Speed of Sounds Produce 10/18/2009

Taro Nohashi vs Yuki Sato

This was a no-ring show in a cool disco-like environment. Not having a ring often brings the best out of talented wrestlers because they are forced to break out of their formula, and it makes things just feel a bit more reckless. And these two are pretty talented. They do a nice job working a basic indy undercard match with some good matwork, plausible no-ring lucharesu exchanges and Nohashi doing an 80s NWA studio match style working over Satos arm. Because there's only a tin mat even basic moves like a body slam or drop toe hold look devastating. Sato having to improvize in order to do high flying is a lot of fun and them clocking each other with stiffffff headbutts is what you sickos want out of a match like this. Nohashi at one point hit a jumping kick that was pretty amazing. This was exactly what you want your odd no ring indy show opening match to be.

Koryuki vs CHANGO vs Jumping Kid Okimoto

This was not what you want to see. Koryuki is some character who can't wrestle because of his super elaborate mask, then his elaborate mask gets partially removed but he still can't wrestle. The comedy was ass and the attempts at wrestling were lazy and uninspired. You want no second of this.

Gota Ihashi & HARASHIMA vs Masato Inaba & Toru Owashi

Standard light hearted DDT undercard tag that wasn't any good, really. For a no ring match to be good you need to bring some good matwork and/or striking and maybe a willingness to be insane and nobody here was delivering that. Gota Ihashi was the one guy who seemed to care a little and laid it, and he's supposed to be a joke.

Takuya Sugawara vs Kinya Oyanagi

 Kinya Oyanagi was a mighty decent wrestler and him being in a singles match is always a reason to check out a show. Sugawara was a pretty decent wrestler too, which along with guys like Nohashi and Minamino being there makes me wonder if the later Toryumon generations were actually better. This match was lots of groundwork, nice mix of basic stuff and the cool shit that Oyanagi does, so exactly what you want. Some swank counters and Sugawara while clearly less skillful had a few neat moves of his own, and stuck to a gameplan of attacking Oyanagis legs which lead to Oyanagi in counter attacking his arm and neat moments insure, such as Sugawara taking a painful looking kick to the shoulder while trying to lock in a figure 4. Aside from the matwork Oyanagi busted out this awesome jumping enzuigiri to a seated Sugawara. Smart match and a testament to how good wrestling can be without ropes and buckles.

Kota Ibushi & Hercules Senga & Tsutomu Oosugi vs Shu Sato & Kei Sato & Ken 45

Brahman Brothers are a really good pair of rudos in this environment. They will kick people in the face, act unhinged and stooge very well. That along with the Speed of Sounds smooth lucharesu stuff makes this a really fun match. Add in Ibushi and his tendency to lunatic stuff when placed in unusal environment and you get something good. Busting out a kendostick was unexpected and all the double team moves looked great and coupled with the brawling made the match feel more chaotic. And Ibushi bouncing around and doing crazy stuff was off the charts. This was the kinda shit you could put on a mixtape to showcase how cool pro wrestling can be, just a lot of cool shit per minute, very clear face and heel roles and with a unique twist to it. They really should have kept running shows in that disco.

The Library

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #23

 MIKAMI & Tanomusaku Toba vs. Daichi Kakimoto & Chou-un Shiryu, DDT 5/23/2007 - FUN

Another JIP match. But we get 5 minutes of total action with Shiryu doing a bunch of awesome stuff and Toba getting ragdolled around. Shiryus whacky kung fu kicks and dives are truly awesome. He also hit this awesome foot stomp off the top of Kakimotos shoulders. Then it was time for Toba to punch Kakimoto in the face and they did some manly exchanges. Can’t ask for much more from a clip like this.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Daichi Kakimoto, DDT 6/3/2007 – FUN

JIP once again. Common, 2007 Samurai TV editors, give me a complete Toba match! This looked insanely good as it was basically all straight punches, crowbar lariats and ragdoll suplexes. You can watch a lot of Toba stuff but he still surprises you with what he busts out, in this case hitting a cool rana. They reference the finish of the above tag, and the finish of this one is insane.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shuji Ishikawa, DDT 2/7/2007 – SKIPPABLE

Well, not all of these can be good. Toba was good as always, punching Shuji in the face, but Shuji was really lame and weak and the match had a shitty run in finish.

Tanomusaku Toba & Munenori Sawa vs. Kota Ibushi & Hoshitango, DDT 8/5/2008 - FUN

Clipped but holy fuck I‘d kill to see this in full. Everyone has boxing gloves and they are beating the shit out of each other. Even Hoshitango is swinging hard and eating huge blows! Toba and Ibushi take turns hitting each other in the face as hard as they can. Then Toba and Ibushi are brawling on the floor. Finally everyone is in the ring and just beating on each other like its real life Super Smash Bros until Toba hits a huge dropkick. God I really hope the uncut version of this is sitting somewhere because this looks like EVERYTHING.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #22

 

Tanomusaku Toba & Kota Ibushi vs. Manabu Hara & Katsumi Usuda, DDT 6/13/2007 - EPIC

Don’t know what was happening in DDT in 2007 that they were booking all these BattlARTS invasion matches but I am here for it. This was awesome and basically just pure asskicking all the way through. Pretty much perfectly digestable shootstyle stiff fest with minimal submission work and clear face/heel roles with Hara and Usuda being a pair of assholes and brutalizing Ibushi. Toba in DDT usually faces easy opposition and it was pretty awesome to see him here mixing it up with a pair of beasts and getting kicked in the face by Usuda. Ibushi cut out the bullshit and was just a gutsy fighter here, even his blown backflip kind of worked in the match. This was just a hair under 10 minutes and just incredibly stiff and exciting for the whole duration.

Tanomusaku Toba & Sanshiro Takagi vs. Manabu Hara & Katsumi Usuda, DDT 6/20/2007 - GREAT

I wasn’t sure how Takagi would do with the shooters, but he mostly does fine. Him dumping a table on Usuda and hitting a stiff dropkick was great, but his later stuff lacked the same intensity. Toba vs. BattlARTS guys was really great once again and his exchange with Usuda was must see. Usuda shoot headbutting Toba through a flurry of punches and kicks was awe inspiring.Toba would’ve had one hell of a career as a BattlARTS or FUTEN guy. I mean he still had one hell of a career but this stuff is where he shines most, and there’s so little of it. All the more reason to cherish random little matches like this more, I guess!

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Kota Ibushi & HARASHIMA, DDT 4/11/2007 – FUN

JIP, which is too bad because on paper this is a great match. What we get is pretty fun though as we get a couple great Toba exchanges vs. Ibushi and HARASHIMA. Toba annihilating Ibushi with body blows and brutal kicks was really great. HARASHIMA isn’t afraid to eat punishment, hit back and then dive right into a Toba punch other. Toba also almost got ripped in half by a nasty Shima leglock. Everything else was solid and the Toba sections were absolutely worth checking out.

 

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

More Dramatic Fantasia Outtakes

 MIKAMI vs. HARASHIMA, 11/27/2007

It’s the two top juniors in DDT in a big title match. If you know and like these two you will like this a lot, if you don’t know these you will be positively surprised. While the match was a bit spotty here and there, both guys can bust out unpredictable highspots. Like MIKAMI can always hit an odd 619 or springboard move from any angle, and HARASHIMA can just kick you in the head. Ladder stuff didn’t detract from the match and lead to a few big crazy bumps and moments. I was also surprised they didn’t go into finisher overkill, instead focussing on MIKAMI avoiding the Somato like death. Also got a kick out of HARASHIMA going ‘fuck you’ to the ladder.

HARASHIMA vs. Kota Ibushi, DDT 12/30/2007

This won a “match fans want to see the most” contest. With that kind of set up you can expect them to bring the goods, and they did. If you like 2010s HARASHIMA you will like 2000s HARASHIMA because he’s nearly the same wrestler. He was smart enough to work some basic exchanges with Ibushi early on, making the highspots they did look bigger. He also worked Ibushis arm, so even though Ibushi didn’t sell anything it wasn’t super exposed and Ibushi could still hit all his highspots. Both guys did some amazingly spectacular counters and sequences like you expect from an Ibushi match. The match had handsprings, reverse ranas and all that, it was like 2022 match except this was actually good because they had good pacing and structure. Also both guys weren’t afraid to hit each other hard. Recommended if you just want to see a cool MOVEZ match/spotfest and don’t expect a deep story.

