Matches from and old Scott Mailman comp tape

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 Takashi Sasaki vs. Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 9/30/1999

Pretty good quasi-BattlARTS match. Sasaki was the real deal ripping out fast submissions and landing knees to Takagis face. I didn't really appreciate Takagis stomp-punches-Stone-Cold-Stunner style much next to Sasakis cutting edge spin kicks and cool Destiny Hammers, but to be fair Sasaki ate the fuck out of those Stunners. Takagi kind of redeemed himself busting out some cool backfists. Full indy scum point to this match.

Asian Cougar & Kurokage vs. Kyohei Mikami & Takashi Sasaki Onita Pro 9/16/1999

This is a really 'comp tape' match. They do some brief opening work and then get to their cool highspots. Sasaki looked good once again being surprisingly vicious to Kurokage. It's nice to have a guy who can kick ass and while punch the shit out of people inserted into a more spot oriented junior undercard match. Dive train on the concrete was really sick and the neck-crunching big move ladden ending run was choice without getting on your nerves. I miss when juniors did moves like Powerbombs or Flying Armbars instead of superkicks and canadian destroyer like shit all the time.

Asian Cougar & Yuki Nishino vs. Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO Onita Pro 12/1/1999

Even more 'comp tape' highlight reel match, since they clipped a 9 minute match down to five or so. This was worth watching though. Nishino is my boy and he and Sasaki beating on each other with lariats and running headbutts was pretty badass. After that we get a Korakuen Hall upgraded run of sick highspots mostly involving Asian Cougar. He hits the chair senton to the floor, a bunch of whacked-out legdrops right on peoples jaw etc. Sasakis spinning kick to an opponent placed against the apron was a pretty sick regular spot. Full point, once again.

CMLL Japan Lucha Revolution 2nd 2/24/1999

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Kurokage vs. Takashi Sasaki

Unusual match to open your CMLL Japan show, but I‘m not complaining about your DDT boys getting some work. This was a fun 5 minutes, these two really work un-lucharesu like and pelt each other with kicks and open hands. Kurokage kind of gets a showcase here, he busts out a slick armbar, spikes Sasaki with a vicious Dragon Suplex and gets the pin with a cool combination.

Maxx Bunny & Super Cacao vs. Masaru Seno & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa

Fine undercard lucharesu with some comedic elements. Give me some amusing gimmicks and the occasional neat pin or submission and I‘m happy. Tubby boy Kikuzawa looks good doing armdrags and twisting sentons. Seno is the future Daioh Quallt and works as a thick amateur boy here and he is fun. Bunny did the occasional comedy but also brought some wrestling. I think Super Cacao is Nozawa and he‘s inoffensive. There was no need for this to go twice as long as the previous match, though.

El Olimpico vs. Rencor Latino

I always enjoy luchadores in Japan getting 10 minutes to impress the audience. These two do some really funky matwork to start, lots of cool unorthodox throws. It‘s a pity CMLL pretty much got rid of matwork in the 2000s because things were getting very experimental at this point. The match took a bit of dampener when Olimpico was hesistant on his dive, but they picked up again for the finish when Latino hit his own big dive. Enjoyable stuff, why does it feel like ages since I‘ve seen two luchadores do this kind of match in Japan?

Halcon Negro & El Salsero & Zumbido vs. Super Delfin & Masato Yakushuji & Naohiro Hoshikawa

Another really fun lucharesu match. Everyone had their working boots on. El Salsero was a fun discovery here, he would do his crazy dancing and then plant people with big powerbombs and spin kicks. Yakushiji is one of the most spectacular wrestlers ever and he matches up extremely well with Zumbido here. Halcon Negro is a lumpy bodied luchador and it‘s fun watching him bust out dives and get kicked hard by Hoshikawa. Structure was a bit iffy since the Osaka Pro guys kind of tried to work rudo but weren‘t very convincing at it (Yakushiji keeps getting face spots and Delfin doesn‘t do much). Finishing run was fun though with a big dive train etc.

Ultimo Guerrero & Virus vs. Oriental & Tsubasa

Any long Virus match from this period is a treasure. And this was all these guys going balls out for +20 minutes. Really aiming for the most spectacular match they could possibly produce. We get a bunch of ultra slick opening mat exchanges to start. I‘ve never really noticed Tsubasa before, but he matches up well with Virus, not just „guy who is a warm body getting carried through some sections by Virus“ but actively looking really polished. And Oriental is really underrated and a really good worker. The match goes a bit awry when Oriental goes for diving rana to the outside (an insane move for 1999) and UG miss-catches him. He ends up being fine though and it may have added to the match as immediately there was heat on the rudo beat down section. Oriental regained his senses and later actually hit the big diving rana in a really nice moment. And the rest of this was spectacular and smooth to the max. I‘m surprised I‘ve never heard of this before because how on earth would 90s workrate smarks not love this?! If you want a crazy spotfest you might as well get a bunch of pro luchadores to do it, and they went for big fucking spots here, aside from all the slick ranas and spectacular dives there was Virus busting out a dominator from the top which looked like it could have killed Tsubasa, and Ultimo Guerrero busts out his avalanche reverse suplex on the hard as hell Japanese ring. They executed everything with grace (safe for one or two mishaps) and logic and it was really good shit. Also dug out UG trying to pull out the victory against the odds, real stoic rudo determination. Another really great Oriental performance, too, and did I mention Virus? I'm not overly familiar with 1999 CMLL but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the 2nd or 3rd best Lucha match to happen that year.

THE LIBRARY

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #13

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. GENTARO & Takashi Sasaki, DDT 10/24/2002 - EPIC

This felt like the biggest match that DDT ran that year, and they rolled out all the spots. For that kind of match where a bunch of indy juniors roll out their spots, you can‘t get much better than having Toba in there to punch people in the face. As usual his exchanges with Sasaki were pretty violent and ballsy, and he was up there with all the super athletic guys in the match when it came to producing fireorks. He hit a big Toyota style dropkick to the floor, a nasty flying kick off the top that caught GENTARO in the chin, and a badass elbow/STO combo. GENTARO is really fun too, he was roughing up Toba with snug pro wrestling style strikes, and MIKAMIs highspots were big and crushing looking. The match didn‘t have some kind of epic story or great transitions so it as definitely popcorn material, but there was no over cooperative stuff, no thigh slapping, everything looked hurty. Even the ladder being brought up was used to add a sense of escalation and didn‘t detract from the match. Good stuff, maybe the best popcorn match of the year.

Tanomusaku Toba & Ichiro Yaguchi & Chotaro Kamoi vs. Takashi Sasaki & Kurokage & Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 6/30/1998 - GREAT

A match which was thankfully mostly about TOBA. Yaguchi and Kamoi were kind of treated like comedy jobbers, so they knew who was the man. Early Toba was beastly, his punches were less showy and landing more straightforwardly in peoples face, and he did more crazy kicks than later. Everytime he‘s in the ring the match was just relentless, him just beating on people and then getting hurled around by suplexes. He matches up against all 3 guys and everyone looks good cranking up the violence when facing him. Toba vs. Sasaki is a known guarantee for violent, ballsy exchanges by now. Kurokage is some masked junior and he looked good throwing suplexes, throwing some stiff kicks and locking in armbars. Kamoi is kind of a 99 ct store Toba, he has one fun moment where he leaps off the top rope with a punch but was pretty sloppy otherwise. Yaguchi isn‘t good but doesn‘t drag the match down either. The finish was Toba vs. Takagi and good shit. Bit long at 18 minutes but a fun watch thanks to our thai boxing hero.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT