Assorted Ganbare Pro

 

ASUKA (Veny) vs Haganne Shinnou, Ganbare Pro 8/22/2020

Surprisingly very good big match. Opening had some scrappy disdainful kicks before ASUKA establishes her superior agility over Shinnou in neat ways. Shinnoue then proceeded to work over her leg. Really good legwork, especially dug all the spots where Asukas leg was caught in the ropes. Finishing run had lots of nifty moments and counters. Resisting the Ranhei felt epic, and while Asuka was never gonna sell that legwork all the way to the end it wasn’t exactly blatant no selling either. The spot where she struggled to lift Shinnou and then went for a takeover instead pretty neat. Her spinning wheel kick is also one of the best I’ve seen in a while, really hit Haganne in the face like a baseball bat. Shinnou also looked really solid in this. Quality stuff, probably one of the best matches of that cursed year 2020.

Shuichiro Katsumura vs Cherry, Ganbare Pro 4/24/2021

Judo jacket match where they basically come out and do worked BJJ. Worked BJJ can be really cool, and they did lots of fun transitions and submission attempts here without ever slowing down. There was a funny bit where Cherry did an eyepoke and pulled Katsumuras jacket over his head, but other than that this was just clean grappling and pretty fun. It’s always cool to see wrestlers showing a different skillset and Cherry looked pretty legit here. Really cool finish with the crazy gi choke.

Ken Ohka vs Naoshi Sano, Ganbare Pro 7/8/2017

BLOODBATH!! Surprisingly fun scummy heel performance from Sano here working over Ohka. He does a fine job acting like scum, and his open handed shots are pretty fun. Ohka is kind of a sleazeball too, and while he’s probably not very good, he brings a good deal of vibe with his scrappy flying tackles and the schlubby wifebeater and jeans he’s wearing. Both guys end up bleeding big and it’s fun, with Ohkas blood getting all over Sanos hands from Sanos strikes. Sano looked surprisingly competent demolishing Ohka here, and there was a fun sense of irony in how Sano would cut off Ohkas lazy comeback attempts. They are wise enough to not overstay their welcome. Just bleed big, let people soak in the spectacle, and go home.

Shuichiro Katsumura vs Tsuyoshi Okada, Ganbare Pro 8/11/2019

One of the better BattlARTS-style matches in the post-BattlARTS world that I can recall. Actually felt like an angry PANCRASE fight with both guys really hitting those palm strikes like they meant it. Great aggression and no real sense of holding back, which is awesome. The flash submissions ruled, too. Katsumura is a legit grappler so he can really do some spectacular stuff and Okada was up to the task. I loved the shootstyle version of the TKO, and his jumping knee looked like it nearly killed Katsumura. Nifty Fujiwara-esque finish. Really good for what it was, I actually wanted to see it go longer.

Aggressive Pro 3/25/2010

 Konaka vs. Naoshi Sano

This was a 1 match show that drew a whopping attendance of 0 fans. Ricky Fuji is there! This want a bit over 20 minutes and aside from the general bizareness of it, it was a serious match. Easily the most serious wrestling I've seen Sano do, and he looked good. Why doesn't Sano do more serious wrestling? He drops Konaka with some gnarly backdrops and stretches him with a nasty abdominal hold like Sano is Jumbo now. Sano hits lots of nice punches to the mid section. Konaka mostly takes a beating. At one point he hits a nice Terry Funk style punch combo, at another he goes for a diving chop and breaks his hand on Sanos hard head. Baffling. No yoga spots for some reason. Pretty cool to watch, although it's more of a "What the hell" type of match than actively great. They make a big deal out of Sano winning this belt with Ricky Fuji giving his blessings, although I'm not sure he ever even defended that belt again. A truely remarkable moment in history.

The Library

SPWC 3/29/1999

 Watch 

Yoshiya Yamashita vs. Gilgilgan, Jr.

 

Gilgilgan Jr is a masked guy in a plain black drunks outfit. This was pretty basic like a rookie match. What, it's an SPWC show and you're not gonna be outrageous? I guess having a ring made them up their standards. Yamashita worked nice and snug and the masked guy hit some okay-ish dropkicks. Yamashita with a really nice chokeslam for the win.
 

Chotaro Kamoi vs. The Karate Devil

Karate Devil wears a gi and a Destroyer mask. NATURALLY. Kamoi has been dreadful whenever I've seen him, but he was actually laying in his punches here. He beat the devil pretty fast. Nothing much else to say on this.

 

Toshiyuki Moriya vs. Edward Sexton

Moriya would later assume the Fake Onita personality. Sexton is a pudgy and unassuming gaijin who wears scuzzy judo pants and boxing gloves. Yes, this is really like the scuzziest low level FMW parody. Sexston does some leglocks too but nothing about him is very impressive. He defeats Moriya pretty fast, at least. If Edward Sexton is still around I'd love to hear his story on how he got to work for Survival Tobita.
 

Naoshi Sano vs. The Karate Devil

The previous two matches were part of some kind of tournament, and this is the match for the lowest rank in that tournament... because why not?! Where's the 3rd place match? Sano tries working a wrestler vs. karateka match in this, but man he doesn't have the skills to pull it off at all. Karate Devil beats him good. Another so-so-mhm-I-guess-there-were-some-cool-punches-and-kicks-in-this short match.

 

Chotaro Kamoi vs. Edward Sexton

This is the finals. The guys with the boxing gloves going to the finals is some next level scuzzy indy shit. Couldn't they get another martial artist with a different style? Like Seikendo Vader, or one of the CAPTURE opening match grapplers? I guess boxer vs. undefined martial artist is interesting enough for the Japanese fans because they actually got excited for this. And both guys laid in some combos. They went long too, almost going broadway~! I dunno, it was fun I guess.

Survival Tobita vs. Ape Man Virgon

 

This is what drew the house. No offense to Edward Sexton and The Karate Devil, but everyones here for Tobita fighting a monster. Naoshi Sano is actually at ringside for this, indicating he is not portraying Ape Man Virgon. This goes almost the same as the Tobita/Virgon match from Michinoku Pro. Virgon doesn't really have interest in fighting and just terrorizes the arena. The back bump into the ropes Tobita takes on the first throw is a thing of beuty. Sano gets whipped around too and gets his shirt torn! I love dedicated whipping boy Sano. They go to a Double Countout~! and restart the match and Tobita ends the monkey. It rules that the Ape Man has super strong shoves. If he actually knew what fighting is he would've ended Tobitas life, but our camo pants sporting hero prevailed. It's amazing how perfectly they put this bullshit together.

The Library

Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

2/3 Falls: GENTARO vs. Masamune, VKF 9/23/2008

Borderline modern classic where they go balls deep going 60 minutes, and succeed. Who knew GENTARO would be the modern day Jack Briscoe having all these 60 minute epics? This starts with both guys doing some fun matwork before they settle into the main groove of the match: both guys doing gruelling body part work and struggling over basic holds. Gentaro starts the fun by working over Masamunes arm and Masamune defends himself by cinching tight headlocks and working his neck. Gentaro kept trying to force a tap with armbars while some of Masamunes holds damn near seemed to pull his head off so the work never got stale. They end the first fall on a cool note and then settle into doing some dueling legwork. The transition from armwork/neckwork into the legwork was pretty impeccable as they didn‘t just move on to do another thing, there was a logical shift in necessary strategies. Duelling legwork was also pretty intense and bordered on a Destroyer classic. Gentaro sunk in some Figure 4s and there was a great moment where Masamune countered one of them by grabbing Gentaros leg and trying to twist it off. There‘s also some absolutely stellar work around Gentaros Sharpshooter. I was expecting them to keep grinding it out on the mat, but they settle into a cool finishing run with some great pin attempts, nearfalls and choice counters, while keeping the focus on the leg stuff. Last move was just a thing of beauty. Yes this was slow and a bit repetitive in parts, but both guys did a phenomenal job struggling in and out of holds, and it all felt spontanteous. Really a gem of a match, if you are the kind of purist who can get into a cool 40 minutes of brainy duelling limbwork.

 

DAISAKU & YUSAKU & Naoshi Sano & YOSHIYA & Ishinriki vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Hirofumi Miura & Shinigami & Fukumentaro & Shigeo Kato, NMC Pro 10/21/2001

Fun sleazy brawl with zombies, karatekas and wrestlers brawling all over the building, bleeding, and taking mean bumps. There is a car at ring side and a good chunk of time is spent with guys taking nasty bumps into the car. Sano was quite the whipping boy here, taking a fisherman buster on top of the car, and another one on top of a truck, before getting carved open with a hatchet. These guys all have no problem working stiff and throwing big suplexes so the non brawling portions were cool too although the match suffered a bit from having only one camera.