Dradition 2016 First ~ Battle Invitation 3/29/2016

 

Nobuyuki Kurashima vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi

I’m a Kurashima fan. He has a few things he does very well, and he sticks to that. He will always do some cool matwork, engage in scrappy hard hitting, and occasionally throw a hefty suplex or drop his opponent on their head. This match didn’t have a suplex for some reason but it Kurashima adding some cool touches to the matwork such as pushing his foot into Tsubakichis face, grinding his knee into the shoulder while working an armlock etc. The scrappy hard hitting was fun too, with Tsubakichi eating a nasty headbutt early on, throwing some cool punches to the body and hitting some kicks that left Kurashimas head bouncing. Very gritty and simplistic opener so it was just the right thing.

Kazuhiro Tamura vs. CHANGO

Decent undercard action that needed a bit more matwork. It’s DRADITION, you gotta hit the mat. Tamura was coasting, but Changos scuzzy technical heel act is cool enough to carry the match. His cradles were awesome and also extremely well timed. Tamura really needed to do some matwork in this.

Seiya Sanada vs. LEONA

Surprisingly a very good match. Crowd was invested in this and they worked a bunch of basic exchanges at a nice pace building to some cool nearfalls over basic moves like a double arm suplex. LEONA did some pretty cool wrestling, I really liked the way he set up a dragon screw into a Figure 4 which felt meaningful, and his pins and cradles were really good. Sanada mostly served as an overdog to LEONA, he had some nice european uppercuts and one really slick sequence into a springboard move. I also really liked the cheekiness of him going for Dragon Sleepers on Fujinamis kid. Very worthwhile undercard match.

Kengo Mashimo & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Mitsuya Nagai & Super Tiger II

Pretty fun match where every part was good and everybody was working really stiff and exciting. Mashimo had a good showing, really pelting people with his kicks and knees, his segment against STII was pretty good and had some really really good leg attack stuff. I liked Sekimoto fine and Nagai was fired up kicking people hard and even going after Sekimoto with a chair at one point which generated good head and buzz.

Taka Kunou vs. Masakazu Funaki

Kunou low key rules, he has that grubby tough old grappler charisma similar to someone like Osamu Kido. Funaki can’t be arsed to do more than the bare minimum but he brings some presence and something for Kunou to overcome, plus almost anything is a plausible finish. Very defensive and cagey bout early on with neither guy giving an inch as they worked some simple matwork. It builds to a really good explosion in the last few minutes mostly due to Kunou, who hits an awesome headbutt and the most awesome suplex while surviving more from Funaki than you expect. Dope shit, very far from a workrate classic but very intense and satisfying pro wrestling that feels real.

 

Tatsumi Fujinami & Hiro Saito vs. Jun Akiyama & Yuma Aoyagi

Solid if slightly short main event to close out a good card. Fujinami/Akiyama exchanges were built around both guys resisting the others signature moves in cool ways and I would've liked to see more of that. Nice to see even fossilized Hiro Saito can still hit a gnarly senton.  Aoyagi was just a rookie here and soon dutifully ate the fall.

 

The Library

FUTEN undercard matches

 Shoichi Uchida vs. Mitsuya Nagai, FUTEN 4/24/2010

That moment you watch a random FUTEN undercard match and it’s better than pretty much anything you’ve watched from recent times. Hellish match where Nagai was trying to blast Uchida to smithereens with his kicks. Uchida was gutsy really gutsy here, I really liked how he kept shooting for desperate takedowns which Nagai kept stuffing, really nice example of big vs. little psychology in a shootstyle match. Nagais submissions were ultra nasty and Fuchi-ish. Uchidas one bit of offense was really cool, Nagai goes for another big kick but got his foot caught in the ropes allowing Uchida to hit a suplex and then immediately trying for a choke on Nagai. Nagai then proceeded to try to rip Uchida in half some more. And one points both guys traded absolutely sickening headbutts. Gnarly stuff, wish we still had this.

