Digging into a mysterious library of obscure Japanese handheld footage

 
Headhunters vs. Shinichi Nakano & Hirofumi Miura, WYF 8/30/1995
 

The people behind the promotion known was Mutoha have also started putting up various old handhelds on their YouTube channel. Years ago WYF was the first obscure Japanese indy promotion that I fell in love with and I wished to see more of this unique fed, so I am stoked to see this stuff unveiled after decades. And this match was pretty beastly. Headhunters are awesome and extremely underrated. There's nothing like watching two face painted monsters waltz into Korakuen Hall throwing chairs around while March of the S.O.D. blares. This was almost a squash, as Headhunters dominated nearly the entire action. They have great offense so it was cool. Highlights include a brutal powerbomb that almost broke Nakanos neck, and a completely unexpected slow motion German Suplex. I loved the moment where Nakano crawled to his corner trying to make the hot tag only to find his partner was being butchered outside the ring by another Headhunter. It's such a logical thing to happen in a one sided, out of control massacre. Nakano only got in a desperation enzuigiri and some potatoe blows. Miuras brief run on offense was okay but he quickly got destroyed with the moonsault to end all moonsaults. The crowd was super hot for this and lived and died with their WYF heroes. I wish we had gotten to see a bit more of Nakano though it is remarkable that he did not die by that powerbomb. The Headhunters wreaking havoc was absolutely awesome, though.

Masaaki Mochizuki/TARU/Takashi Okamura vs Masakazu Fukuda/Kamikaze/Hiroyoshi Kotsubo WYF 3/20/1997
 

This was the first match between these 6 guys. All their matches are great, and this is in Korakuen Hall and feels especially wild because WYF fans hate the karate guys at this stage, so it feels ultra heated.  Match was pretty much the perfect mix of shootstyle and WAR-esque potatoes/scrappiness with that trademark WYF levels of unpolished, dirty fighting. Early goings were really good as WYF guys kept their opponents grounded in scrappy fashion. Even Kotsubo looked really good as he kept taking downs with explosive shooting takedowns, at one point even leading to both guys tumbling outside and brawling on the floor.  Kamikaze is impeccable in these matches, kicking people in the face, hammering a guy with punches and taunting the karatekas further. Fukuda also looked great - just hurling dudes with suplex that looked insanely forceful, and trying to crush peoples face with dropkicks and stomps. Buko Dojo guys started breaking out their kicks later and it's everything you can ask for. There's a pretty great dive sequence, Mochizuki flying at people with kicks, Buko guys breaking up pins and submissions with nasty kicks etc. Even the Kotsubo vs Taru matchup which is really shit on paper ends up being good. WYF was striking gold with  this feud in 1997, and I'm so happy we get the beginning of the feud, really heated and violent from the get go.

 

Hiroshi Watanabe & Hiroyuki Kondo vs. Crusher Takahashi & Hideya Iso (Bungee Takada Produce 11/6/2003)

Apparently this is from a show produced by Bungee Takada. It's not something I knew about or dreamed that I would see it but it's a strange and cool surprise. We love all these guys when they are old men, and they were still youngish here, so they moved a bit faster and smoother than later. They went 24 minutes without really slowing down, with lots of trying to stay on a guy, and it was a cool match. Lotta matwork, cool submissions and pin combos. Hideya Iso was looking quite unrecognizable here and did some athletic moves including a Kota Ibushi style backflip into a moonsault. Watanabe had a wild beard making him look like a Mad Dog and he was as slick and technically sound as in any other match you'll see him in. The star of the match was Crusher Takahashi, though. The man was on fire doing it all here, throwing really beautiful bridging suplex moves, his amazing Terry Funk punch combo and doing other odd stuff like busting out the Gibson leglock. You can tell he was stoked to be in a long match with a bunch of capable opponents and show off what he can do. It was one of those matches that show off what you can do even while wrestling a rather conservative wrestling style in front of a small audience. Must-watch if you are a fan of Crusher Takahashi, a really solid wrestlers-wrestler type match for everyone else too.

Kitao Pro 2/21/1995

 Watch

 Card:

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Masanobu Kurisu

Koji Kitao vs. Richard Byrne

Akio Kobayashi vs. Hiroshi Itakura

Al Snow vs. Takashi Okamura

Akio Kobayashi vs. Koki Kitahara

Koji Kitao vs. Osamu Tachihikari

Al Snow vs. Koki Kitahara

Koji Kitao vs. Masaaki Mochizuki

Ryuma Go vs. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki

Koji Kitao vs. Koki Kitahara

 

Ohh boy this card. In case you are confused – this is a tournament, with Tachihikari and Kitahara getting a BYE for some reason to skip the 1^st round. They removed the ring ropes for this show – smart move. Let's do it quick: Mochizuki/Kurisu was Mochi throwing really hard kicks and Kurisu throwing really hard headbutts and stomps for 3 minutes – so about what you expect. Then Mochi downs Kurisu, causing him to slip over the edge of the ring and almost land on his head outside, dear good. Kitao/Byrne – Byrne has an amazing Jerry Flynn/Bart Vale like american bullshido master look, but is squashed in 40 seconds when Kitao catches him with an admittedly pretty cool Volk Han like wrist lock. Itakura/Kobayashi – Itakura looks like the lost great talent of the 90s, as he wrestles like a tubby Kota Ibushi, fast, stiff, capable on the mat, cool spots – but gets kicked in the face by the lousy Kobayashi and fails to get up. Poor Itakura always gets the short end.

 

Snow/Okamura – it will never cease to amaze me how Snow got roped into doing this shit. Snow earns my respect by working a pretty solid 5 minute match against the not very good Okamura, hitting stiff palm rushes and actually getting the crowd behind him. Snow also eats one of the most brutal koppu kicks I've ever seen. Kobayashi/Kitahara (FUN) – Kobayashi is a slimy hateable dipshit, and Kitahara gets a surprisingly decent 3 minute match out of him where Kitahara sells for him a good amount but also tries to cave his face in. Kitao/Tachihikari – for a few seconds this was two fat sumos clobbering each other, and all was right in the world, then Kitao wins another 1 minute squash. Don't exhaust yourself, Kitao.

 

Snow/Kitahara (FUN) – this is the most promising matchup cause both these guys can actually work. Snow gets dropped on his shoulder with a german suplex and Kitahara painfully picks his shoulder apart. Snow tries hard, but at 3 minutes the match fell short just as it got really good, 1 or 2 minutes longer and it would've been more than just a pretty good little match. Kitao/Mochizuki – Mochizuki is next on Kitao's short pointless squash list. Ryuma Go/Matsuzaki – Go saves this show by beating the snot out of Matsuzaki with ultra stiff punches and headbutts and then tortures him on the mat and then some. Go is INSANE and I love him.God bless you, Champion of the Galaxy. Kitao/Kitahara (FUN) – Kitahara is the first guy who gets to do actual harm to Kitao. They beat the shit out of eachother and Kitao throws these brutal Vader Hammers, and brings out the Kitao Driller again. Eh I guess this was solid, brutal enough to be worthwhile, altough with a match as short as 4 minutes you have to go a little more all out than this for it to be something special.

 

The Library

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project Master List

 

Assorted Japanese Handhelds

 

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Masakazu Fukuda, WYF 8/4/1998

 

This thing getting uploaded by the cameraman almost 25 years later has to be a near miracle, but then we‘ve seen a lot of miracles by now when it comes to highly improbable things ending up on the internet. This was a great striker vs. grappler matchup. Seeing Mochizuki here makes one sour that he retired to Dragon Gate, as he was throwing kicks a nd hands in a totally unpredictable and non-choreographed way here that was really cool, coupled with some swank agility. Fukudas style is really unique, he is this lanky tall guy who just glues himself to opponents when he grabs them and drags them into his throws and submissions. He also absolutely rattled Mochizukis shit with a nasty dropkick and some stiff strikes, but Mochizuki kept firing back. The match had a few Hondaish moments, at one point Mochizuki went for a punch to Fukuda and Fukuda attached himself to Mochis arm and dragged him into another hold. When Mochizuki went to recuperate Fukuda just dragged him over the ropes and threw him, with Mochizuki landing hard on all his throws. This was to the point and absolutely no nonsense with both guys giving each other little space a nd all the offense looking like it required zero cooperation, I get WYF was a niche indy back then, but this kind of indy match is a real breath of fresh air these days.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Great Kabuki, WAR 11/9/1993

 

These two could have just punched and kicked each other and done some staredowns and it would‘ve been a quite good match, but we got something more neat here. Tenryus resume of great houseshow matches is for sure impressive. We get a fun opening with Kabuki trying to stand up to Tenryu with his great uppercuts, and Tenryu just chops and lariats him in the throat with Kabuki sells passionately. Tenryu seems to have this in the bag easily but then Kabuki catches him with a surprise thrust kick and Tenryu tumbles outside. Immediately a bunch of Heisei Ishingun goons start swarming Tenryu and brawling with his seconds. Tenryu eats chair shots while Kabuki cuts a promo. Back in the ring Tenryu is bleeding and Kabuki takes him apart punching and kicking the cut. Tenryu is able to snap a Fujiwara armbar but has to let go of the hold because his blood is blinding him in a really neat moment. Tenryus facial expressions and body language are outstanding even on a blurry handheld. His exhausted surprise abisegiris were really cool, also. Great little match due to structure and grit.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki, WAR 11/8/1993

 

A unique match for Tenryu in 1993, because he fights his stablemate Fuyuki. So it‘s not gonna be an interpromotional brawl, but then, you have two tubby, surly bastards in a match, how can it not escalate? But they start wrestling, Fuyuki hits a nice scientific arm suplex and Tenryu busts out his cool leg trip. Fuyuki starts the real fun by kicking Tenryu in the back and hitting a fast belly to belly. Tenryu fires back with some light kicks to Fuyukis face, which feel almost like a reminder for Fuyuki not to try anything he would regret. They go back to wrestling and Tenryu lays a really stiff leg kick into Fuyuki, but Fuyuki shows toughness and catches Tenryu with an enzuigiri. Now it‘s Tenryus turn to not break clean and chip away at a prone Fuyuki. The whole match was built like that, lots of cool tubby guy wrestling building to explosions until both guys were punching and kicking each other in the face. I loved Fuyukis punches, and how Tenryu sold them with drool flying out his mouth as he got hit. Fuyuki worked one hell of a match getting fired up and just being this plucky fighter that wouldn‘t back down, and once again Tenryus charisma was outstanding. Some surprisingly great bits of wrestling too such as Fuyuki turning an attempted DDT into a northern lights suplex. Smart match with plenty of violence that told a simple story in a beautiful way, just a houseshow footnote for both guys in 1993 but would be a serious MOTYC if it happened now.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #14

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiromichi Fuyuki (WAR 2/24/1994)  - EPIC

4 tubby guys beat the fuck out of eachother and it rules, what else is new? The opening minutes were really fun logical pro wrestling. Fuyuki was fired up, ready to take down Tenryu and kick Kitaharas ass. He also looked shockingly good doing sympathetic selling as he got awkwardly kicked in the chin and face repeatedly etc. Kitahara loves demolishing other dudes with kicks but ends up having his leg taken out in a simple spot that looked great. His leg selling was very good as his kicks became mostly useless. Tenryus hot tag was really fun and different as Fuyuki just bitchslapped him out of the ring and proceeded to kick Kitaharas ass some more. Tenryu then hands out some Necro level chairshots only to get brained himself. Super Strong Machine is not a very charismatic dude compared to the others but he is really fun here blindsiding guys, just constantly ramming people in the back of their necks with lariats and chairs when they would least expect it. Tenryu kind of played the role of the megastar who looked like he was on the verge of defeat, always looking like he was gonna go „Damn now I'm REAL fed up!“ and then he would get bonked in the head again. Really cool finish. I'd say this isn't quite up there with the high end WAR material but for the genre this is must watch anyways.

Kitahara & Ishinriki & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Koji Kitao & Masaaki Mochizuki & Akio Kobayashi, WAR 7/17/1994 - GREAT

Pretty cool short match. The first part of this was to put over Kitao as an unstoppable monster, and they actually make him look like such. He devastates Ishikawa and Ishinriki, but Kitahara is able to make some dents in him, which is a pretty cool role for Kitahara to be in. Then Kitao tags in Kobayashi (not sure why, he was destroying everyone) and immediately we get some scrappy violent exchanges starring a pissed off Kitahara slapping the shit out of a snot nosed karateka. Ishinriki also looks good doing wild sumo flailing and throws against the karatekas. Mochizuki frantic exchanges were great. I‘d Ishikawa trying to grab Mochizuki and trying to yank him over the rope also felt crazy. And Kitahara was the man in this.

 

Koki Kitahara vs. Nobutaka Araya, WAR 7/13/2000 - GREAT

One of these violent and out of control spectacles you only really get when two scuzzy thick guys (preferably with mullets) face each other in a WAR match. It looks like Araya is drunk or something here, most of what he does is hit Kitahara with hard crowbar shoulderblocks, awkwardly flopping about the place as Kitahara beats on him, and acting weird and psycho. It takes a look to look up there with Kitahara in the psycho department but Araya does it here. At one point he puts his hands on Kitaharas second Nihao, and it felt like a very real moment where shit was about to go down. And Kitahara looks just disgusted with him and kills him with nasty blunt force kicks. Awkward, violent, seedy match, pure Wrestle And Romance

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

WAR 6/20/1999

 Masao Orihara vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Both these guys were pretty great in the late 90s, so I was pretty salty about this being clipped down just a couple minutes. Ishii was a wreckingball during this period, but Orihara easily outstiffes him trying to crack his jaw with lariats. We also get Ishii working Orihara over with chairs and whiping him out with a crazy rolling senton to the outside. Fun stuff but I wanted at least 3/4ths of the thing.

Nihao vs. Koki Kitahara

This was a CAPTURE showcase match and holy fuck after this I‘d kill to get the entire CAPTURE back catalogue. Brutal brutal match, just the most primitive grimy shootstyle you can imagine, two guys with gloves trying to pummel each other into oblivion. Nihao takes Kitahara down and bloodies him with punches and headbutts, but the boss comes back just trying to crush his face with punches and teeth loosening kicks. There was one spinkick that would‘ve made Daisuke Ikeda wince, and also at one point Kitahara reverses a takedown into an armlock that looked to almost tear Nihaos shoulder. They showed 4 out of 6 minutes, and really would it have killed them to include those 2 minutes? Still 80 % of a sick spectacle is better than most, and those 4 minutes were some of the most insane of the year.

Ryuma Go vs. Thunder Warrior Alpha

I respect Tenryus tendency to bring in Go to squish random aliens. This was clipped to almost nothing but we got to see Go acting crazy and destroying the alien.

Genichiro Tenryu & Magnum TOKYO vs. Nobutaka Araya & Sumo Fuji

The boss is involved, so we got the full match here. Didn‘t know what to expect from this, but it ends up a really entertaining match thanks to Tenryuisms. Basically Sumo Fuji acts like a big shot and annoys Tenryu some and ends up paying for it. Also really liked Araya as a scuzzy guy potatoeing Magnum TOKYO. Toryumon guys also looked solid in their sections against each other, and TOKYO hit a pretty great top rope asai moonsault amongst other things. Loved Tenryu here, I think he didn‘t even take a back bump but pretty much carried the match by being a prick, as he usually does.

Osamu Tachihikari & Arashi vs. Daikokubo Benkei & Ichiro Yaguchi

We get about 30 seconds of this and I am not bummed at all about that. I liked Tachihikari busting out random moves like an STO and a Magistral.

Yuji Yasuraoka & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa

This was 4 solid pro wrestlers doings lots of solid pro wrestling, building to a pretty exciting second half. WAR reckless kicker Mochizuki ruled, I am just going to pretend he retired after WAR folded. He had some pretty great exchanges with Hoshikawa here, and I loved him flying into the scenery out of nowhere to take out people with spin kicks. Delfin & Hoshikawa worked well together and it was cool to see them acting as a crew. For some reason, juniors getting dumped on their heads or diving around the place was a lot more satisfying to watch in the 90s.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

I guess Mochizuki wasn‘t happy with Yasuraokas performance in that tag, so he gets on the mic to challenge Yasuraoka to a singles. Yasuraoka then proceeds to hit his awesome dive, getting insane height, and we get a fun short explosion of them throwing bombs at each other. Wouldn‘t have minded if this went longer, but they just did a 17 minute long match before so it made sense for this to be short and intense.

 

Shigeo Okumura, Sambo Asako & Atsushi Onita vs. Nobutaka Araya, Genichiro Tenryu & Shoji Nakamaki

Exactly what it looks like on paper. 6 tubby asskickers brawling all over the place, bleeding and pasting each other with chairs and lariats. That plus the megastar charisma of Tenryu and Onita. Tenryu is such an awesome menace here, punching people in the face and chucking chairs at them. Him vs. Terry Funk would’ve been one hell of a program. Then again, Tenryu was pretty much untouchable at this point in his career. Onita & Asako looked pretty much like regular guys at this point, which made Asako getting abused by Tenryu feel all the more violent. Okumura was in charge with bringing a slight bit of workrate to the match and he did fine, hitting a pretty stiff dropkick. Very predictable match but all too fun.

THE LIBRARY

Shin-FMW 6/17/1997

 Tarzan Goto vs. Katsutoshi Niiyama - FUN

This was a show where Tarzan Goto was in every match. Pretty insane idea, but our man Goto can pull it off no problem. Unfortunately they clipped all the matches, but every match brought something different and worthwhile to the table. This went close to 15 minutes which is a main event for most wrestlers but basically a warmup for Goto. Some fun opening chain wrestling which is always awesome to see Goto do and Niiyama gets in some fun kicks against Goto. That's about all we get from this.

Tarzan Goto vs. Takashi Okano - FUN

Okano is Winger. Pretty much the most enjoyable match you're gonna get out of Winger, as it's clipped down to him brawling and hitting his high spots and Goto bleeding, starting his blood loss 2 matches into this 6 match marathon.

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Ichiro Yaguchi & Nobukazu Hirai - FUN

Ryo Miyake joins the fray! This was pretty much the Hirai show. He is in his weird joker face paint and kind of rules brutalizing guys with ECW-ish chair spots. He hits a really great elbow drop for the pin on Miyake too. I think Miyake started bleeding immediately, too. Yaguchi was mercifully clipped out of this match. Nevermind that: HIRAI~!

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Rikio Ito - FUN

Reckless kicker Mochizuki ruled. It baffles me how awesome the karate guy who kicks hard and fast, all the time wearing a black gi act is and how nobody has stolen it. Plenty of Goto/Mochizuki interactions here, with Mochizuki kicking Goto hard in the blubber and Goto firing back with lariats and headbutts. That is kind of a dream match, and we basically get the clipped WCW syndicated match version of it. Rikio Ito is mercifully largely clipped out of this match up. Miyake gets pinned once again, continueing his arc.

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs. Kishin Kawabata & Katsuhiko Matsuzaki & Shigeo Okumura - FUN

Kawabata/Matsuzaki/Okumura is one hell of an indy scum murderers row. Kikuzawa joins the fray and is really spry and fun here, hitting suicide dives that put the "suicide" in suicide dive, full bodyweight senton and even busting out the Gannosuke Clutch. Everyone on the non-Goto team was fired up and they trade stiff beatings in some surprisingly great exchanges with Miyake. Matsuzaki also bleeds and we get glimpses of a classic Goto bloodletting. Also, pretty violent finish with everyone on the Kawabata team dropping their meanest flying move on Miyake. That would be cute in a junior match but since it's all tubby heavyweights landing on him it looked brutal. Damn I wish we had the whole match because it looked great.

Tarzan Goto vs. Ryo Miyake - FUN

This was a barbedwire ropes and boards match and a pretty gruel ending to the tour the force Miyake had to go through. Goto just brutalizes him here, non-pulled punches and lariats, and making him bleed like a pig in the barbedwire. Goto bled like mad, too. Miyake gets a handful of hope spots but Goto just slaughters him. Looked great and gory. After the match Miyake looks dead while Goto looks like he could do another 6 matches.

THE LIBRARY

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Koki Kitahara Documentation #12

 

Koki Kitahara & Jun Kikuchi vs. Koji Kitao & Abdullah The Butcher, WAR 6/6/1997 - GREAT

This was pretty much 4 wrestlers who can beat on someone in cool ways beating on eachother in cool ways. Kitao and Abby sure ain‘t gonna bump, what can our man Kitahara and young barefoot Kikuchi do? But Kitahara gets in a surprising amount of offense on Kitao. Loved him walking over and blasting him with a kick to the face, hope Kitao didn‘t beat up Kitaharas wife after the match for that. Abby is all throat thrusts here, although he does cut up Kikuchi at one point, and I loved the moment where he caught a Kitahara kick and chopped him in the throat. He even takes a monkey flip bump at one point. This went about 10 minutes and came out just right and way more interesting than you‘d think.

Koki Kitahara & Osamu Tachihikari vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Koji Kitao, WAR 10/6/1997 - FUN

I am annoyed with Kitahara facing Kitao so much, but I guess I have arranged myself with Kitao somewhat. He will club people in fun ways, hit a nice senton and recklessly piledrive someone. His uranage here was kinda shitty, though. Tachhihikari was unusually effective as a big tubby guy putting the boots down. Kitahara carried this kicking people in the face, brutalizing Mochizuki and spitting on Kitao. Mochizuki isn‘t what you‘d call a polished shootstylist but Kitahara gets some fun hold exchanges out of him. Fun moments where Buko Dojo guys try interferring in the match and piling on Tachihikari. Any WAR match where tubby guys potatoe each other is going to be fun at minimum and this also had the Kitahara factor.

Koki Kitahara vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki, WAR 4/2/1995 - EPIC

These two do a sleazy massacre as well as anyone in wrestling history, and this ended up being just great. Kitahara has a rep for being a violent crowbar, but Fuyuki totally matches him in violence. Fuyuki splits Kitahara open with some nasty headbutts and a hyper brutal chairshot and Kitahara has a bloody brow and lips. Fuyuki ends up spitting blood from a Kitahara choke and it‘s all one big violent toe to toe fight. There are some almost Memphis-like touches, such as Fuyuki tagging Kitahara with punches only to get spin kicked in the face, as well as Jado spraying something in Kitaharas face. The spray attack looked almost as violent as all the brutal headbutts and kicks to the face in the match. I also loved the spot where Kitahara hit this rope assisted enzuigiri. This was pretty much a sleazier Hashimoto/Tenryu match and I loved it.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

GWE Watching: Masaaki Mochizuki

 

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Tiger Mask IV, Michinoku Pro 3/10/2001

Fun match between two juniors who like to kick hard. Mochizuki had a some scumbag seconding him who kept interferring on his behalf. It didn‘t detract from the match much and made for some fun moments. Tiger Mask IV looked slick. Mochizuki controlled a bit and he looked good potatoeing TMIV. The groundwork was a bit like a curt angle match as they just slapped on a hold and waited for the other guy to make the ropes. Good match overall.

 

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Magnum Tokyo, Toryumon 7/1/2001

The first 10 or so minutes of this were really good. Mochizuki was super fun here working over Magnum with stiff karate punches and kicks. He was like a Mini Akitoshi Saito. Tokyo‘s counter armwork was really good but had no consequence at all. There was one moment where Tokyo hit a tornado ddt to the apron in a great spot but instead of going for a cover just robotically moved on to work Mochizukis arm because that was what they had planned for the match. The second half dipped pretty hard with lots of interference from Mochizukis posse. Tokyo is athletic and had some good spots particularily the springboard ranas, but most of his offense looks so dainty and weak. Some of it barely seemed to graze Mochi. Finish run had maybe a fun strike exchange but overall was just the usual 2.9999 fest. This could‘ve been better.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. CIMA, Toryumon 4/14/2001

This was fine in terms of the moves they did, but was soul crushingly dry and uninspired. Both guys did heel spots, neither of them showed any fire, and they were going through their stuff so robotically that it felt like watching a match simulated by a computer. Mochizuki worked over CIMAs legs, which of course ended up being meaningless. As with the above two matches, there was also plenty of outside interference and more silly buggers going on with a plastic case. The finishing run had 1 or 2 cool moments but my god. This went 13 minutes and felt like an hour.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Minoru Fujita, Michinoku Pro 6/18/2000

I loved both these guys in the 90s, but man this was rough. They botch 2 moves in the opening sequence and it seems Fujita got injured. What followed was Mochizuki dragging Fujita around the arena for what felt like 5 minutes, lazily kicking him in an attempt to give him time to recover. Fujita kept dragging himself through the match although obviously things were off rails and they seemed to didn‘t have many ideas. They did some pretty lazy submission work. Fujita didn‘t even do the Reverse Viper Hold. This felt 10 minutes too long.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Great Sasuke, Michinoku Pro 6/25/2000

Fun match. This was one of those Sasuke performances where he lets his opponent kick the shit out of him and takes a bunch of reckless bumps to put him over. There was no outside interference, but Mochizuki brought a ladder and the ref went down for like 5 minutes at one point so they could do the ladder spot. You are supposed to be a martial artist, Mochizuki, your hands and feet are lethal weapons, wtf do you need a ladder for? Mochizuki kicked hard and at one point unloaded a nasty fist right to Sasukes jaw. Kinda silly finish as Mochizuki hit a Dragon Suplex but pinned himself with an improper bridge. I guess the morale is karate guys shouldn‘t do suplexes.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #9

 

Koki Kitahara vs. Masahito Kakihara, WAR 7/21/1996 - GREAT

Kakihara at the time was kind of UWFis budding young hope and raking in wins over guys like Kensuke Sasaki, so it was fun watching Kitahara teach him a lesson here. For some reason the UWFi boys except Sakurabas weren‘t strong matworkers and Kitahara does a cool job containing Kakiharas youthful aggression and countering him. Of course, as soon as Kitahara gets the advantage he almost boots Kakiharas head off. Finish was pretty great as Kakihara went on another juvenile attack only for Kitahara to doge him and unload with an eardrum shattering smack before catching Kakiharas retort kick with a badass ankle capture.

Koki Kitahara & Yuji Yasuraoka vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Arashi, WAR 10/11/1996 - GREAT

This was a clipped match which is annoying as the stuff that is shown looks really good. Tons of brutally stiff blows. The match was centered around the Kitahara/Mochizuki interactions. Mochizuki is Kitahara's boy, which means Kitahara is legally obliged to murder him, which the crowd also senses. Yasuraoka mostly gets kicked in the face, but busts out his really spectacular dive in an awesome moment right after Mochizuki blows his fancy springboard attack and gets mauled by Kitahara for it. Even Arashi busts out a reckless spinkick in this! WAR was a magical place.

Kazuo Yamazaki & Takashi Iizuka vs Koki Kitahara & Nobutaka Araya, WAR 12/13/1996 - GREAT

I like Araya a ton, but this was all about Kitahara being a violent punk. Interpromotional matches is where the man thrives as they supply the perfect environment for him to punch people in the jaw, stomp faces and generally act like a jerk. I was pleased that he got to be competitive with Yamazaki, too, who carried himself like a star in this (although I would‘ve liked him to do more shooty stuff).

 

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Koki Kitahara Documentation #4

 Koki Kitahara & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Jado & Gedo, WAR 12/8/1995 - GREAT

The kind of stuff that made WAR undercards so awesome. Kitahara is a walking terror in this, just treating Jado & Gedo like garbage. They don't even do anything in particular to upset him, he's just out for blood from the go, throwing hellacious kicks, chairs and bitch slaps like only he can. Then, after absolutely kicking Jados ass, he turns around and spits on Gedo for no reason. Just about the most "I've contempt for these guys" performance I've seen from a wrestler. Mochizuki was all reckless kicks at this point, and he is a super fun reckless kicker with a few fancy kick variations, few wrestler do this kind of minimalistic "I am really good thing" these days but it makes for a fun match up against a pair of juniors. For a pair of cheating scummy heels, Jado & Gedo know how to play a Rock'n'Roll express. They get their ass kicked a bunch until they are able to kick someone in the balls or poke their eye. Anytime they seemed on the verge of winning, Kitahara would roll in like a wall of doom to fuck them up even more. It made the eventual finish very satisfying.

Koki Kitahara vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi, NJPW 6/25/1993 - EPIC

A nice reminder why the NJPW vs. WAR feud was one of the greatest things in history. A mix of great heat and messy out of control violence. This is really pro wrestling vale tudo, two guys trying to fuck eachother up, they would go to the ground, but there would be eye gouging there and as soon as they got up they would throw kicks and headbutts again. Kitahara was just killing Kobayashi here with brutal kicks to the eye and Kobayashi holds up his own just running into Kitahara with headbutts repeatedly. The "deathmatch" rules in this were a little weird, there doesn't seem to be pinfalls and Tiger Hattori is watching from ringside like a super libre match. At the end one guy takes a series of brutal DDTs and is choked out and after lying motionlessly for what felt like an eternity they decide to stop the match. Pretty unique and stands out as one of the most brutal match endings in the feud which covers a loooooot of ground. It definitely suits something labelled a death match.

Koki Kitahara & Shinichi Nakano vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara, SWS 2/14/1992) - EPIC

Tubby japanese guys slap the shit out of eachother for 20 minutes. Love this because it's a really good example of how to build a lengthy match around a handful of strikes. Nakano and Kitahara are not over at all due to the SWS midcard being almost meaningless, but they give their all taking on these tanks and get the everliving crap kicked out of them.  You can tell why both these guys said "Fuck it, I'm starting my own promotion" after the nasty asskicking they receive here. Hara & Tenryu deserve some credit for selling a good deal for these middleweights while outgunning them completely. Lots of neat spots and there are some good examples on how to make basic strikes interesting by SELLING. See: Tenryu getting caught in the ear by an enzuigiri or selling Nakanos corner dropkick. Hara is also really good at taking kicks to various body parts and refusing to bump. By the end Kitahara and Nakano are basically beaten half to death. There is one great sequence where Nakano is giving everything he has hitting several dropkicks and enzuigiris only to be forced to tag back in and run on empty. Tenryu just powerbombing him is an example of no selling that works because it was done in context of the match with a set up and purpose. Kitaharas leg selling was also cool and added some direction. This is a rare match where one side never comes close to winning but still ends up being great in my book.

