It's a MARVELOUS day

 

2/3 Falls: Takumi Iroha & Rin Kadokura vs Mio Momono & Leo Isaka, Marvelous 4/29/2017

Intrigueing match up on paper, that ended up probably being even better than I expected. Momono and Kadokura are still in their rookie stage, tagged with two evenly matched higher ranked wrestlers. So whenever it was either of them vs Iroha or Isaka, there was immediate peril, and when it was them against each other they were fiercely competitive. Isaka and Iroha do a good job here, Isaka looks really polished with his cool kicks and big dropkicks, and Iroha is not quite the badass she is now but she’s already really good as the higher ranked kicker thrust kicking peoples head off. Thought this built to a bunch of really really good exchanges and the ranking difference was handled nearly perfectly. Kadokura is a lot of fun here building up to a basic body slam, and Momono was already busting out some slicker offense including lots of cool armbars. Lots of great ‘higher ranked partner helps out lower ranked partner’ spots which are always a favourite of mine. Because it’s two out of three falls pretty much everything is a plausible finish, which increases the tension when Kadokura and Momono are in because even something like a bodyslam or crossbody is a finish then. This had a bunch of great forearm smash contests that really felt closer to something like Mantell v. Lawler, fighting down to the knees and back up, way better than your typical 2017 era elbow exchanges. All 3 falls were super hard fought and I thought they did an amazing job keeping the pace of the match without getting repetitive or getting into overkill. Really impressive achievement and something of a hidden gem if you ask me.

Takumi Iroha vs Mio Momono, Marvelous 11/3/2019

Momono has ascended past swimsuited rookie status and is on the rise, but she can still hardly put a dent into Iroha. Personally, I prefer the Shinya Hashimoto-type demeanour ala ‘I’m gonna wipe you off the face of the earth’ over Irohas ‘smiling and laughing because my opponent is that pathetically weak’ bit here, but Iroha certainly is convincing when it’s time to chop and kick the hell out of Momono. It builds to a few increasingly great comebacks from Momono, up to the last couple minutes which are really good with Momono throwing absolute haymakers trying to knock Iroha out and Iroha putting more violence than usual into her strikes. Sick ending that harkened back to the likes of Devil Masami flattening some GAEA rookie. Quality underdog story with some really slick wrestling and some sick as hell strikes, thought Momono looked great here.

Takumi Iroha vs Chigusa Nagayo, Marvelous 12/8/2019

Yes 55 year old Chigusa takes on the tank that is Iroha! Really intrigueing match that ends up being compelling. Chigusa comes out with a ridiculous amount of sponsor logos on her attire (gotta get the most out of this packed Korakuen Hall crowd) and looks like someones grandma. But god damn Chigusa is pro wrestling incarnate and she knows how to make anything compelling. Lots of great staredowns. They do pad some time by doing a lot of chops on the floor, but once they are back in the ring it’s great stuff. Chigusa still throws vicious strikes, her forearms still look better than most guys forearms, and she can still kick Iroha in the face. It looks like there’s a glimmer of hope (or should I say, ego?) that Nagayo could put Iroha in trouble, but Irohas youth advantage soon becomes apparent and she starts demolishing Nagayo and not holding back. Some great, Hashimoto like selling from Nagayo here, really getting the most out of this. It goes a bit too long, but the crucifixion-like ending makes it all worthwhile. Really unique match, the kind that only a handful of personalities in wrestling history could craft.

2025 Pro Wrestling Week 15

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

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

Leo Isaka vs KAMIKAZE, Marvelous 4/6/2025

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

 Meiko Satomura vs Takumi Iroha, Marvelous 4/10

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

CHANGO vs Leo Isaka, Marvelous 4/10

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

2025 Wrestling Master List

Assorted EAGLE Pro

 

Shoji Ohno vs Hiroyuki Kondo, EAGLE Pro 2/28/2021

This was from the plague era, so they wrestled in the empty EAGLE Pro dojo. I love Shoji Ohno now, I am not super familiar with Hiroyuki Kondo since he is another very elusive guy, but I thought Kondo was cool when he was in BJW 20 years ago. And oh my god this is a great match! They start with 10 minutes of ground wrestling like a classic NJPW match from the 90s and these two are really interesting to watch twist each other up on the ground. Kondo is really cool here – at one point he tried to snap Ohnos wrist with a headbutt that looked really good. Eventually it devolves into Kondo damaging Ohnos arm and Ohno damaging Kondos leg. This makes things further interesting both guys would try to go for their signature moves but couldn’t hit them because of the limb damage. Rarely do you see the logical conclusion of limb damage drawn to the end, and it really paid off in making this match more exciting. Kondo even hit a an arm-breaking piledriver on Shoji Ohno, which was amazing. Ohno is as straight forward as we know him from Mutoha. He doesn’t have the palm rushes yet, but he throws a lot of closed fist punches, and he is already really cool, he had this awesome reversal of an attempted russian legsweep. This was just the kind of minimalist, technical pro wrestling I really like, really it’s a gem considering what a small stage it was put on for.

Shoji Ohno vs Hiroyuki Kondo, EAGLE Pro 9/24/2023

Another match between them, and this one is in front of an audience. It’s also great! It’s also a pretty different beast from the 2021 match. Here, Shoji Ohno is a dirty heel bastard, and he has learned how to palm strike. So Ohno spends the whole match pummeling the hell out of Kondo with his hard as stone palms, even mocking a little girl in the audience. Crusher Takahashi is also with Ohno, ready to beat on Kondo with a kendo stock. Kondos only chance is to dismantle Ohnos arm and lock in the Scorpion Armlock. We get to see some great arm attacks from Kondo, including him busting out the arm breaking piledriver again, and there were a few great moments. The one problem was that I thought Kondo should’ve been slowed down more by Ohnos assault to his leg, but it wasn’t a huge problem. Kondo also busts out a great senton to Ohnos arm. Another really unique, cool as hell match from Shoji Ohno.

Hiroyuki Kondo & Kazunori Yoshida vs Leo Isaka & Takahiro Katori, EAGLE 2018/12/16

Another cool match from EAGLE Pro, based on what I see the promotion seems really cool. From what I gather Kondo and Yoshida are the veteran stalwarts of the promotion, with Yoshida being the founder of the company and Kondo its long time ace. Isaka and Katori are SHOCK DA HEROES, the budding young hotness of EAGLE, and they are trying to upset the veterans. This is a really good sprint, lots of spectacular moves but it’s really made by the veterans vs rising stars story. Kondo once again looked like the king of unorthodox arm attacks here, busting out an awesome Russian Legsweep targeting the arm. Yoshida may be some kind of best kept secret of the japanese indies, he has all these amazing looking rope climbing springboard moves, and also brings a trampolin for assisted springboard moves, he’s really graceful and awesome to watch. Isaka and Katori are mostly outgunned but I liked the few bits of offense they got in this too. Check this out if you want to spend 10 minutes watching some fresh wrestling.

2025 Wrestling Week 12

 Yu Shimizu vs Leo Isaka Marvelous 3/16

A lot of big matches happening in March 2025, and here I am, excited to watch Yu Shimizu vs Leo Isaka. This was a bit slow but solid and had a really good ending. Shimizu has really come into his own providing lots of cool moments with his dragon sleeper/reverse DDT work and his rear naked choke is the best I've ever seen. Isaka is a fun fast moving babyface. It kind of rules to have a short mens match like this on a joshi card.

Meiko Satomura vs Chihiro Hashimoto, 3/21

It's Meiko on her way out vs her top student. Obviously it's a great match. Great straight forward hard hitting pro wrestling. Hashimoto is clearly Meikos best opponent in recent years and this was probably their finest match together. Hash with her grappling skill and sheer physicality really forces Meiko to show more intensity of her own. Some genuinely violent strikes, sick head kicks and Chihiro trying to take her head off with vader hammers here. Loved the constant teasing of the basic German Suplex and something like a basic powerslam from Hashimoto being a huge nearfall. I assume this was ran in a much too large building so the heat was a little subdued early on, so the crowd coming alive with a big Satomura chant breaking out late in the match was awesome. Plenty of great spots and transitions without becoming too cute, I also loved the sleeper hold. What really makes this pop as a great match is the 'passing off the torch aspect' with Hashimoto trying to topple her teacher and Meiko being so unwilling to just lay down and stay down for the 3 and trying her damndest to win the title even on the brink of retirement. Great stuff and easily one of the finest matches not just of the year but of the decade so far.

Yumiko Hotta vs VENY, Seadlinnng 3/20

Yumiko Hotta main eventing a big show in a cage match. Why? I don't know, but I'm watching it. Hotta is 58 years old. She really can't bump, she doesn't even do cool kicks anymore. They just chuck metal objects at each others heads, bleeding, Hotta punches through a chair, they use a rickety ladder to try and climb the cage... some outside interference happens and a bunch of other girls storm into the ring, one of them diving off the cage. VENY is a psychotic hero in this, taking the gnarliest bump and also moonsaulting off the cage with nobody really catching her. When she hits the red mist on Hotta it looks like she spray vomited blood on her. I can't tell if this was any good but I sure enjoyed the spectacle of it, so it was good.

Sareee vs Syuri, Sareee-ism 3/10

I'll start with the positives: they both have plenty of great looking offense and a fair amount of intensity. They really blast each other with everything they've got for 30 minutes and there are a few murderous headbutts. Maybe I was too tired while watching this, but this match just didn't click for me. It starts bad enough with the super generic beginning - perfunctory matwork where nothing happens, some lucharesu-flavoured running exchange before they exchange snapmares and kick each other in the back a lot. It gets better later on, but aside from their offense there is not really much too hook me in. There is some semblance of psychology with Sareee attacking Syuris leg to slow her down, but Syuri never really sells any of it and quickly goes back on offense anyways. Syuri keeps going for armlocks but again Sareee never really sells it and at some point the submissions start to feel like padding. With the lack of a story or focus and the only selling point being how many moves these two can hit in a lot of minutes I started to zone out. Plus, 30 minutes was far too long for this, especially since they both lack offense, so Sareee must have hit like a dozen meaningless uranages in this. At 20 this could've been pretty good, at 30 this made the most bloated early 2000s NOAH matches look fresh and conservative.

Mariah May vs Toni Storm, AEW 3/9

Fun psycho bumpfest with plenty of blood and gross out carnage. I imagine this is how people felt watching Ian vs Axl Rotten in ECW. Brawling or subtleness were non existant but this has enough broken bottle to the crotch to make up for it. Actually thought the one broken glass punch was pretty sick so it was funny they didn't continue with the taipei stuff. I also liked May constantly selling the self-damage and the hip attacks were actually nasty looking and felt innovative. Not something I would want to watch again because I would get desensitized to piledrivers and headdrops but they made the most of what they had.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

2025 Wrestling Week 6

 Hideaki Sumi vs Sho Mizuno, KOBE Meriken 1/31

I love to see my man Hideaki Sumi show up. For those who don't know, he's this aging karateka with a grey mullet with really precise hard hitting kicks, so he's awesome. He can grapple too, so he's more interesting than your typical karateka. I haven't seen Sho Mizuni before, and he doesn't even have a Cagematch profile, but he has a half-mullet-half-iro and he does pretty well here. He also has kickpads and is not afraid to kick hard, and he had some cool slick rides on the ground. But you want to watch this because it's two japanese guys with mullets in a bar kicking and smacking the hell out of each other and for that it really delivers. Some cool moments in this and the finish was a brutalizing. This gets the full indy sleaze point.

Yujiro Yamamoto vs Takaku Fuke, KOBE Meriken 2/7/2025

Well it's a good run for Kobe Meriken right now. These two square of doing some nice shootstyle grappling. It was pretty uncooperative stuff but there were a number of cool moments, in particular Yujiro Yamamoto dragging Fuke around by a nasty double wristlock, and Yamamoto having a really cool throw counter to an attempted Russian tie from Fuke. The part where Yamamoto went for an irish whip was a little weird, I have no idea why he keeps forcing that into his matches. But the last couple minutes they went back to shootstyle. Fuke is getting cloes to 60 now and has been wrestling for around 35 years, which is pretty insane. He is not mindblowing at this point but he doesn't exactly suck either, and Yamamoto has no problem keeping this moving. Pretty enjoyable.

Shinya Ishida vs Yuta Oya, Sportiva 2/5

Yuta Oya continues to deliver. How this man is not a sensation is beyond me. 40 years old, blind, and the best rookie going right now. This was a really impressive little match. It kind of reminded me a bit of early 90s AJPW. It was a pro-style match, but rather unpredictable. Really good "rookie does a surprising job controlling the veteran" performance from Oya. He would hurl Ishida around with his judo throws and catch him with out of nowhere power moves. And Ishida is good as he usually is. I don't have a ton to say here, I am just asking people to watch this and see for themselves. Really good under 10 minute match.

PSYCHO vs Leo Isaka, Marvelous 2/4

I enjoyed this a lot too. Some great technical wrestling here. They did some really cool transitions and reversals, making the usual standard opening chain wrestling actually interesting. PSYCHO was great - he looked like a great technician, surprisingly athletic, and his leg selling was top notch. I have no idea how a guy like him with his iro and tattered clothes somehow ends up being a great technician but here we are. Isaka looked good too. Really looking forward to check out PSYCHOs upcoming match in MUTOHA after this.

2025 Wrestling Roundup