2025 Matchguide Week 51

 Mari & ACT & MARU vs Marino Saihara & Sakura Mizushima & Naru, AWG 9/7

Entertaining 3 vs 3 match that culminated in one of the best moments of the year. We get some fun exchanges early on with everyone playing their role. Mizushima is good in her underdog role as usual, and it escalates to some brawling with MARU busting out the chain. The two later had another extended in-ring segment that was pretty fun. The real greatness happens when Mari and Saihara tag in to face off. Just great wrestling as the usual confident overdog Mari was desperately scrambling for the ropes by Saiharas crossface and trying to avoid the German Suplex at all cost. Mari would then reestablish herself by braining Saihara with some hard kicks. Tremendous struggle here, even over something like a Sidewalk Slam. Mari getting caught by a surprise German suplex, being seemingly KO'd was ridiculously great. A bunch of chaos happens andhe faces all got together to try and have a superhero moment but it backfired in a funny moment on them. Then when Saihara gets the pin on Mari it actually feels like she did the impossible. Great stuff just for that, really intense without relying on an assload of nearfalls, just great character work, timing and struggle here, a good example of the kind of unique thing the AWG crew can pull off insanely well.

Senka Akatsuki vs Seri Yamaoka, Marvelous 12/28

The most awaited rookie face off of the year! And for the most part this delivers. Opening of this was great as they just did stubborn grappling, slapping the shit out of each other and sprawling on attempted takedowns. Loved how even something like the half crab felt intense and got a reaction. I could've done without the no selling in the middle but the finish is intense. Liked how Yamaoka had to constantly scramble to the ropes when Akatsuki started working for the dreaded pinfall. Also dug Yamaokas early Honda-ish submission. She should stick with that stuff more often given how everyone's just no selling German suplexes these days. I need these two to become perma-rivals.

Makoto vs Hiroyo Matsumoto, Seadlinnng 8/22

Well executed big match and probably one of the better ones of the year considering this was a believable match that felt like a struggle, never got boring and they both fucking walloped each other hardcore throughout this. Really liked Makoto putting over Matsumotos monster strength early on even when basic wristlocking stuff was going on. Makoto was ultra-vicious in this and Matsumoto is insanely hard hitting, putting some real violence even into something like corner stomps or an elbow smash. Makoto pulling illegal tactics to stop the beast made for good pro wrestling. Her kicking the rope into Matsumotos throat was really nasty looking, and her boots and double knee drops were devastating. Should also point out that Makoto going for an eye rake felt meaningful and lead to an important moment. Finishing stretch was mostly a damaged Matsumoto getting more desperate but also repeatedly re-establishing herself as a monster. Really liked how she tried to force a tap with a basic facelock that left Makoto hurting. The entire ending run was well put together thanks to Makotos precise offense and Matsumotos knack for unpredictable transitions and never lost me. Even the suplex no-sell was done right as Makoto was desperate to not loose the advantage and Matsumoto put her right back down turning her lights out and ending the match. Quality stuff and definitely a high note for joshi in 2025.

Minoru Kido vs taku, XGF 11/23

Ghoulish deathmatch spectacle + brutal face punches and headbutts. Oh and it's held in some apocalyptic setting outside a deserted factory. They are wrestling on concrete with just a little mat put on it. Last time I checked out xgf taku looked like a fairly normal guy, now he seems to sport a face tattoo and a green iro. I am only slowly getting into Kido but I am starting to see what makes him a modern cult favourite. He was pretty terrifying in this. The buzzing of the tattoo gun he used to cut taku open was haunting. I liked how whenever Kido got too comfortable in his casual sadism, taku would punch him in the face really hard. While there is some exhibition-y stuff typical of deathmatch wrestling here, there is a real vicious edge the way these two would waffle each other with a kendo stick or wooden plank in this. And they just keep punching and kicking each other in the face. Finish may have been the most insane I've ever seen as Kido just tried headbutting takus face to a mush. I liked how Kido didn't even care to piledrive taku onto those things he emptieed on the floor properly. This was like a combination of a Kurisu/Necro Butcher match and a leaked snuff video.

BADMAX Fujinaga vs Great Kuririn, Kobe MERIKEN 12/25

Who's Great Kuririn? Well, he's clearly stylized after Krillin from Dragonball. But here this bald little man who has a thick body and skinny arms and legs shows up in thai shorts and gloves to fight the man known as Badmax Fujinaga, who puts on the gloves and otherwise wears his usual shirt and pants. They start fighting and this seems to be a real fight. They start swinging and Kuririn quickly goes down and Fujinaga starts kicking the living shit out of him with brutal kicks and stomps to his bald head. Kuririn actually survives this by slipping out the ring. He continues to try and fight, but BADMAX is an unstoppable machine here quickly knocking him down again and then trying to crack his skull with knees on the ground. Kuririn tries to go for a takedown and is stuffed and after some more mauling a nasty armbar tweaks Krillins arm for the tap. I think this may have been a real fight. Whatever it was, it was a weapons grade sleaze at its finest.

2025 Matchguide 

2025 Matchguide Week 48

 Yasu Urano vs Akito, 11/16
Two guys grappling in the dojo for 60 minutes and livestreaming it seemingly from a phone camera. That is pretty much the most reverseviperhold match that can happen in 2025, so I am obligated to love it, but there was a ton of great stuff going on here. Akito is a total grappling freak, the guy was in the junior olympics and he used to wrestle Yasushi Sato 3 times a month in his Sportiva days. He rarely gets to show off that kind of talent in DDT, so I am glad he got to let out his freak in this. Really a great showing as he mixed in a ton of sweet techniques, some great leg grapevine moves, unique pins, the guy has a knack for this kind of clinical mat wrestling match. Urano is such a deceptive technician, he doesn't have quite the flashy techniqe of Akito, but he can really get down and gritty, at times he would just snatch an arm and armdrag Akito down really aggressively. He is also really vocal and was constantly letting out these miserable death rattles, like this match was totally killing him, and Akito would really cinch in any headlock or sleeper so hard that you buy wheezing old Yasu Urano passing out in the moment. They do get in a ton of neat details and unique touches, really a study of how you can work each hold to the maximum. It is a bit slow here and there and they do lose steam a bit towards the end, though I appreciate they didn't even try to tack on a bunch of nearfalls, they just kept struggling and resisting down to the last minute and that rules. I get that this is a highly specific type of match that these two probably did because they would get a kick out of it more than everyone else. But fuck if you wanna see some slick leg grapevines and awesome inventive headscissor work and shoulder exploding armbar pins and more gritty struggling over takedowns and pins and leglocks than you can imagine this is the match for you. Definitely one of my favourite bouts of the year, old school and raw passion for pro wrestling at its purest.

 Leon & Makoto vs Moeka Haruhi & Misa Kagura, PURE-J 6/29

Super enjoyable joshi tag that doesn't waste much time and just delivers non-stop action the joshi way. Everything felt nice and aggressive here, these 4 all have offense that hits hard. Kagura, who is yet another girly girl in a frilly pink dress looks solid. Makoto is putting a lot of force into her kicks these days, she was really fun here kicking people out the way with her big boots. Leon is classy as always, I could watch her impale people with spears all day long, and her tilt a whirl slams are great. Haruhi may have been the best of the bunch, her offense is plenty violent, just crushing people with double stomps and knee drops, and she has some impressive wrestling skill with cool suplexes, making intelligent use of the straight jacket hold, and even catching Leon in a crafty pin. Finishing run had a lot of fun creative stuff and never loses your attention. It wasn't a super deep match or anything but there wasn't any egregious noselling or overkill either and sometimes you just wanna watch 4 cool wrestlers go full bore.

Ali Najima & Tomoki Hatano vs Takahiro Hirakimoto & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 11/26
Najima vs Yu Shimizu feud continues, which makes this fun. Hatano is a bit of a downgrade compared to yuta Oya in the tag from the previous week to say the least. Hirakimoto is still in the black trunks rookie phase and only doing a body slam and suplex, but he's alright. As a result the match did not go as deep as the tag from the weak before but it's nice to see Najima and Shimizu continueing their animosities. The finish builds right on the tag from the week before and that's always a nice thing to see.


Senka Akatsuki & Seri Yamaoka vs Takumi Iroha & Sareee, Marvelous 10/24
Usual good stuff from this crew. Akatsuki and Yamaoka are facing two monsters, but they are still busy having contempt for each other. A bit predictable, but reliable rookie vs veterans stuff, and they do surprise you with some things they bust out. Senka has been good all year long, at this point it's just a matter of when she will do the next step. Iroha and Sareee did their thing pretty much, and Seri was fairly impressive here.

Marino Saihara & Sakura Mizushima vs Anri & Yukina Uehara (AWG 7/11)

Fast paced, quite hard hitting pro wrestling that doesn't waste your time. I have no idea why AWG athresses are taking wrestling more seriously than almost everyone else in the country but here it is, there were no jokes here, no cutesy stuff, they just wrestled a really convincing match. Anri is another AWG wrestler that looks deceptively harmless but is actually really intense. This was mostly about Saihara vs Anri, with Saihara playing the veteran that can't be knocked down and Anri being a really good underdog that keeps coming back. I really liked how they seemed to go for the traditional rookie beatdown at first, but then Anri was able to catch Mizushima with a surprise thrust kick to the throat and then lock in this really cool rolling strangle hold while Uehara kept Saihara at bay. Mizushima is also in the process of becoming a really respectable wrestler. The moment where she caught Ueharas kick and landed her painful looking leg breaker was great and example of great timing as Uehara seemed to be in control and about to gain momentum. I also dug how they protected the submissions. When Mizushima went for her signature bridging figure 4, it was broken up just as she went into the bridge. Later, Saihara was trying to lock in a chickenwing crossface with all her might, the tension building as she started to get her fingers together and then the submission being broken at the last second. It's basic stuff but you rarely see it done like this these days. Once it came down to Anri vs Saihara it was really intense stuff and just really good wrestling. The finish is Saihara landing a jumping knee strike to Anris face, hitting a judo throw and locking in a plain straight armbar and cranking it for the tap, which is a really FUTEN finish to happen in 2025. Am I saying this is a FUTEN match? Hell no, but the energy is a ton of fun. AWG has one hell of a back catalogue with even minor matches like this being really compelling.

2025 Matchguide
 

Assorted 19 O Clock Girls Pro Wrestling

 Chii Tomiya vs Makoto, Ice Ribbon 12/10/2010

This is from the 19 O’Clock Girls Pro Wrestling era. Basically Ice Ribbon just livestreamed dojo matches every week. This was way way better than you’d expect a match like that to be, as they basically went all out to have a great 10 minute TV match with no audience. Starts out very good with both of them showing some slick mat wrestling. Tomiya has really fast ankle picking takedowns and Makoto also looked good exchanging holds and making fancy escapes. It’s just really solid, targetted wrestling with purpose. I always like when every move has a follow up, i.e. Makoto would target Tomiyas back further after locking in a boston crab. Cool transition where Makoto tries to do further damage to Tomiya outside of the ring, but Tomiya is able to hit a Dudley Dog into a chair. Tomiya then climbs onto a poll and hits a diving stomp to Makotos mid-section. Tomiya proceeded to further attack the mid section, with an angry Makoto in turn attacking her mid-section too in retaliation. Finishing run had some really awesome rewindworthy submissions and pin counters with both of them really sinking deep into Fujiwara armbars. There were cool transitions, unique spins on more standard move, good pace, believable offense from both of them. Great intro to the world of 19 O Clock Girls Pro Wrestling.

Nanae Takahashi vs Sayaka Obihiro, Ice Ribbon 12/10/2010

Yeah, another really good 10 minute match. By far the best I’ve seen Obihiro look – not that I’ve seen a ton of Obihiro. From what I know, she’s seemingly a comedy character in recent years, but she was fighting hard here. Starts great with Obihiro stopping Takahashis onslaught by latching onto her leg, leading to some cool stubborn grappling. The match story is simple: Takahashi would blow Obihiro a way, and Obihiro would desperately try to latch onto any kind of advantage. When Obihiro got a basic sleeper she really went for that sleeper like she wanted to choke out Takahashi more than anything else in her life. Takahashi is great here – putting a ton of force into basic moves like a dropkick, shoulder block or back suplex, and punishing Obihiros audacity. Even the blown spots kinda worked for the story of the match, and the Ice Ribbon complicated pin housestyle works pretty well for an underdog story. Yeah, I’m having a lot of fun here.

Chii Tomiya vs Hikari Minami, Ice Ribbon 6/1/2011

This was two talented wrestlers going really really hard and having a match that was just off the wall with unique ideas and some amazing wrestling. I’ve never seen Hikari Minami before, but she looked good – quite athletic in fact. She had no problem doing springboard dives, basing for Tomiya, doing slick counters and engaging in some wild shit outside the ring. I’ve no idea if her falling off the rope to the outside was intentional but they continued so seamlessly in their chaotic rhythm that I want to believe it was. They do some pretty fun stuff outside the ring, going into a full on lucha sequence with leapfrogs and legsweeps on the floor, which is pretty unique and worked really well. Tomiya ends up hitting a tornado DDT into the ring bell and then using the hammer in a unique spot. Tomiya is looking quite great in these old webcam matches, just relentless constantly going for flash pins, cool takedowns and submissions. Minami brings quite a bit to the table too. I love how they put a lot of gruesomeness into things as basic as a crabhold. Finishing run had so many unique and cool counters. Tomiyas Jungle Clutch has to be the greatest flash pin I’ve ever seen and then Minami reverses it and it’s real jaw dropping stuff. So good, I’m so happy this stuff survived the Ustream apocalypse because it’s tremendously fun.

Tsukushi vs Emi Sakura, Ice Ribbon 4/10/2011

Hey – it’s a no ring match! It seems to be held in an elementar school… maybe an amateur wrestling room, but there’s also a blackboard on the wall. Anyways! This match is great shit! It’s another for the category of ‘how hard can you go when you have no ring’. They do it all here. And the match had a good teacher vs student story, too. You may hate Emi Sakura, but when she wants to go she’s pretty undeniable. This had a ton of good wrestling, cool submission work, and it was almost an entirely serious and hard fought match. They put considerable struggle into things like Tsukushis bow and arrow hold, nifty things like Tsukushi using the Pallo Special to get into a Tiger Suplex, and lots of cool counters and moments and both of them waffling each other pretty hard. The atmosphere with all the schoolkids watching is pretty fun and this is really a breathless match. All serious, with the exception of one moment where Tsukushi lead an army of school children to roll over Emi Sakura, and even that was kind of fitting.

2025 Matchguide Week 39

 Ali Najima vs Masanori Watanabe, 10/1

Sportiva starts strong into October with the hottest match up in Japanese wrestling! Well, the first couple minutes weren't as good as their previous matches, as they just kinda did generic rookie punishment stuff. But the second half of this is very good with both guys getting insanely stiff and Watanabe trying to break Najimas arm. Watanabe did this arm takedown from a russian tie into an armlock that was Tamon Honda levels of awesome. Worth watching just for that alone.

Masanori Watanabe vs Koji Iwamoto, Sportiva 9/17

Iwamoto had been away from Sportiva for a bit. He was goofing around early, but Watanabe quickly caused him to snap out of it with a hard kick to the shoulder. Iwamato then proceeded to kick the scrap out of Watanabes leg with some mean short kicks and stomps. Pretty good work from Iwamoto, and Watanabe sold the hell out of that leg work. Once Watanabe came to attacking the arm again things were getting intense. Most inspired performance I've seen from Iwamoto in a while, and Watanabe is progressing insanely well considering he's only been wrestling for a few months.

Chihiro Hashimoto vs Mika Iwata, Sendai 9/23

Last time I checked out these two I felt they would make for an amazing singles matchup, and well here we are. This had a solid story, with Hashimoto the newly arrived ace trying to control Iwata who's trying to topple her. Iwatas trump is the fact she can stop Hashimoto in a flash, either with her kicks or an armbar. Hashimoto controlling was pretty good as she's just a force who can grapple and throw people around like a beast, and Iwata does have pretty badass kicks. They peppered in some really cool reversals and moments that showed these two are a class above, along with some sensible stuff like the slick go behinds being important or Hashimotos abdominal stretch. Dug the violent outbursts, like Iwatas KO high kick that stopped Hashimoto in her tracks, or Hashimotos violent takedown and mauling Iwata on the ground. The only letdowns in the match are a) the length, as the match felt a bit dragged out and suffering in pace and b) both of them starting to blatantly no-sell towards the end where they are just taking big moves and getting up. I wanted to see how Iwata would comeback against Hashimotos onslaught and her just kicking out of a pin, getting up and firing back after seemingly being on the verge of defeat moments earlier was really stupid. That was really unfortunate because if it wasn't for that ending taking me out of the match this had some of the best wrestling I've seen all year.

Chon Shiryu & Shin Suzuki vs Makoto & Sayaka, Choco Pro 8/27

I honestly thought this was totally awesome, and one of the most straight forwardly enjoyable matches I've seen all year. If you don't like Choco Pro and their silly mat in a dentists office set up, I can understand, but I thought there was some undeniably great work here. This was a title match and they went all out to deliver. Of course, a big part of why the match works so well is Chon Shiryu, who is a total superstar and just the king of that little room with the way he will bounce around and hit 619s off the window sill and what not. Everyone else delivered too and there wasn't really any let down. Match had everything - fun exchanges, good rudo work from Suzuki and Shiryu, hard hitting, cool submissions, slick technical stuff and nifty transitions, and a finishing run that was packed with cool stuff and never really got into silly territory. We usually see Shiryu as the babyface kung fu hero type, here he is asshole kung fu rudo and he is really good at that too, hitting nasty face scrapes and twisting peoples limbs. Shin Suzuku is also a quite good wrestler, I should probably watch more of him sometime because he was always insanely on point and constantly doing interesting stuff. The women also looked good, Sayaka being more of a slick technical moves and dropkicks type, though she did hit a pretty hard elbow smash at one point, and Makoto kicking people hard and crushing them with knee drops and stomps. And Chon Shiryu was going all out. It's funny how one can watch a ton of him and still be surprised by the things he does. Most importantly everything was timed really well and their pace never let up. It totally works in the confines of that small space and there were a few awesomely slick pin combos and submissions that would make your best WoS technicians sick with jealousy. This kind of no ring almost lucharesuish stuff with a focus on slick pins and submissions is a pretty unique thing for Choco Pro and this was one of the best matches of that type I've seen.

Mari vs Haruka Ishikawa, AWG 2/5

This was insanely good, possibly the best womens match I've seen all year. Ishikawa is the lower ranked wrestler who is just trying to reach the upper echelons of this little promotion. Accordingly, Mari caught Ishikawas energetic charge with a front headlock and then folded her in some cagey matwork. After that Mari proceeded to kick the crap out of her opponent with some rib-cracking stiff kicks. Ishikawa was able to catch Mari in a cool leg submission, and then proceeded to desperately stomp the crap out of that leg. Thought Ishikawa was pretty great as a shark smelling blood in the water and going after Mari with gritty stomps and dropkicks to the head. Maris leg selling was right on the money, really some of the best selling of a bad leg I've seen in a long time. The struggle over Maris crazy submission hold was also great. Whole match was worked in a really sensible way like that, built around Maris stiff kicks, while trying to deal with her bad leg, and Haruka desperately trying to squeeze out a win. Mari going for ground and pound, trying to tap Haruka with a basic side headlock to protect her bad leg was great and felt like something out of a smart 90s AJPW match. I mean it's pretty simple but it's rare to see a worker apply that kind of cleverness in a match nowadays. Great finish, too. Match had a good story, plenty of stiffness and gritty stomps, struggle and intensity were fantastic. Yeah, great stuff.

 

2025 Wrestling Matchguide