 

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Shuji Ishikawa, DDT 2/24/2011

Shuji is way bigger and a damn old crowbar. Kikuchi was on the way out, but he could still take a murder asskicking. Goodness gracious. Ishikawa just brutalizes him with his big knees and headbutts and Kikuchi bleeds hardway and hits a really pretty suplex on the bigger guy and it’s just really gutsy and gritty. Wish they had aired the whole thing because those 6 minutes were pretty insane.

Shuji Ishikawa vs. Kengo Mashimo, DDT 10/3/2010

God I am MAD they only showed 5 minutes of this because this looked like an epic, FUTEN-esque battle. Both guys bleed hardway and they beat the shit out of each other. Brutal kicks and knees left and right. Check it out for some old-fashioned violence.

It's a MEN's World

MEN´s Teioh, Makoto Oishi & Shinobu vs. Onryo, Milanito Collection a.t. & Fantastik, BJW 8/20/2007

When I saw that Fantastik had a few TV matches in BJW in 2007, I was wondering if he still had it. He looks lumpier here than he did in the 90s… but as soon as he steps in the ring, it becomes clear that he still has it. Still has ridiculously beautiful execution, still works really pretty lucha sequences and he still hits that fucking senton to the floor he always does and it looks magnificient. Leave it to a lumpy old luchador to smoke a bunch of slender Japanese juniors with the biggest dive in a match. But, even aside from Fantastik being really good, this was super fun match. I remember these MENS Club matches being kind of last hurrah for Japanese lucharesu. I guess we can pin those matches being good on Men’s Teioh bringing his Michinoku Pro experience and some authority into them. He has fun dynamic hitting all those twinks with cool clotheslines and elbows. They do fun character multiman spots, everyone has some brief neat sequences worked out together, the pace is fast, they move through comedy briefly and with ease, and it doesn’t go into overkill. Onryo looked cool here doing his zombie shtick and ripping out cool flying ranas, including a flying reverse rana which was pretty insane. Nevermind all that shit. FANTASTIK~!

MEN’s Teioh & Mototsugu Shimizu & Hercules Oosenga & Wolf Ozawa vs. Kota Ibushi & Makoto Oishi & Milanito Collection AT, BJW 11/26/2007

Another really good little match from the MEN’s Club crew, this stuff definitely ages better than most other spotty stuff from the era. Big part of that is the ongoing story and character of these matches, with Shinobu playing underdog, the weird kamehameha comedy bit and all the twinks bickering at each other while Teioh looks kind of embarassed to be there and just comes in to hit stiff elbows and european uppercuts. Plus, the match had excellent structure and just the right pace, so compared to how spotty current wrestling is this looks like a fucking Bret Hart match in comparison. Everybody tags in and out fast enough to do something cool and not get exposed, you have a cool Teioh vs. Ibushi face off, Onryo doing his Wolf Ozawa persona (I think there was an angle in 2007 where Onryo came back to life and became Wolf Ozawa but later died again to transform back into Onryo), there’s a good Shinobu FIP section where Oosenga hits a cool second rope elbow (yeah, I remember the second rope elbow in a spotfest! I liked that), several cool synchro dives. And the whole thing doesn’t overstay its welcome. Yeah I’m gonna go on record to say this stuff ruled.

MEN’s Teioh & Onryo & Shinobu vs. Shiori Asahi & Makoto Oishi & Hiroyuki Kondo, BJW 5/26/2006

This was one of the earliest matches of this crew, I am not sure they were going by MEN’s Club at this point but the theme of Shinobu disappointing Teioh was already present. Teioh was great here, doing a bunch of totally awesome maestro exchanges with Oishi hooking him with neat holds and sweet reversals. 3 of the guys in this were really green so they were struggling to draw reactions from the crowd (then again it was Katsura Studio), but it moved into a really good ending section that didn’t feel like overkill. I enjoyed Asahi a lot, cool underrated indy guy who has a number of unique spinning wheel kicks and enzuigiri that look painful, and Kondo is always cool to see.

Dramatic Deep Cuts

 

Kota Ibushi vs. Taro Nohashi, DDT 9/23/2007

NOHASHI SHOWCASE MATCH! Man, I am glad I had a hunch that I should watch this. I had no idea Nohashi was this awesome in 2007. This was the kind of performance that makes you fall in love with wrestling all over again. Nohashi doesn’t care that he’s stocky and doesn’t stand a chance against the better looking, taller, chiseled Ibushi, he was gonna go hard and do a bunch of awesome shit. Nohashi had a bunch of cool ways to attack Ibushis leg, a bunch of awesome old school spots weaved perfectly into a modern day juniors match. It meshes really well with Ibushis athletic style, so you’d have Nohashi do a thrust kick and Ibushi would kip up and right into a tight Octopus Stretch. Ibushis leg selling wasn’t very deep but you can do some spectacular stuff with Ibushi and they did that here but man Nohashi is so much cooler. Nohashi was also taking all of Ibushis stiff shoot kicks like a champ. Loved the Mandara Hineri variations from Nohashi, the crazy floor dropkick, the headbutts etc.. The man was on like no tomorrow that night, total hidden gem performance.

TAKA Michinoku vs. MIKAMI, DDT 5/4/2005

This is MIKAMIs comeback match, which means TAKA is a total piece of shit to him. TAKA won’t bump for a MIKAMI headscissor, he sidesteps a MIKAMI dive, he even blocks MIKAMIs 619 and kicks out of 1 after MIKAMI hits his big senton. So MIKAMI has to bring the fight if he wants to get anything in this match. Taka was really punishing Mikami too with his tight headlocks and headscissor neck crank, and his fancy jump kicks were hitting hard. He also kept MIKAMI scurrying for the ropes with his out of nowhere facelock attempts. The insta-tap finish was great, too. Really gnarly, hard fought, unique match where it felt like TAKA was channeling Fujiwara.

Sanshiro Takagi vs. Masa Takanashi, DDT 7/20/2008

DDT is this weird promotion that puts on a ton of filler and lame jokes but sometimes you get a creative gem. This was a T2P style match that works both as a parody and a serious attempt at the style. Takanishi is really smooth and Takagi is surprisingly adept at this. These two have Skayde-ish transitions down pat and bust out a bunch of cool holds before a smart finish occurs. Fun in the same way like the first time you saw Johnny Saint wrestle.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #7

 Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Kota Ibushi & Daichi Kakimoto, DDT 12/28/2005 - EPIC

Spectacular indy match upgraded to a Toba-style stifffest. Ibushi was way better here than in their 2008 singles. In that match he played kind of a moronic overdog to Tobas underdog, here he is underdog while Toba demolishes him and it’s way more compelling. Tobas initial flurry of KO’ing Ibushi over and over was great and it set up a great Ibushi offense where he was kicking the crap out of Toba with a serious sense of pissed offness. So obviously I loved the Ibushi/Toba slaughtering each other sections, but MIKAMI and Kakimoto hold up their own. Kakimoto is a really fun thick guy who throws suplex and potatoes people with elbows and lariats, which is exactly the kind of simplistic pro wrestlers. I’ve seen people call MIKAMI a poor mans Marufuji before but from everything I’ve seen he is worlds better than Marufuji. MIKAMI really knows how to time his stuff, knows how to fly into the scene with a thudding missile dropkick or flying rana at just the right moment. He knew Ibushi and Toba were gonna be stiff and understood he had to land his stuff with real oomph to it. His senton to Kakimoto may have been among the most crushing moves I’ve ever seen. He and Toba also exhibit great veteran chemistry working several cool cutoffs against Ibushi and Kakimoto. The finishing run was grand with several twists and turns and a few epic saves, but didn’t overstay its welcome. I’m surprised this match doesn’t get more play, really stiff, compelling action with enough athletic moves to keep even a more casual audience entertained, the perfect hybrid of 90s and 2000s Japan indy action.

Asian Cougar & Tomohiko Hashimoto v Showa & Tanomusaku Toba (Onita Pro 10/28/2001) - GREAT

DDT crew bringing the goods on a random Onita mark show. I am 99% sure Showa is just Phantom Funakoshi in a cheap mask doing a tribute gimmick, which is not as cool as him just being a guy who happens to wrestle like the old stylists. Still, match was quality shit between 4 juniors who all have unique styles and personalities.. Starts great with Hashimoto ragdolling Toba around and dropping him on his head with a crazy Randleman like throw. We get everyone doing their cool shit, Toba busts out his apron kick, nice dive train etc. Asian Cougar seemed to be holding back at first, and it made his big spots later seem cooler. There was an unfortunate moment where Toba slipped on a double team move, but other than that he was the Toba we all love, kicking hard, punching guys in the face, and getting spiked with some of these throws.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shintaro Karasu, Onita Pro 5/4/2001- FUN

Shintaro Karasu is a flier who looks like a mini Hayabusa but with a weird birdlike mask. Normally he’s just your average spotty undercarder, but he takes a pretty big asskicking from Toba here and responds in kind with big swinging open hand strikes and a nasy solebutt. They only showed a few minutes from a short match, would’ve liked to see the whole thing, but it serves as a nice career highlight for the mysterious Shintaro Karasu.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #6

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Takashi Sasaki (DDT 11/19/2000) - GREAT

Not as good as their match earlier in the year, but there was still plenty of badass violent pro wrestling going on here. Loved the opening with both guys beating the shit out of each other in the corner and Toba throwing some nice combos. There a few more spots here, such as Toba hitting his awesome apron kick and even a frankensteiner, but less Rocky-style exchanges in the finish. Takashi Sasaki once again looks really good, throwing a nice variety of kicks and these two have such excellent timing on their exchanges.

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Kota Ibushi, DDT 2/3/2008 - FUN

Sort of a kickboxing approximation to a Japanese big match. Ibushi was pretty goofy here and there too many back and forth strike exchanges. Even though the match was wrestled in Tobas style, it seemed to be all about Ibushi, which I didn’t like. There was a moment where Ibushi moonsaulted right into Tobas fist which looked really stupid. It still holds up better than your typical Japanese big match full of pointless elbow throwing and restholds, though. Lots of nasty strikes, including a great moment where Toba destroyed Ibushi in the corner. Finish was downright disgusting. Overall, his could’ve been way better.

Tanomusaku Toba & HARASHIMA vs. Takashi Sasaki & Masashi Takeda (HARD HIT 1/25/2009) - EPIC

Great great match. DDT guys have done matches with shootstyle elements in the past, but they went full on BattlARTS style here. It was nice to see the deathmatch boys go back to their roots. Harashima/Takeda grappling throughout was pretty great. It was slick U-Style matwork and a joy to watch. Takeda is actually a Tamura guy and it was nice to see he could still do that. Harashima looked really slick too. Of course, the main attraction was Toba and Sasaki going back to the kind of stuff they were doing a decade earlier. You could tell they were excited to get kill each other again. All their exchanges throughout were pretty great and pretty violent. I like how Sasaki blew a gasket for a moment, throwing Toba outside and prompting another streetfighting section, which earned him a yellow card. The finish was between Toba and Takeda and really good also. Toba was anticipating Takedas attacks (something I’ve noticed is one of his go-to tricks) and destroying him with superior strikes. Tobas spinning back elbow to Takedas throat was sick and probably the highlight of the match. Toba going into desperation mode whenever Takeda went for a suplex or submission also was fantastic. Great stuff, wish they had done this kind of thing more often.

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Hikaru Sato & Akito, DDT 9/29/2013 - GREAT

This was all about Toba vs. Sato. I’ve been pretty critical of Sato, but he was great in this match. Great opening section between him and Toba where he worked over Toba with some disgusting leg kicks. Of course, Toba came back punching his jaw out. I also loved Satos reversal to MIKAMIs 619. This is the first time I’ve seen Akito, and he stinks. However, he never got to drag the match down because Toba and Sato were constantly coming in to crush someone with brutal strikes. The finish was between MIKAMI and Akito and it was short and well executed. Apparently this was the only time Toba and Sato really interacted. Travesty.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST 

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #5

 

Tanomusaku Toba & Tsunehito Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Tomohiko Hashimoto (DDT 5/26/2001) - EPIC

More good shit from the early DDT shootstyle division. This was a crazy thaiboxer teaming with an a UWF trained grappler against a straight judoka and a killing machine, you have to love it. Toba/Ishii exchanges were once again so fucking violent and great. Initially Ishii was blowing off Tobas strikes and just mauling him. This whole match Toba really works like a guy who is too small to have enough hitting power to KO the big guys right away, but he will absolutely pummel guys with shots until he is able to land a big one. I dug Naito here, having some cool judo vs. UWF style grappling exchanges against Hashimoto, throwing some great neck-spiking suplexes and reversing an STO into a backdrop in a pretty great spot. I also loved his little floor browling section with Ishii where he threw a reckless dropkick with Ishii launching a chair right back at him. I continue to enjoy Tomohiko Hashimoto as a guy with nothing but cool judo throws, and he was ragdolling the shit out of Toba with his throws and suplexes and even a cloverleaf giant swing at one point. TOBA was great as he usually is in the matches, throwing crazy kicks and punches while absorbing said massive beatings and bumps on his own. I probably would’ve preferred a Toba vs. Ishii ending run, as you could tell Hashimoto is limited and pretty green here (not sure if his early judoka phase wasn’t actually his peak as he spent the rest of his career as a crummy garbage brawler), but the Toba vs. Hashimoto end run was about was well put together as you can do thai boxer vs. judoka, with Hashimoto throwing out crazy suplex and Toba backhanding the shit out of his face.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Tomohiko Hashimoto (DDT 5/21/2002) - FUN

Talk about a contrast. Hashimoto has no strikes and is a judoka, Toba has no grapples and is a thaiboxer. It could have been a pretty esoteric match, but they made it digestible for their mainstream audience. Toba punches really hard and hits big dives, and Hashimoto tosses the fuck out of him. Really good example of Tobas ragdoll bumping as Hashimoto just threw him around like a child. It was like a 5 minute match (probably for the better) and I would think this is what US TV matches could look like in a cool parallel universe.

Tanomusaku Toba & Kota Ibushi vs. Munenori Sawa & Yuta Yoshikawa, DDT 4/1/2007 - GREAT

4 youngins beating the soul out of eachother. Ibushi was wild here, he really should've kept working like a slap-happy kickboxer instead of turning into a flip machine. Even in a match where everyone is throwing potatoes Toba stands out, he throws his combos a little faster than everyone else, really understands how to anticipate his opponents strikes, and he lands his big punches with a slightler bigger thud than everyone else. Whenever he gets put in a submission, the intensity increases drastically. I remember Yoshikawa being pretty hit and miss in his BattlARTS days, but he looked good here putting some stretches on Toba early on and giving Ibushi a nasty facewash later. His section with Toba was an easy career highlight. And then you had that bare knuckle boxing finish. Great stuff.

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Munenori Sawa & Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 5/10/2010 - GREAT

Good times. Munenori Sawa was a shot in the arm for DDT at this point. He and Takagi had formed "Team Hentai". This was basically a mindless spotfest, but the spots were cool and unpredictable and there were enough violent Toba exchanges to push this into GREAT territory. Starts with a cool shootstyle floor brawling section between him and Sawa. Sawa could be pretty good at this time as an asskicker, and when he went for his Muto tribute spiel Toba punched him in the face hard, so that was good. MIKAMI did a bit of a weak looking reverse lungblower early on which is the kind of shit I don't want in my wrestling, but he looked good for the rest of the match. He is a bit trickier, a bit slicker than your typical junior and when he brought his ladder into play the spots were cool and unpredictable. Takagi had a bit of a bumbling middle aged cop vibe at this point, but he still had very good chemistry with TOBA.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #3

 

  Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI & Takashi Sasaki vs. Great Takeru & Phantom Funakoshi & Asian Cougar (5/25/1998) - GREAT

Good times with the DDT crew. You see, these guys can do some basic matwork and exchanges, put a match with a solid structure together and have no problem crushing each other with big highspots and stiff blows, which is absolutely enough for me to have a good time. I continue to be impressed with Phantom Funakoshi, his arm popping submissions are awesome, and he basically holds his team together, as Asian Cougar is just a highspot freak and the Great Takeru is just pure mediocrity. Funakoshi and Toba have a particularily great exchange where both guys keeping baiting eachother until Funakoshi grabs a series of armbars, Toba gets pissed off and demolishes Funakoshis shoulder with a series of nasty strikes. This was really early into Tobas career but he looks awesome, his punches were a bit less showy than later, he did lots of ducking and stance movements, but he still had such a cool variety of strikes and was willing to get crushed by his opponents spots, he also busts out the springboard wheel kick which is an awesome reckless spot from a guy not wearing shoes. Speaking highspots, Asian Cougar is an absolute psycho in this rolling out dive after dive and crushing dudes faces with the gnarliest leg drops you’ve ever seen. Really you can watch a ton of old japan indy wrestling and always come out with refreshed appreciation for the crazy ways of Asian Cougar. Mikami and Sasaki are in their infancy stage but they do well here and Mikami is over as the DDT homeboy to have an exciting finish with even Takeru. Such cool stuff, checking out Tobas career is an awesome journey.

Tanomusaku Toba & Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Super Uchu Power & MIKAMI (DDT 7/19/2001) - GREAT

So much fun to be had here, DDT missed the boat big time when they stopped doing hybrid shoot matches like this. Tomohiko Hashimoto is all judo throws at this point, and he and the pure striking based style of Toba make a fun team. MIKAMI for a junior can handle himself with the shooters, he hit an awesome flying armbar counter to one of Hashimotos throws, and generally sticks to offense that requires little cooperation, mostly just hitting cool sentons and open hand strikes. Super Uchu Power is totally awesome in this match, the shooter alien is such a great menacing monster crowbarring dudes with kicks like baseball bat shots, locking in shoulder popping shoot submissions and dropping ridiculous bombs. He also works some really nifty exchanges with Hashimoto, there is a cool moment where the alien goes for a gi choke and Hashimoto reverses into a Fujiwara armbar, and several great spots centered around Super Uchu Power trying to block Hashimotos STOs and other throws. Toba narrowly avoiding destruction and and catching the beast with some hard punches and backfists was great. The finish was between Toba and MIKAMI and while it wasn’t as epic as the best Toba faceoffs it was fun.

Tanomusaku Toba & Ranbo Yoshida Okuntun vs. Kota Ibushi & KUDO (DDT 8/8/2007) - EPIC

This was from a Shin FMW style show where Kota Ibushi was in every match. It was also kickboxing style tag where everyone had gloves and there were rounds. It easily could’ve been bad, but it ended up pretty awesome. We get some slow opening sparring between Toba and KUDO before Ranbo Yoshida (who I assume is a legit kickboxing outsider) tags in and rules the show the with awesome Eddy Gordo style handspring kicks. The 2^nd round begins, Ibushi & KUDO start brawling and now we get kickboxers fighting up the entrance way in their gloves. For some reason floor brawling in Japan with dudes who wear gloves always is way better. The 3^rd round is just an awesome Rocky style frenzy where everyone is throwing down and blocking punches with their face. I thought Toba/Ibushi was gonna be the obvious final pair, but instead Ranbo tagged in, decided to stiff up Ibushi with some hard knees to the gut and we got more chaotic fighting. I can’t believe Japanese wrestling just collectively decided to stop having these kind of crazy spectacles and instead just quietly replace them with slogs of soulless elbow exchanges.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST