hits a nice Terry Funk style punch combo, at another he goes for a diving chop and breaks his hand on Sanos hard head. Baffling. No yoga spots for some reason. Pretty cool to watch, although it's more of a "What the hell" type of match than actively great. They make a big deal out of Sano winning this belt with Ricky Fuji giving his blessings, although I'm not sure he ever even defended that belt again. A truely remarkable moment in history.

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I discovered a boatload of old SPORTIVA streams and my first instinct is to go watch the Konaka matches

 So I recently discovered the old Twitcasting page of Sportiva where they livestreamed their weekly shows from 2016-2019 ca. I'd give my left nut to get an archive of all the shows they streamed on Ustream.tv from 2010 to 2016, but this is still quite the boatload of interesting footage. Naturally my first instinct was to go look up all the matches with Konaka in them because lord knows we all need more of that yoga demon in our life

Konaka vs. Nori da Funky Shibiresasu, Sportiva 10/3/2018

Really really nice match, exactly what you want from a Konaka big match against a game opponent. Konaka does all kinds of fun grappling and neat transitions here. His early mat control segment was so cool, the guy really knows how to get in and out of holds in interesting fashions. The whole match was peppered with Konaka mixing in cool little transitions, counters and reversals, doing a really nice job controlling with a sleeper etc. Nori da Funky Shibiresasu is part of the hip hop group that did the Naruto opening theme amongst others, he had one hell of a career working a couple hundred matches in the Sportiva arena and I am happy to finally see him. He was a pretty cool powerhouse here, hitting stiff chops and all kinds of cool tall lanky guy offense, big backdrop suplexes, a big boot that damn near scraped Konakas face off, stiff chops, a big neckbreaker drop. Boy am I glad these Twitcasting streams are still around even if they are potatoe quality filmed with an Android.

Konaka vs. Tetsuya Izuchi, Sportiva 8/21/2019

You give Konaka a game opponent and 10 minutes and you’re pretty much guaranteed to get something nifty. Izuchi is game, he moves slick on the mat and kicks hard, and has some nice exchanges with Konaka early on. Konaka rules here, he hits this really cool 619 to Izuchis leg and then works him over with Indian Deathlock variations because he’s a yoga demon. There’s a completely awesome spinning Figure 4 leglock set up and a really nice Figure 4 battle. Izuchi acknowledges that his leg has been worked over, but he won’t really blow you away aside from throwing Konaka with a really nasty German Suplex. Still, Konaka is so cool to watch.

Mutoha Customer Reviews

The group known as Mutoha is probably one of the most interesting things going on today. They are staunchly indifferent to the general trajectory of the current wrestling landscape and instead resolve to convince fans of the awesomeness of mat-based matches and weird rulesets. You can now directly buy their stuff for about 2 bucks per video from @itako18jp on Twitter. The process is really simple, ask them to DM and you will receive a message, then give your PayPal email adress and select what you want, then you can download and will receive a bill to your PayPal later. You can find their general selection here and sometimes you will also receive something extra. I will be reviewing matches as I purchase them to give you a general idea of why you want this stuff, and you do want this stuff.

 

Yasushi Sato vs. Konaka, 7/21/2018

Quirky technical match between two of the greatest to ever do quirky technical matches. I think at one point Konaka looked in the greatest submission anyone has ever done on Sato in this. It was pure yoga demon insanity. The rest of the match was really great too. It was a 15 minute Ironman Match with 2 count pinfalls, so… they did a lot of unique stuff. Sato was dominating with his knack for pin combos and out of nowhere Russian Leg Sweeps so Konaka had to come up with something. Great sense of struggle over the pinfalls/submissions and Satos suplexes were really cool as usual, and the psychology was truely excellent. Absolutely tremendous stuff, basically a 5 star match as far as technical matches in Japanese bars go, this kind of whacky creative oddball scientific match was really the best thing going in Japan at the time.

Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Konaka, 4/21/2018

This was “just” a rounds match so it didn’t have the insane creativity of Konaka/Sato but it was still really excellent. Watanabe is super athletic for an old guy just bouncing around effortlessly and hitting cool hip throws that I’ve only seen done by old timey French workers before, so you know he was on to some different level. Konaka is once again really good, always doing something interesting. These guys are no worse than your top flight WoS or lucha matworkers. The hold for hold stuff was really good and I dug the exchange of llaves in the last round. It caps out at 3 rounds so it was more of a taste than a full blown epic, but maybe another match between them is somewhere that really breaks the scale.

Hideya Iso vs. Taro Yamada, 1/13/2020

Another really good match from Mumejuku. Very mat based as you expect. Iso has that Osamu Kido-like vibe, he’s a dumpy technician who doesn’t look like much and doesn’t do fancy moves but he has that easily overlooked kind of charisma and he can pull out some cool crafty stuff. This was Isos best performance that I’ve seen and Yamada looked like one of the best wrestlers in the world. It was pretty much Isos traditional, basic skillset vs. Yamadas llave holds. Several really good mat exchanges here, I especially liked Yamada pulling off a Paradise Hold in plausible fashion. They just went out and wrestled so there wasn’t some kind of exceptional story although I was rooting for Iso to upset his opponent. Sometimes you just want to watch two guys wrestle for 20 minutes and they delivered. Gnarly finish. This stuff is why Mumei was maybe the most important promotion in the world during that time period.

Of all things... a Yusaku Ito Deep Dive

 Yusaku Ito vs. Koji Kanemoto, Kobe Meriken 3/17/2023

Yusaku Ito is this scuzzy little guy who will kick you hard and blast you with nasty headbutts. He reminds me of the indy guys who would sometimes work Fu-Ten undercard matches, he’s not quite a shooter, but he hits some awesome strikes, really makes his pro style moves hit hard and as a knack for timing a cool transition, like he’s a lost 3^rd Brahman brother or Shoichi Uchida dance partner. Kanemoto is 56 here and while he doesn’t kick as fast as he used to he will still kick a scuzzy indy guy in the face and do random dick moves like stopping Ito by kicking him really hard in the leg. This takes place in some dingy bar and is filmed by a single webcam so we don’t get the brief brawling portion outside, we just Kanemoto leaving the ring, then we hear some clanging banging noise as if from a metal tin can and when they come back Yusaku is in control so you kind of imagine what happened. Ito is not afraid to hit the old man in the face, and he earns his sault leaping into Kanemotos spin kicks and knees. Really really fun stuff.

Yusaku Ito vs. Toru Sugiura, FREEDOMS/Sugiura Pro Wrestling 12/10/2021

Sick fucking match. Japanese wrestling is in this weird state right now where most of the wrestling you see is a bunch of fucking nothing, but occasionally you will get something fucking crazy on the smallest of stages. This was worked like a big match and really great, there is lots of basic but extremely tight and well executed opening hold for hold work. You gotta appreciate that Ito is this scuzzy guy but he can also do things like hit a really slick dragon screw. Opening going reminded me of a great 90s NJPW juniors match due to the tight basic work and both guys peppering in some psycho headbutts and elbows. Toru Sugiura is kind of the scuzzy king of the Japanese indies and I liked how he established himself as a class above his opponent, 1) in terms of wrestling by reversing a leglock from Ito into a cool leglock of his own and 2) by acting deranged and scummy as fuck. Middle portion was a bit middling but the ending portion is one of the sickest finishing stretches I’ve ever seen, just pure insanity with both guys trying to annihilate each other with crazy headbutts and elbows. Just a hair below the best of FUTEN and they worked some great transitions. Match had a bunch of well executed tight wrestling, head dropping moves and truly psycho violence, Japanese indy wrestling at its best.

Yusaku Ito vs. Konaka, Sportiva 12/16/2020

 

This was a rad 7 minute match. Konaka is like a freaky lithe Arn Anderson working a studio TV match here, just constantly attacking Itos arm, while Ito beats him around the ring with his cool kicks, back elbows and headbutts. Everything Ito does lands really solidly and the Konaka arm attack stuff is great. I imagine a 20 minute match between them would be epic considering both these guys are quite the hidden gem workers but sometimes it’s cool to see two talented guys having a unique short little match that has maybe 1 or 2 back bumps.

Yusaku Ito vs. Konaka, Sportiva 9/15/2021

Well, I just said a main event between the two would be epic, and here’s a main event between the two and it’s really good! Mind you it’s a weekday show in front of like 12 people, but that’s kind of the best match these two will do. And this was really good, almost scientific. We start with some really fun matwork with Konaka doing a cool job catching Ito in pins and submissions. The transition is Ito catching Konaka with a sleeper, which Konaka fights out of but Ito keeps knocking the wind out of him with blows to the body. Ito constantly going back to locking in cool chokes was really good. Konaka is such a fun wrestler, I love how he sets up his comeback and ends up working Itos legs over. The finishing stretch was Konakas leg stretches vs. Itos chokes and it was really smart and great. These two are awesome, and it was cool to see Ito in a really good match without brain damaging stiffness that was built around cool submissions and counters.

2022 MOTY Project #4

 

Konaka Pale One vs. ONRYO, 666 1/10/2022

It‘s the spooky ghost vs. The spooky yoga master. No way on earth I wasn‘t gonna love this match. Onryo looked rough as hell, seemingly gassing and flubbing things, but thanks to Konaka the match still ended up being good. Indy guys like him deserve a ton of credit for mixing their more esoteric inventive offense with super solid old school wrestling. He can do both elaborate fancy stuff like the absolutely insane Asai DDT into the sukhasana pose as well as hit a really great basic knee drop, set himself up for a posting in a fun way and work a snug sleeper. Not to mention his throat chops. All in all Konakas stuff feels like the best possible cross of modern day juniors wrestling and an old US territory TV match. Konaka also did a good job selling Onryos filler legwork and making things like the figure 4 look like a struggle. Things pick up in a big way for the finishing stretch thanks to Onryo uncorking his big bombs, with Konaka getting absolutely spiked on a Tiger Driver. The ending mix of impact moves, Konakas cleverness (using a surprise corner choke to set up a springboard move was really great) plus Onryos propensity to end matches with pin combos and/or blasting his opponenent with radiation dust was super cool. And Konaka countering the Onryo clutch has to be the spot of the year. This was a bit sluggish here and there due to Onryo but if Konaka has a few more performances like this he might make a run for sleeper wrestler of the year.

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. 801 Kenichi & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 3/9/2022

I am counting this as a handicap gauntlet match, because Yamamoto faces both opponents in matches with a 10 minute time limit right after another, and he has a pretty great performance here going 20 minutes against these scrubs. Kenichi had a lot of grappling with Kenichi not being very useful but Yamamoto being good enough to carry things. Surprisingly Kenichi had some nice suplexes and Yamamoto built some good stuff around that. Really dug Yamamotos shoulder dislocating armbars from underneath. Kenichis vader hammers were really ugly but he got tagged hard by Yamamotos kicks and open hands. Shimizu match was just a rush. I thought Shimizu was gonna suck from his flabby look and shitty opening dropkick, but he had some solid submission work, and he was game to get hit really hard. Yamamoto just bludgeons him with nasty stabbing elbows and kicks. There was this great moment where Shimizu went for an abdominal stretch and Yamamoto battered his way out of it. Great Yamamoto performance.

 

GENTARO vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa, FREEDOMS 7/9/2022

Why they had to JIP this one? What we saw was damn good. Basically Takaiwa braining Gentaro with disgusting elbows and lariats and Gentaro trying to contain him with some excellent arm attack work. Gentaro looked really good like the hair to a Nishimura type but doing his own thing. Loved all the submission attempts and his beautiful suplexes. Takaiwas selling wasn't super expressive but he sold that he was pushed to the limit and his arm was bothering him which is more than you can expect form Takaiwa. The ending turned into a Takaiwa bombfest but the actual finish was memorable with Takaiwas arm going limp on a lariat and Gentaro getting punched in the face in really nasty fashion. Last counter was a thing of beauty.

 

2022 MOTY List

BattlARTS vs. Team DERA 2/20/2011

 Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Takashi Miyamoto

Takashi Miyamoto is a skinny guy who wears blue/white martial arts pants right out of the 90s, so he‘s immediately overy with me. Yamamoto at this point was the king at getting really good undercard matches out of not so good wrestlers. This is another example. Here he‘s really working dominant grappler, blocking Miyamotos kicks, taking him down and stepping on his face. Miyamoto gets pissed off and nails him with some stiff kick combos so Yamamoto in turn fires back slapping the taste out of his mouth and more nasty face stepping. Miyamoto continues to get on my good side hitting a neat STO. Easily could‘ve been a whatever match, but we got some nice scrappiness and interpromotional hatred.

Bison TAGAI vs. Shun Kasagi

Kasagi has a T-Shirt and baggy trunks like late 90s Mitsunobu Kikuzawa. He also has a kickpad on one foot and no kickpad on the other~! Tagai controls this on the ground to start and it‘s just fine. After some shootstyle matwork Tagai puts a pro wrestling headlock on Kasagi so he can do something too. Kasagi hits some actually nice kicks. Tagai then hits some shitty looking missed clotheslines and other shitty looking offense. I thought it was gonna end there, but Kasagi comes back and hits a really shitty looking dive and a befuddling botched nothing and this is going way too long now. I forgot how bad TAGAI was.

Keita Yano vs. Konaka=PALE ONE

Keita Yano had become the joker, he was still a BattlARTS guy, but his heart was with doing weird collages of technical wrestling at old school shtick at this point. These two nerds do some WoS tribute matwork full of Johnny Saint spots. They would become better matworkers later on, but were clearly just making baby steps here. I liked Konakas modified Figure 4 but he didn‘t do anything outstanding otherwise. At one point they exchange Abby style throat chops with high pitched yelling. Yano wins with a nice knee trembler where he pulls his kneepad down before hitting it. Fun match for what it was.

Alexander Otsuka & Kenji Takeshima vs. Kengo Takai & TAKASHI

TAKASHI has a fun 90s getup with distinctive colour scheme. This was a fun indy tag. Takai is cool as old guy trying to defend his territory. Nothing outstanding, but he had a cool seciton rolling with Takeshima, and was fired up. Otsuka slammed guys hard and everyone else was throwing potatoe shots. TAKASHI mostly got stretched but when he got to he fired back with stiff elbows and kicks. He got to have a cool moment dropkicking Otsuka in the back of the head when he went to suplex Takai, which set up Takai hitting a gnarly reverse brainbuster on Takeshima for the win. Perfectly enjoyable action.

Munenori Sawa vs. Shigehiro Irie

They decided to let the young guys have the main event, and they made the most of it and beat the shit out of each other. Actually Sawa would retire that year while Irie would go on to own the decade on the Japanese indies. This was Iries humble beginnings, as Sawa stomps and slaps the hell out of him. Almost all Irie has is being really tough and trying to hammer Sawas face in with brutal elbows. Sawa had some goofy tendencies around this time, but he cut it out and to be fair had one of his best performances ever. He was running the show here, and did it well by grounding Irie with some good matwrestling and most importantly trying to beat the soul of him. The one sided nature of the match totally worked and it built to some supremely violent strike exchanges and bomb throwing in the last few minutes with Irie trying to gut it out. I also really appreciate Sawa did not go for his Mutoh tribute signature moves and instead just turned Iries lights out with punches. Good shit and felt like one of the better indy mains of 2011.

 

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