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Kitao Pro 6/14/1994

  

Koji Kitao's fed. They have a drum instead of a bell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFXBGHz2lhA

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

This was one of the best rookie vs. Rookie opening matches I've ever seen – and really the perfect opening match for this kind of fed: fast, short, brutal, to the point, and with purpose – as the audience was dying to see young Mochi make a dent and topple the slightly more experienced Yasuraoka. This match also shows how good Yasuraoka could be when he wasn't stuck in a spotfest with Lance fucking Storm, simply by not backing down from reckless kicker Mochizuki. Yasuraoka absorbing Mochi's opening barrage, creating an opening with a big headbutt and then downing Mochi with a huge slap was such a simple, but badass sequence. Both guys came across as aggressive, fast moving, and willing to bite a face off when necessary. Neither of them were afraid to get nuked with huge suplexes either, and did I mention Mochi recklessly kicks the shit out of Yasuraoka anyways? This was a bonafide sub 5 minute war.

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Takashi Okamura

YEAH~~! I cannot express how perfect Kurisu is on this card. Okamura is the next ultra-green reckless kicker from Kitao's Dojo and nowhere near as on-point as Mochizuki. This goes exactly how you imagine it to go from how it looks on paper: Okamura recklessly kicking Kurisu in the face a bunch of times, and Kurisu Kurisu'ing the fuck out Okamura. Because this fed is quasi-shootstyle, there's no brawling or chairs, so instead Kurisu mainly focusses on stomping and headbutting Okamura into a coma. Kurisu has about the most god awful stomps on film, as he puts the boots to Okamura's head, ears, and neck. To make things worse, Okamura even increases the trainwreck potential by blowing stuff and even trying a spin kick from the second rope. It eventually resolves into Kurisu almost popping Okamura's knee with a twisted Single Leg Crab. This match was ugly, grotesque, primitive, and fun as hell.

Akio Kobayashi vs. Nobukazu Hirai

Eh, this was alright too. Kobayashi is the least of the green kickers so far, but Hirai has nice suplexes.

Koki Kitahara vs. JR Carson - FUN

Okay, SOMEONE has to be able to tell me what the deal with the US guys on this card is. JR Carson is one of the most strip club bouncer looking wrestlers I've ever seen, and he seems to have no shoot ability whatsoever. Altough his pro style offense is admittedly pretty nice looking, but what do ya know, Kitahara kills him off very fast with a nasty neck crank because Koki Kitahara has no chill. And this leads us to...

Koki Kitahara vs. Akio Kobayashi - FUN

I liked that Kobayashi seemed to target Kitahara's weak spot that Carson softened up in the previous match. Kitahara actually sells a good deal for Kobayashi and this was about as good as a 4 minute match you can have with a dude as limited as Kobayashi.

James Magnum vs. Koji Kitao

WHO IS JAMES MAGNUM?? Magnum looks like Randy the Ram and I love him and the bullseye he has on his butt. They totally missed out not showing Randy the Ram getting KO'd in a 90s primitive MMA fight in that movie. Magnum pussies into the corner, to start but blindsides Kitao with a huge forearm to the eye and looks in a quasi stretch plum. Kitao NUKES him with a Uranage, but Magnum says fuck YOU and headbutts him in the jaw! Magnum follows with some more awesome headbutts holding Kitao's pants, but eats a knee to the face before Kitao cripples him with a series of low kicks. Awesome squash match.

Al Snow vs. Koji Kitao

Yeah, Al Snow. Snow says before the match that he's been watching Godzilla movies to prepare for this match. Snow looks jobber as hell, but makes the most of this match, acting like a shootstylist and hitting a huge palm rush and gigantic suplex on Kitao before he gets kicked in the eye and dropped with one of the most brutal piledrivers I've ever seen. Snow actually beats the count after almost getting Chono'd but squash monster Kitao immediately finishes him off with a choke. Al Snow, you gave your best.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTERLIST