2025 Matchguide Week 52

 Leon & AKARI vs Moeka Haruhi & Rydeen Hagane, Pure-J 7/13

Dojo matches can be a mixed bag. Either you get something comedic or generic, or something that completely blows the expectations away. This was on the blowaway side. It's fun to watch these wrestlers have exchanges without relying too much on taking bumps. Lots of fast moving standing exchanges early on that were nifty. AKARI continues to impress although she was more hard hitting. Rydeen Hagane is also still a really fun power house, who mixes up the formula of the match a bit. Loved her going beast mode on AKARI after AKARI did the somewhat cutesy foot choke in the ropes, and she makes things more interesting simply by being hard to pick up for something like a suplex, and her hard lariats and big power moves were on point. Finishing stretch was super elaborate as they mix up all the possible pairings which each one making for a cool match up. Leon is ever classy and makes everyone else look good, and Haruhi continues to make any finishing stretch she's in fun with her violent offense and surprising knack for cool reversals. The ending of this was just two wrestlers frantically going for a pin fall and it was probably the most credible and breathless of that kind of exchange I've seen in quite some time. 20 minutes that flew by in a breeze with a lot of good stuff in it.

Kenichiro Arai vs Ayumu Honda, Tenryu Project 9/23

Excellent chess match. Arai is truely one of the most interesting guys going when he gets going, and Honda has seemingly been thoroughly Yanoified and is fully embracing the weird technical wrestling. Lots of takedowns from odd angles, neat tie-ups, cool bits of struggle and making something out of basic moves. Thought Arai could've sold Hondas arm work a bit more, but aside from that this really rocked. I can't say much more than that, they grappled a lot and did their thing and it was never boring and just a really good match. Either you love it or you won't care for it.

Takumi Iroha vs Senka Akatsuki, Marvelous 10/19

Well crafted match that avoided the typical overdog vs underdog tropes you'd expect. Typically, you'd have the veteran no-selling the rookie a bunch. Not the case here, because Iroha knows Senka is an animal and will maul her if given the chance. After Akatsukis early takedown and elbows, Iroha made sure to stay all over her. I really liked Akatsukis comeback, which just consisted of yanking Iroha off the apron and smashing her into the steel pole. It was a hell of a lot closer to something Roddy Piper would do in 1983 in the Mid South Coloseum than your typical 2025 transition. Finishing run had a few great moments: teasing Senkas signature deadlift suplex, a big slap that almost KO'd Akatsuki and Senka then going for the shoot pin, and Iroha just having enough and trying to snap an arm. Iroha also dialed back the thighslapping a bit and wrestled more like a female version of Hashimoto - loved her big spin kick that landed square in Akatsukis face. Really good, borderline great match, and one hell of a stepping stone for Senka who is being made to look like a killer.

Paul Ishida vs ASUKA The World, XGF 2025/11/23

More delightfully demented carnage from XGF. This starts somewhat lighthearted as ASUKA takes it to Paul with a Super Nintendo, but quickly turns as seedy and deranged as you want your nihilistic backyard wrestling deathmatches to be. They go to brawl in this big dark hall with ASUKA dripping blood on the floor and the shoots looking like something out of the Descent as they brawl in the darkness. Tons of inventive and nasty spots, I was particular to Ishida mimicking spurting sparks onto Asuka, although the ladder dropkick neckbreaking spot was also incredibly nasty. The long shot where ASUKA, covered in blood and with oil all over him falling around on the floor while Ishida was getting ready to run him over with a truck was straight out of a horror movie. Thought ASUKA was pretty great here as a bloody mess, he had some great offense too, great jumping kick and a great backdrop suplex that twisted Ishida around. Ishida was reliably trollish and gloriously seedy here too. I think this didn't need to be 25 minutes but that's really my only critique. Ghouls should have a field day with this.

Marino Saihara vs Rico Fukunaga, AWG 12/20

AWG puts up the big match for their main title for free, just like that! Really good match too! It's a short match too so you basically get all killer no filler. Lots of hard kicks, cool bits of struggle,  a few neat counters, and both of them going for the kill. Saihara had been the dominant champion for a while now so Fukunaga who had been in her shadow was pulling all the stops. There was a sense of desperation, even when Saihara was just able to lock 2 fingers together when trying for a crossface chickenwing. Loved the use of the savate kicks by Fukunaga, and her big reversal of Saiharas stalling german suplex was completely spectacular. I'm not sure what was up with Fukunagas weird catapult but other than that everything looked really good, not UWF level but good. I can't say much more than that, it's just well worked match between two wrestlers with believable hard hitting offense who put in some thought into their matches and an earnest effort, everything was sold and there was nothing that felt trite or by the numbers, it's just really good stuff all around and another great little chapter in AWGs current outstanding run.

2025 Matchguide 

XGF Backyard Brawl 7 5/10/2025

 Dekai Ichimotsu vs The Insect #2

I've noticed that my reviews have been getting a bit awfully normal lately, so let's change that with some XGF. This takes place in an amazingly creepy looking industrial hall with all kinds of trash laying around in the outskirts of god knows where, Japan. Insect #2 is a masked creep doing constant weird breathing noises and scuttling about. Naturally, Dekai chucks him to the mat and works some nelson hold variations to prove his wrestling superiority over the bug. Some surprisingly reckless strikes are thrown and Insect briefly gets the advantage when he suddenly connects with a foreign object, but doesn't seem to know what to do as he is a brainless bug after all. He does find his luck eventually biting Ichimotsus neck which is disgusting enough. We then get some attempted strangulation and Insect #2 going for the dreaded CROTCH BITE~! I wish Dean were alive to see this. The attempted hanging was gritty as fuck and Ichimotsu seemed to start bleeding from his mouth. When Ichimotsu falls to the floor, he comes up all dirty and dusty, adding to the grittiness. The Insect does fine mostly for someone who is probably not a good wrestler at all, as evidenced by his lousy punches whereas everything Dekai does looks great. Dekai does punch the insect in the face, hit a sick headbutt and then a piledriver on a pickup truck which is a finish to match. Very gritty and surreal, felt like a deranged version of a Survival Tobita fight, a great little match to set the tone for this Backyard Brawl.

Great Zako vs MAD APE

MAD APE!! Perhaps a relative of Virgon? His low grunt is convincing, but otherwise he feels very much just like a dude in a mask, making this feel a bit less like a surreal monsterfight than the previous match. Other than that there is some good gritty brawling going on with both guys trashing things on each others heads. When they venture outside, there is this really nice shot following them before the lush green bushes and trees. Zako ends up going face first into a pile of rubble and ends up lying bleeding on the ground which makes this feel like a snuff film. Both of them go for rusty, dirty pieces of metal that are lying around, poking them in each others face, its concentrated tetanus horror when Zako starts bleeding. At some point they venture downstairs, continueing to beat on each other while the camera unsuccesfully tries to get a look. Eventually Ape is able to hit a chokeslam into a pile of sand or cement and bury Zako with a shovel for the win. It's Backyard Brawl, what do you expect?

Paul Ishida vs taku

Now we are talking. Paul Ishida has a creepy ponytail, lots of jewelry, tabi poots, is built like a troll. He seems like he crawled out of the deepest darkest hole. taku, who belongs to the mysterious group called Ignite, wears regular pants and a wifebeater, but also has MMA gloves and likes to punch and kick. He is a bit hesitant at first, and Paul Ishida punishes that hesitancy quickly with some hard punches and bulldogging taku into a car tire because that's how thigs go in this XGF. taku does wake up when Ishida starts stapling stuff to his arm, and it's on. There are reckless punches and kicks, some great fistfighting, gritty submission fighting on the dirty floor next to oil puddles, guys get thrown into a car and half decayed debries etc. Ishida summons some Mr. Pogo weapons and both guys bleed big. At one point Ishida kicks out of a move on the floor and a pile of dirty weed gets stuck to his hair as he gets up. Really awesome gritty mix of face punches, blood, ghoulish vibe and some big bumps.

Minoru Kido vs Ryunosuke Takeda

This was pretty gory too. I gather Minoru Kido is some kind of cult hero among people, and this is my first time seeing him. Based on his demeanor and freakish look I can see the appeal. This was a bit milque toast deathmatch stuff, which is a bit weird for an XGF match. It had the standard opening chain wrestling, chair duel, and then guys taking turns doing repulsive things to each other. There was a bit of a malaise here, an absence of the passion, recklessness and absurdity that the previous matches had. That can be pretty sick too, and all those deathmatch spots feel a lot sicker when they are happening on a grimy sheet laid over a mat in the middle of some warehouse. Still there is plenty of violence and gore to be enjoyed here, and the folks in attendance for this event noticably moved back a bit to be safe from what these two lunatics were doing.

 

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