Manabu Hara vs. Brahman Kei, FUTEN 10/24/2010

 

Nifty undercard match. Kei can’t stand up to Hara but he uses some heel tactics to even things out. Basically anytime Hara was able to stand up and go on offense, he was crushing Kei with brutal kicks and lariats. Kei threw some hard kicks of his own and there were a couple neat transitions. His desperate armbar counter was really good and the finish was neat. Amazing how much you can do in a 6 minute match without coming across as forcing it.

Tamon Honda vs. Brahman Shu, FUTEN 10/24/2010

Really fun match built around Shu mostly kicking Honda in the leg really really hard. It’s odd that Honda is this well respected veteran but Shu really kicks the crap out of him, FUTEN factor I guess. Shu having to build up a simple suplex because Honda is such a beast was cool and his kicks and slaps were landing really hard. Honda had almost no offense in the match except his Dead End and Olympic Hell but he’s awesome regardless.

Taro Nohashi vs. Yoshinari Narita, FUTEN 12/19/2010

Quick FUTEN opening matches where two guys just blast each other may be among my favourite things in wrestling, and this one was totally awesome. Narita is a BattlARTS guy and he has gloves and kickpads and Nohashi has his hands an a really hard head and they lay hellish beatings on each other for 6 minutes. NARITA tagging Nohashi with fast punches and bloodying his mouth was great. Intially Nohashi tried to grapple with NARITA but by the end he tried to just knock him out with crazy headbutts to the head and face. You don’t see a monk vs. an MMA fighter everyday but this was tremendous.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #15

 Koki Kitahara vs. Akira Katayama, SWS 10/29/1991 - GREAT

Classic gritty SWS undercard action. Katayama rushes Kitahara to start, hitting a big tope where he connects his head to Kitaharas face and then goes to choke Kitahara with his shirt. Kitahara makes him pay dearly though. Every thing Kitahara executes on Katayama here looks like it was intended to murder. Katayama is a bit pedestrian but Kitahara kicks him in the mouth causing him to gush blood and bring some fight. Unbelievably gritty shit. The junior stuff was well executed too, but you want this for that kick and the visual of Katayamas bloody teeth.

 

Koki Kitahara & Yoshihiro Asai vs. Masao Orihara & Bestia Salvaje, SWS 10/30/1991 - GREAT

Basically 2 great pairings doing their thing. Salvaje was great here carrying Asai like mad and working some beautiful exchanges, and then you had young Kitahara and Orihara engaging in some super violent, scrappy exchanges. Orihara was almost unrecognizable and kickpadded here, aside from one nifty kip up he works like a crazy kickboxer trying to match Kitahara blistering him with kicks. The match escalated when Orihara walked over and kicked Kitahara in the face causing Kitahara in turn to almost crush Oriharas skull and spit on him. Just the kind of uncalled for violence only Kitahara can bring to a random junior undercard pairing. I also enjoyed Asai briefly putting a beating on Orihara. Orihara in turn totally smoke Asai with a massive moonsault to the outside. And man Salvaje looks tremendous here. Wrestling can be so simply and brilliant sometimes.

 

Koki Kitahara & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Super Tiger 2, Fortune Dream 6/11/2018 - FUN

The non-Kitahara guys in this match are quite pedestrian, but Kitahara single handedly makes this a fun match. He's quite old and not as thick as in his prime anymore, but still a formidable bastard. He kicks people in the face and acts like a bastard. He even busts out a Shiranui to psych out Marufuji. All the Kitahara/Tiger exchanges were genuinely cool wrestling too and I wish we had some old man Kitahara in CAPTURE. He still hit that sweep kick with near perfect timing.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project

GWE Watching #3: Kazunari Murakami

Kazunari Murakami & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka & Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 9/23/1999

 This Murakamis BattlARTS debut and his 5th(!!!) match ever. Talk about being a natural. Murakami mostly does straight shootstyle exchanges with Otsuka here, which are great. Murakami is really aggressive and Otsuka is of course really great at trying to dive past the striking range and going for a suplex. Hijikata was fired up and had one of his better outings ever. Him and Ishikawa mauling each other was some prime BattlARTS psycho material going on. At one point Hijikat went for mount and Ishikawa just punched him in the jaw like it was bare knuckle MMA. Hijikata also nearly dislocated Murakamis arm with a nasty flash armbar. Finish saw Ishikawa just obliterating him with possibly the stiffest enzuigiri I‘ve ever seen. Another pretty great BattlARTS tag. 

 

Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Kazunari Murakami, BattlARTS 11/9/1999 

Murakamis influence is felt strongly here. He wasn‘t yet the mugging demon, but he was morphing into it, and he brought a hell of a lot of fire. The opening minutes were just a wild old fight. You know things are heated when even Yone is bringing it! Murakami was the focus, but Ikeda came in and reminded everyone who he is by having an insanely violent exchange with Ishikawa. I love Murakami busting out the judo throws. He was a worthy stand in for Ono as Ikedas gloved partner. It builds to a pretty extended an excellent finishing run. Highlights include some sickening muscle busters and Ikeda nearly putting Yones lights out with a chokehold. Yone seemed to be seeing stars following that. Great finish. This went 19 minutes, flew by and was just another great BattlARTS tag. 

Kazunari Murakami & Naoyuki Taira vs. Carl Greco & Yuki Ishikawa, BattlARTS 9/20/2000 

I think this is the first match where it becomes apparent just how much contempt Murakami has for Ishikawa. The match was a really good mix of straight shootstyle exchanges between Taira and Greco and wild brawling between Murakami and Ishikawa. Man, is Murakami just the greatest "aggressive wild offense" wrestler ever? Just wreaking havoc with kicks and punches on his opponents. The spill into the crowd followed by the intense faceoff was just great. Murakami is so aggressive that when they spill to the floor it actually feels like a really dangerous moment. Taira is really fun here throwing both fancy kick variations and hitting the mat. He and Greco have great chemistry. I dug the finish as it was just a series of intense mat exchanges before Greco was able to clamp on one of his special holds. They tease Murakami making the save, but he is too busy with Ishikawa to bother. Great pull apart post match. I imagine this stuff had people in 2000 salivating at the thought of a Murakami/Ishikawa singles match. 

 Kazunari Murakami & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Carl Greco, BattlARTS 10/1/2000 

 This is really a lead in to the Murakami/Ishikawa singles, and what a lead in! Murakami is the Murakami we all know here. Match is all about wild assaults, evil glares, and some wrestling. Him and Ishikawa may be among the most exciting matchups in puro history. I like how Ishikawa didn‘t even wait for Murakami to ambush him and just went at him immediately. Murakamis wild striking looks great. Also, Carl Greco was really great, but you already knew that. The brief minute of grappling he and Murakami did was awesome. Nagai is solid here but thankfully Murakami hating Ishikawas guts is the focus. More post match going at each other, as it should be!

Going through Shodates Best Matches of the 90s List Part 2

The List

33. Volk Han vs. Gennady Gigant (RINGS 3/5/1992)

The 33^th best match of the 90s as told by Shotaro of Date. With a name like Gennady Gigant you expect this to be some Raja Lion freakshow, but he is just a slightly bigger version of your kickpadded russian shooter. I wouldn't call him a Giant as he seems slightly less than Maeda sized but you can't not watch Han vs. A Giant. Volk Han is like Marcelo Garcia in this making short work of a bigger more massive dude. Gigant gets to have his moments, such as bodyslamming Han around or powering out of an armbar. But largely the point here is that even if you are a giant, you are not safe from HAN. Really the Han show, and that is something I tend to enjoy. Han wristlocking a poor fellow really never gets old. At this point it begs the question whether Volk ever had a bad match in his whole career.

34. Volk Han vs. Akira Maeda (4/3/1992)

This was #34 on our majesty Shoda T's list of the greatest matches of the 90s. And well that feels like a slight underestimation as this is really pretty great. This is how you do clash of the titans. I think it's weird Maedas RINGS work doesn't get brought up near as strongly as his 80s stuff... surely people would want to analyze and nitpick in depth? I thought he was just a great ace here. He would prevent most of Hans submission attempts and show he's the boss, but slowly came crashing down with his vulnerability. Han wasn't super dominant early on as he can't ragdoll Maeda around, but he can always pull off some freak move. And the points keep running out, with the formerly so confident Maeda getting some unexpected downs... then it seems he can finally take the russian down only to fall right into his trap. Matwork was very good, and the story of the match was wonderfully executed. Great match.

29. Volk Han vs. Grom Zaza (RINGS 5/16/1992)

This was #29 on our man Sheau D'Ahatays list of the greatest matches of the 90s. And this was really fun because Zaza is using mostly amateur wrestling, so against Volk Hans sambo you had a neat dynamic. Zaza hits all these awesome throws and works half nelsons and it rules. Han retaliates by almost knocking him out twice. This had that feel a lot of Volk Han matches have where the result feels inevitable but it was edge of your seat stuff the whole way through, and nice to see Volk against someone who puts up a little more resistance than the japanese guys and even puts him through the wringer a little.

30. Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS 4/24/1993)

CRAZY CRAZY HOT SHOOTSTYLE SPECTACLE!!! Nagai makes one (1) desperate rush at Han right at the start and immediately gets his legs tangled up. Han proceeds to envelope Nagai in one ridiculous hold after another while Nagai is running for the ropes like a choir boy. When Nagai is able to grab a basic headlock or half crab the crowd explodes like he just cured cancer. Han mostly slips underneath for weird takeovers into leglocks but eventually just lets Nagai take him down and then picks a kimura which was like taking candy from a children. No real „exchanges“ in this match but it's pretty much Hans formula match.

5. Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopilov (RINGS 11/16/1995)

The 5^th best match of the 90s according to the one and only Show Da Tay. Battle of the Sambo maestros. Kopilov is just the right amount of clumsy to be really awesome here. Watching him refuse to be utterly dominated like everyone else was great. I love the maudlin look he has anytime Han makes the ropes. This really feels like Kopilov can beat Han and there are some incredible escapes and holds down the stretch. Superb finish. This was slower and less athletic then your highly rated RINGS bouts but I didn't mind at all.

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #8

Takeshi Ono vs. Mitsuya Nagai, FUTEN 7/25/2010 - EPIC

One of the greatest FUTEN singles matches, and it's basically all Ono. Nagai hasn't done much since getting squished by Volk Han in RINGS, there is basically one thing he does really well and that is crowbarring people really hard, and this match is built entirely around that. Nagai is just destroying Ono here from the get go with kicks that hit like baseball bats and some insane elbows on the ground. Onos selling was just great here as he really flings his body around to put Nagais kicks over as super dangerous, and looking convincingly punch-drunk/near KO'd. All the while Ono is doing everything he can to fire back, then be overwhelmed again, then try to slip into a submission hold only to get mauled even more. He is also pretty great at slipping out of Nagais throw attempts and it builds to another great finish.  Really ballsy to have a match built around taking brutal shots from a guy who once nearly killed another guy and really tells what a master Ono is to make such a match this compelling.

Takeshi Ono vs. Mitsuya Nagai, Futen 7/18/11 - GREAT

Very deliberate match. Nagai was off here, but Takeshi Ono is the GOAT and makes any match he‘s in must watch. This was mostly about Ono avoiding the thrashing he got from Nagai in their previous singles match while Nagai was trying to get his win back. There was some amazing legwork from Ono, and he is just great both fighting from underneath as well as destroying a guy. Nagai wasn‘t really suited to play his role well here, it just doesn‘t suit him like the out and out steamrolling he gave Ono in 2010 and he seemed to be struggling to hit his signature spots. I wouldn‘t say he outright sucked though, as I enjoyed all the submission work. Still, you want to watch every match Takeshi Ono is in.

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Shoichi Funaki (BattlARTS 5/21/1997) - GREAT

Great 5 minute sprint. Ono was ultra vicious here (really!), and Funaki basically acted like a piece of scum. Great start with Ono hitting a big thai knee, pummeling Funaki and immediately establishing himself as a dangerous no nonsense shooter before Funaki kicks him in the balls. Funaki does some cool leg attack, including some good mat scrumbles. Neat spot where Ono catches another low blow and turns it into an ankle hold. Great finish where Funaki goes for a flying move only for Ono to catch him with a kick and then proceed to just turn his lights out.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Koki Kitahara Documentation #6

 

Koki Kitahara & Riki Choshu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami (Rikidozan Memorial6/30/1996) - EPIC

Match at a big show involving 3 of Japans greatest stars where the standout is somehow, Koki Kitahara. Tenryu and Choshu did their thing, shoving each other, staring, creating some big time heat, and then Kitahara is there on the side eager to get into the fight while Tenryu is ignoring him completely. The opening exchange here really sets the tone, Tenryu and Choshu are the stars, Kitahara gets mauled by Tenryu, but is somehow able to get up and fire back with some hard shots of his own and even blindside Tenryu with a great kick to the back of the head. Kitahara ends up with a bloody mouth, but he never backs down. Tenryu and Choshu were also cracking each other hard here and I enjoyed Fujinami surprise catching Choshu after he got clocked with a lariat. The finish is, of all matchups, Tenryu and Kitahara again and it’s pretty great with Kitahara hitting one of the hardest punches I’ve ever seen in a pro match and Tenryu firing back with punches of his own and trying to chop Kitaharas head off. Really gritty, well executed match with big heat and a cool underdog story.

 

Shinichi Nakano & Shunji Takano & Akira Taue vs. Tatsumi Kitahara & Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (AJPW 5/14/1990) - GREAT

First match I’ve seen from Kitahara in pre-split All Japan. This was a cool match which feels like a “what could have been” as 3 guys who ended up leaving AJPW soon mix it up with known greats Kobashi, Taue and Kikuchi. This was basicallly a short undercard tag where 6 young guys swing hard at each other. Kitahara is only in briefly, but when he is in he is just throwing brutal kicks with great technique left and right, including wasting Takano in the corner with a sick combo, and launching Nakano over the top rope. Everyone else was laying it in too, I especially enjoyed all the Kikuchi related exchanges as everyone always slaps the shit out of that guy. Kobashi in his baby state is fun doing things like hitting snug european uppercuts and big leg drops, and Taue had some big powermoves. Takano also looked great in his usual role of a tall psycho potatoeing guys.

Koki Kitahara & Arashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Mitsuya Nagai (AJPW 11/24/2001) - GREAT

Kitahara vs. Kawada is an obvious dream match, however, they only had one real exchange in this that lasted ca. 30 seconds. They traded some good looking kicks, though. I noticed that Kitahara was going softer than usual on Kawada, so I wondered if he had gotten softer for this AJPW stint, but then Nagai tagged in and immediately Kitahara stomps on his face, spits on him and slaps the taste out of his mouth. I guess it was a thing about ranks. This was short but tremendously heated. The crowd were super into Nagai, who was kind of an underdog in this. Kitahara is mostly there to run in and potatoe Nagai for great heel reactions. This was by far the most fired up I’ve seen Arashi look. I mean, he wasn’t exactly moving fast or anything, but he was taking real punishment and dishing out back. Kawada was just brutalizing guys with kicks, and I think he didn’t take a single bump in this. Lotta promotions in the world now would kill to have this kind of heat.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST