2022 MOTY Project Update #3

 Hayato "Jr." Fujita vs. MUSASHI, Michinoku Pro 7/1/2022

Fujita comes back from cancer and a really bad leg injury to take on the champ. Obviously a match that had an insanely emotional story behind it, but the wrestling matched that backstory. Fujita showed pretty much no signs of ring rust and instead went out to destroy MUSASHI with incredibly vicious, Hashimoto-esque kicks and submissions. The match ramped up quickly when both guys started to try and kill each other with some insane headbutts, and they only kept building from there. There were some excellent control, comeback and cut off spots, such as Fujita slipping into his choke hold when Musashi attempted a suplex, Musashi attempting to work Fujitas legs only for Fujita to go to town on him with chairs, Fujitas insane finger bending etc. I haven't seen Musashi since he was a rookie and while he is a bit generic he actually looked like he wanted to defend his place in the world from this old veteran. Fujitas performance was a mixture of returning badass standing tall and also slowly falling apart and trying to push on, which was fascinating. They did a great job with the ending run, building to an epic violent conclusion which had to be one of the best "going out on your sword" finishes in forever. The match had some unfortunate 2022isms (back and forth strike exchanges, some no-selling) that kept this from being a classic, but the match told a story, was noticably tighter than the contemporary main events you see from NJPW, NOAH etc., and overall just an infinitely more engaging bout.

2022 MOTY List

Tarzan Goto Documentation #8

Tarzan Goto & Great Sasuke vs. Mr. Pogo & Masaru Toi, Michinoku Pro 12/10/1993 - EPIC

Pretty insane match. Starts of hot with a mix of fast junior exchanges and violent brawling. Normally Mr. Pogo just dishes out offense and doesn't take much, so Goto just beating the shit out of him and bloodying him with punches and chairs looked like something else. We get Pogo wailing back on him with a boot, and Goto bleeding and doing a great hulk up. I loved how Goto capped of what was his shine segment in the match by grabbing a kendo stick and beating the snot out of Toi and Pogo. After that we move onto the meat (and blood) of the match: Pogo stabbing Sasuke in the back. Ultra grizzly stuff and has to be in the Top 5 craziest things Sasuke has done. Sasuke trying to crawl across the ring with that piece of wood stuck in his back was like something out of a messed up hillbilly gore move. Gotos hot tag did not disappoint as he just destroyed everyone in his path. Great classic tag structure executed in a very early 90s Japan way.

2/3 Falls: Tarzan Goto & Masanobu Kurisu & Gran Hamada & Masashi Aoyagi & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki vs. Shiro Koshinaka, Ryo Miyake, Ishinriki, Arashi & Ryuma Go, Wrestle Aid Project 5/2/2005 - GREAT

Yes, you‘re reading this match up right. Just an absolute murderers row of lumpy sleaze gods potatoeing each other. I had no idea Go was still running shows in the 2000s and of course he put this monster match up together. He and Ishinriki were pretty fun here while Miyake was mostly just there to bleed and get potatoed, but the stars were Kurisu, Aoyagi and Goto. Goto was kingsized here, having a heated exchange with Koshinaka (Koshinaka always matches up well against tubby ex-AJPW guys in bumblebee colour schemes) and putting his trademark bloody beatdown on Miyake, while Aoyagi threw a bunch of great looking kicks and Kurisu was Kurisu. Whole match had barely any wrestling moves, just old guys potatoeing each other. Matsuzaki didn‘t do much on offense but was willing to bleed and eat the pin. Pretty much exactly what you want from this matchup.

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project Master List

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #18

 Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka, Michinoku Pro 1/14/1997 - EPIC

These matches were the BattlARTS guys show up on random Michinoku Pro cards to scare the fans with their violence are always awesome and this was no exception. There were some pretty high end shootstyle exchanges here, Onos slick grappling and Otsukas wrestling stood out, but they uncorked some heinous violence too. Ikeda and Ono did their thing, throwing Otsuka to the floor where the would send him into the rows street fighting kicks. At one point Ikeda was unloading bare knuckle fists left and right to Otsukas face, who could only try to buckle him to the ropes and go for a suplex (as Otsuka does). Great moment where Ishikawa connected a headbutt to the back of Ikedas head to help Otsuka land a suplex. Ono looked fierce again throwing punches, kicks, and getting ragdolled by Otsuka throws. Ishikawa wasn't in the match a ton but rest assured he and Ikeda had their moments punching each in hurty fashion. Finish was pretty brutal too as an Ono kick almost turns Otsukas lights out. He barely gets to his feet only to eat a brutal Ikeda lariat right to his face followed by an absolute slaughter of a kick combo. Otsuka is dead and Ishikawa has a go at Ikeda after the bell. Classy stuff.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Mamoru Okamoto & Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 5/10/1998 - FUN

Dominant showing from the Tonpachi Machine Guns. They just kicked ass and made their opponents eat shit. While Ono was fully embracing Oriharas scumminess at this point, he was still lighting up people with some spectacular kicks and submissions. Okamoto and Hijikata ate lots of painful looking kicks and knees in this. Kind of liked Okamoto who's an FMW guy trying hard to pass as a BattlARTS dude, kind of the Fake Ikeda to Hisakatsu Oyas Fake Ishikawa. He had a nice German and nice kicks. Other than and a nice moment where he and Hijikata hit a train of double stomps on Orihara this was kind of a squash. I enjoy the Tonpachi Machine Guns show so I enjoyed this.

TAKESHI ONO 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.

2002 MOTY #13

 Carlos Amano vs. Command Bolshoi (JWP 9/23/2002)

WELL!! These are two of my favourite female workers, and really two of the more unique wrestlers in wrestling history, despite the fact you have to kind of scour the earth to find their good matches. Due to the special makeup of japanese womens wrestling these two are rarely in a matchup that allows them to shine. And for some reason, their matches over the years have never been quite white they should be. The 1998 encounter went far too long, the 2000 ones ranged between solid and fun exhibtions... fortunately, they finally delivered what the matchup promises on this one. This is a submission match and really worked like Negro Navarro vs. Solar in Coliseo Coacalco. It even had the kind of playing to the crowd and jokes that sort of match would have. 90% of this was grappling, and it was good. What makes these two so cool is not just their submissions but the cool unique trips and transitions they will come up with to get them. Plenty of unique spots and submissions to keep you entertained, and the finish was decided on the mat in an intense scramble as it should be. Really this felt like a Virus match and that's exactly what their strength is. No idea what took them so long to figure it out, but this was worth seeking out.

 

Great Sasuke vs. Dick Togo (Michinoku Pro 8/15/2002)

The 90s are over, all your junior heroes are broken down and old, and instead of highspots they work gritty technical matches now. This was centered around Togos pretty great selling performance, he comes in with a bandaged mid section and Sasuke spends most of this match torturing him with kidney punches and ab stretches. Ultra simple match but with plenty of cool moments. I really liked Togo desperately preventing Sasukes dive by clutching his leg and pretty much dragging him down then just throwing a chair at him („Fuck you, here's a chair“ is always a favourite of mine), really liked his nifty pin combo and desperate crossface attempts etc. A ladder gets brought into play and this as usual spells Sasukes downfall.  

Meiko Satomura vs. Chikayo Nagashima, GAEA 4/14/2002

Even though there was one obnoxious fighting spirit spot, this had more than enough solid, inventive pro wrestling to keep you entertained. Good opening matwork with both girls aggressively trying to dislocate eachothers shoulder. Nagashimas double stomps actually lead to a damn good Satomura selling performance with her looking vulnerable and struggling to reach deep and hit that Death Valley Bomb. The spot with Satomura trying to catch a flying Nagashima only to collapse was damn good. Satomura was also absolutely walloping Nagashima with nasty kicks left and right. There was a brief moment of struggle in the second half with Nagashima clinging to Satomuras leg and trying to prevent a flying move, only for her to eat an absolutely disgusting axe kick. It's these kind of moments that set matches like this apart from your average bombfest. Nagashima looked sharp, not blowing anything, whipping out cool submissions and rollups. Her use of the Cavernaria felt damn epic thanks to Satomuras selling. The ending run was 2,99999ville, but they never went overboard. Not a MOTYC, but a fun little war.

 Bas Rutten vs. Manabu Nakanishi (NJPW 5/2/2002)

  Rutten has been quite the consistent worker in NJPW. His strikes are so crazy that you buy him just caving in Nakanishis face any second. Rutten has such an aura that anytime Nakanishi can get a move in on him is impressive. There are a few spots that they pull off much better than you'd think, and Rutten gets thrown around. Nakanishis selling in the last couple seconds was shockingly good, not something I thought he had in him. Also loved him trying to power out of the flying armbar a split second after getting caught.

Manabu Sato (Manabu Hara/Suruga) vs. Hiroshi Shimada, Rainbow Promotion 3/21/2002

Really fun big vs. little grappling match. Shimada looked awesome here twisting up his opponent with amateur sugar holes. He also had some great violent looking knees on the ground. Talk about a guy who missed his calling as a shootstylist. Young Manabu, who seemingly could never decide on a last name, is more than solid here as a bantamweight grappler fighting a beast. 

 2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

2002 MOTY List Update #9

 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Katsumi Usuda (BattlARTS 6/9/2002)

  Our only BattlARTS main event of the year, but it's a good one. These two always have good matches, and this time they went for a full blown 19 minute main event. What was cool about this was that normally you had Usuda as the aggressive striker with Ishikawa working counters. Here Usuda was still aggressive but Ishikawa gave him back good, so Usuda was also using his defensive tools more, which is something he does very well, and you had a match basically built around who could turn the others aggression against himself first. Match has lots of good matwork and also some insanely stiff headbutts and kidney shots. I especially like anytime Usuda would get aggressive on the mat, normally you would go to the mat to seek safety from a striker, you aren't safe from Usuda though. It really is a crying shame Usuda was so underutilized on the indie scene, atleast Ishikawa got himself a spot on Michinoku Pro undercards that year. Usuda takes as good as he gives, taking some crazy crazy suplex bumps. There are some excellent submission teases and the finish was pretty epic with multiple face shattering kicks and Ishikawa just rattling Usuda with a big punch. The finish plays up the story of the match as it was all about who would get the deciding counter.

Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson (RoH  3/30/2002)

  Not as great as the JAPW match, but still insanely tightly worked, stiff pro wrestling that blows away all the current wannabe shooters (and everyone else too). They mostly struggle over holds while pounding the daylights out of eachother. Kis stiffness was just crazy as he would rough up Danielsons already bruised face with out of nowhere kicks. At one point he just grabbed Bryans head and went loose with Kawada kicks sending him to the outside. Most of this match was both guys fighting over holds or working eachother over with stiff kicks and chops. Ki blocking a Dragon Suplex only to be thrown with a back suplex was like something out of 80s NJPW. I also loved how Ki, after choking the air out of Danielsons lung would immediately follow up with double stomps to the stomach. Unfortunately Danielson made an easy comeback soon after that and the finishing stretch was not as great as the body of the match as they mostly stick to throwing big old bombs back and forth for like 10 minutes. Still, match felt like a classic in large parts. 

 Ikuto Hidaka & Super Boy & Curry Man vs. Tiger Mask IV & Kazuya Yuasa & Hideki Nishida (Michinoku Pro 3/10/2002)

Michinoku Pro could still deliver dope 6 man tag action in the 2000s. This a trademark high spot filled formula tag with everyone playing their roles. Curry Man is a pretty good use of Christopher Daniels as he doesn't pretend to be a master worker but just acts like a tool. His missed dive was pretty insane. Super Boy always looks so great in M-Pro (where the hell is his lucha material?) and this was no exception, he is so awesome as a massive fat guy crushing the tiny dudes with flippy moves, and working miscommunication spots. Hidaka was also a really good team captain, trying to unmask TMIV and attacking his bad arm, twisting up Yuasas leg and getting kicked in the face etc. Nishida as a Spike Dudley inspired guy working highspots with Super Boy was really fun too. This is the kind of match that is completely predictable but still puts a smile on your face.

Low Ki vs. Amazing Red (TNA 7/24/2002)

About as perfect a 7 minute opener as you can ask for. This was Reds TNA debut and they work a slightly more traditional style (if you can talk traditional when you have crazy moves dished out by the minute) with some arm drags and Ki beating him down good with his awesome neck headbutts etc. They pull out some of their spectacular kung fu sequences later for great effect. Amazing how these two always managed to mix up their stuff.

Antifaz/La Fiera/Safari vs. Averno/Mephisto/Zumbido (CMLL 1/11/2002)

This was given plenty of time. Cool 10 minute opening fall with Safari looking especially slick, nice rudo beatdown with plenty of elaborate double times and some more heated than usual exchanges between Safari and Mephisto, culminating in Safari hitting a sick dive that Mephisto failed to catch properly, which only increased the intensity. The main reason I'm adding this though was La Fieras awesome performance. I didn't know he was even still around by 2002, but he looked like he had aged just right here. Basically acting like Tenryu, working as "I've been doing this for 30 years and I'm hurting in place I didn't even know existed, but I'm still gonna kick the shit out of you". He hits all these graceful kicks and takes some big bumps. Finish was charming and the crowd went wild for it.

 2002 MOTY MASTER LIST